Super Bowl 2016 Halftime Show Start Time: When Do Beyoncé, Coldplay Perform?

Among the folks who aren’t football fans, but are nonetheless stuck watching the Super Bowl Sunday, the halftime show just might be the real attraction. The band Coldplay will headline it this year, with superstar singer Beyoncé expected to be a prominently featured guest.

Beyoncé and Coldplay collaborated on the band’s latest album “A Head Full of Dreams,” so the halftime joining of forces makes sense. Singer Bruno Mars reportedly also may make an appearance during the show. Both Beyoncé and Mars have previously done the halftime thing. Other stars have been connected to the show as well, although it’s unclear which, if any, will show up onstage.

To fans of Beyoncé and Coldplay, the wait for the midgame concert may seem to be a long one. An average Super Bowl telecast lasts about 3 hours, 35 minutes, and even an average NFL game lasts about 3 hours, 12 minutes. The average game also features about 100 advertisements during 20 commercial breaks surrounding around 11 minutes of actual football action.

If the broadcast were to last 215 minutes, the midway point would be about 107.5 minutes (1 hour, 47.5 minutes) into the broadcast, but that’s the length of the entire broadcast, not actual gameplay. Halftime during the Super Bowl is extended to 30 minutes, so, based on some quick-and-dirty math -- halftime should begin about 1 hour, 32 minutes after the game kicks off.

Since the Super Bowl is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. EST, viewers interested in the halftime performance alone should tune in at 8:02 p.m. EST. Of course, football games are subject to wildly varying broadcast times, so if you really want to see Beyoncé and Coldplay perform, your best bet is to tune in around 7:30 p.m. and just wait it out. The game and its halftime show will be broadcast on CBS and through CBSSports.com.