Actress Marlee Matlin slammed CBS on social media after the television network failed to show the American Sign Language (ASL) performers during the live broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII.
The Super Bowl pregame show at Allegiant Stadium featured performances from Andra Day, Post Malone and Reba McEntire. An ASL interpreter accompanied each artist.
Daniel Durant performed the National Anthem in ASL with McEntire, while Anjel Piñero signed Malone’s “America the Beautiful.” Shaheem Sanchez worked with Day for her rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and performed the ASL Halftime Show.
However, according to Matlin, CBS did not show the deaf performers once on television.
“I am absolutely SHOCKED @CBS for introducing the Deaf performers at today’s pregame #SuperBowl and then not showing even one second (or more) of their performance… as has been tradition for the last 30 years. WHY!?” Matlin posted on X.
Representatives for CBS did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
“Wholeheartedly agree,” one user replied under the post. “@CBS you have the technology. USE IT to uphold your ‘company values’ as an inclusive organization or is that just on paper? Because how hard is it to present the ASL interpreters on screen?”
“I think it was absolutely ridiculous to introduce and not show the performers,” another user wrote. “We all could learn so much by seeing them and we know they could easily do a split screen to show both at the same time!”
Matlin was the first deaf actor to win an Academy Award. She has been an advocate for the deaf community throughout her career, calling out companies for their lack of accessibility through social media.