NBC Sunday Night Football
| NBC Sunday Night Football | |
|---|---|
| NBC Sunday Night Football logo | |
| Starring | Al Michaels John Madden Andrea Kremer |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 180 minutes+ until the conclusion of the game |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC (2006–) |
| Release | September 7, 2006 |
NBC Sunday Night Football will be a weekly television broadcast of Sunday evening National Football League games on NBC, starting in September 2006. John Madden will be the color commentator for the series with Al Michaels doing play-by-play and Andrea Kremer serving as the sideline reporter.
The show will be preceded by the studio show Football Night in America, featuring Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth, Sterling Sharpe, Jerome Bettis, and Peter King. Kremer will also contribute to the studio show from the field.
NBC Sunday Night Football is the beneficiary of the league's new flexible-scheduling system. For the final seven weeks of the season, the NFL has the flexibility in selecting games to air on Sunday night, stating that fans will be able to vote for what game they would like to see on the sunday primetime slot. During those affected weeks, no game is initially scheduled for NBC—only a note that says that one Sunday game will be moved to the primetime slot.
NBC will also take over the opening Thursday-night NFL Kickoff game and the two games on the first day of the Wild Card playoffs because they are an over-the-air network. The network will also air two Super Bowl games during the six years of the deal, following the 2008 and 2011 seasons, and two Pro Bowl games the week following their Super Bowl telecasts.
The first game to be shown by NBC—Miami at Pittsburgh—will air on September 7, 2006, followed by the first Sunday-night game—Indianapolis at the New York Giants—on September 10, 2006. Before the regular season begins, NBC will air a pre-season slate that kicks off with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game matching Oalkand and Philadelphia on August 6, 2006. [1]
ESPN, which aired Sunday games from the 1987 through 2005 NFL seasons, will take over Monday Night Football starting in September 2006.