‘Puppy Bowl’ on Animal Planet Feb. 2

Puppy Bowl XVI happens on Animal Planet Sunday, Feb. 2, at 3 p.m. ET. Team Ruff plays Team Puff for the Chewy “Lombarky” Trophy. The pre-game show starts at 2 p.m. ET.

Animal Planet worked with 61 shelters and rescue organizations across 25 states to fill the rosters of the teams with 96 adoptable puppies. That includes five special-needs dogs, including Ferris, a three-legged labrador retriever mix, and Filbert, a blind shetland sheepdog mix.

Animal Planet Go will have a premiere of the pre-game show Jan. 26.

Dan Schachner referees the big game. “Pup Close and Personal” segments come from Jonathan and Drew Scott, Whitney Cummings and Emmylou Harris.

The Super Bowl happens Feb. 2 as well, in Miami. Fox airs that event.

Puppy Bowl XVI is produced for Animal Planet by Discovery Studios. Simon Morris is executive producer and showrunner and Cindy Kain is VP of current production. For Animal Planet, Dawn Sinsel is senior executive producer and Pat Dempsey is supervising producer.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.