Well, that was one way to quiet the lip-synching haters/give credence to rumors of Illuminati: Minutes after Beyoncé's inspired performance and just moments after a record-setting kickoff return from the Baltimore Ravens' Jacoby Jones, power went out in over half of the Superdome. CBS's James Brown said the outage was caused by a power surge. Another CBS reporter who spoke with NFL officials said the blackout was caused after an outside power source was lost. NFL and stadium officials reset the lights and, after a 35-minute delay, power was restored. So far, no official reason has been given but, for now, certain groups are denying responsibility:
It wasn't us.
— TheIlluminati (@TheIlluminati) February 4, 2013
But of course, they would say that. And just before the blackout, Twitter went down. Let no one ever question Beyonce's power again.
UPDATE: CBS released a statement about the power outage:
"Immediately after the power failure in the Superdome, we lost numerous cameras and some audio powered by sources in the Superdome. We utilized CBS's back-up power and at no time did we leave the air. During the interruption, CBS Sports' Steve Tasker, Solomon Wilcots and our studio team reported on the situation as a breaking news story, providing updates and reports while full power was being restored to the dome including our sets and broadcast booth. All commercial commitments during the broadcast are being honored."
Entergy New Orleans, which provides power for the stadium, denied responsibility.
"All of our distribution and transmission feeds going into the Superdome were operating as expected," [Spokesman Philip] Allison said.
According to Allison, the outage started with a failure in equipment run by Superdome staff.
Superdome spokesman Eric Eagan released a statement, apologizing for the incident.
[Image via AP]