J
Joseph_Gallant
Guest
Hers's some comments on the NFL's 2006 television schedule.
A Tradition Continues: As has been the case for the past two decades (with only one or two exceptions), the defending Super Bowl champion (in this year's case, the Pittsburgh Steelers) will open defense of their title in prime-time, and as has been the case the last couple of year, the defending champions will play in the first NFL game of the season (Thursday, September 7th, NBC).
A Tradition Ends: After having played a handful of regular-season games on Saturday afternoons during the last two or three weeks of the season for as long as I can remember (which has to be at least since the 1960's), the league will no longer play those late-season Saturday matinees in mid-and-late December (except possibly when Christmas Eve is a Saturday). Instead, there will be some Saturday-night games during the final weeks of the season on the league-owned NFL Network (and some Thursdays in late November and early December as well).
In the case of Fox, I expect local affiliates will get the airtime back and fill the gap by airing more infomercials (outside of large markets), while CBS will probably fill the gap by covering more early-season college basketball games. One wild-card: With no more late-season Saturday-afternoon NFL games, could NBC and ABC end-up adding two or three Saturday afternoons of NHL and NBA games respectively during December, given that they will not go head-to-head against NFL telecasts and maybe attract viewers??
Opening Weekend: As has been the case for the past 25 or so years (except for the four-year period from 1994 through 1997 when the network did not have the NFL), all of CBS' regional telecasts on the first Sunday of the season (September 10th) will be 1:05 P.M. EDT kick-offs to permit the network to cover the U.S. Open tennis tournament at 4 EDT. Fox has three 4:15 P.M. EDT games that first week, one of which (Dallas at Jacksonville) will likely be broadcast on most of the network, given it's Terrell Owens' first regular-season game in a Dallas Cowboys' uniform.
Sunday Night Is The New Monday Night And Monday Night Is The New Sunday Night: There's no doubt about it. The NFL's premiere television showcase is now Sunday nights on NBC. It's the game that will receive "flexible" scheduling, and even those games (through November 5th) that have already been scheduled feature some (on paper at this point) pretty good match-ups. The Monday games, now on ESPN, do not have as attractive match-ups as they did when ABC had the games.
But two Monday-nights are of interest. On September 11th, there will be a doubleheader (Minnesota at Washington at 7:05 P.M. EDT; San Diego at Oakland at 10:15 P.m. EDT), while two weeks later (September 25th), New Orleans will host Atlanta in their first home game at the Superdome since 2004. That could be quite an emotional night.
Old Home Week: Two NFL superstars who left their old teams in the offseason will return to their old haunts with their new teammates this season. On October 8th, Owens and Dallas will face his old team, Philadelphia, at 4:15 P.M. EDT on Fox, a game that will be broadcast to all but three affiliates of the Fox Network. The exceptions: Phoenix, Jacksonville, and San Francisco, whose local teams will be playing a home game (on CBS) at that hour. The game will be in Philly, so it will be interesting to hear reactions of the fans.
And on Sunday, November 5th, former New England placekicker Adam Vineterri will lead his new team, Indianapolis, back to Foxboro to face his old club. That will be an NBC "Sunday Night Football" telecast and make what already was one of the best NFL rivalries in recent years even more exciting.
Even More Flexible Scheduling: Although the big news about the schedule was the flexibility NBC gets for "Sunday Night Football" during the latter part of the season, CBS and Fox also get some late-season flexibility: On Sundays from November 12th through the end of the regular-season, only games in the Mountain and Pacific time are listed as 4:05 or 4:15 P.M. EST starts. All other games in the Eastern and Central time zones kick-off at 1:05 EST.
After NBC gets it's "pick" of the Sunday-night game, CBS and Fox will then have the option of moving one or more of their 1:05 P.M. games to 4:05 or 4:15 to put them on a larger piece of the network than what would otherwise be possible had the game stayed at 1:05.
An example as to how this might work: Let's look at the schedule for Sunday, November 26th. Let's assume that NBC moves the Chicago at New England game from 1:05 to 8:15 EST for it's "Sunday Night" game.
Fox has the doubleheader that day (although they have no "late" games selected yet). Let's say that the Philadelphia Eagles are leading the NFC East and the Indianapolis Colts are leading the AFC South. Thus, Fox (which will cover this game, since it's in Indianapolis) might decide to move the game from 1:05 to 4:15 EST to put it on most of the network.
Sideline Reporters??: I have not heard or read anything to suggest that CBS has named sideline reporters to replace Bonnie Bernstein (who has started her own business) and Armen Ketayan (now an investigative reporter for CBS News), nor anything about NBC naming a sideline reporter for "Sunday Night Football". Might the networks be thinking of replacing on-air sideline reporters with off-air sideline reporters who relay information to the producer in the truck who in turn relays the information to the game announcers??
Stars On Broadcast: The season-ending NFL Pro Bowl in Honolulu (Saturday, February 10th) will be on broadcast-television (CBS) for the first time in several years. Starting this year, the Pro Bowl will be on the same network as the Super Bowl, and may be the only all-star game of a "big four" pro sport on broadcast television in 2007 (the NHL and NBA all-star games are on cable; the Major League Baseball All-Star Game will likely move from Fox to cable in 2007 as well).
The NFL Still Doesn't Get It: And finally, the league still insists on a two-week gap between the AFC/NFC Conference championships and the Super Bowl. Hopefully, the next NFL commissioner will end this stupid practice and play the Big Game one week after the conference championships.
But then again, to reduce the gap from two weeks to one week would push the Super Bowl back into late January, prior to the start of the February sweeps. The networks (and their affiliates) aren't going to like that.
A Tradition Continues: As has been the case for the past two decades (with only one or two exceptions), the defending Super Bowl champion (in this year's case, the Pittsburgh Steelers) will open defense of their title in prime-time, and as has been the case the last couple of year, the defending champions will play in the first NFL game of the season (Thursday, September 7th, NBC).
A Tradition Ends: After having played a handful of regular-season games on Saturday afternoons during the last two or three weeks of the season for as long as I can remember (which has to be at least since the 1960's), the league will no longer play those late-season Saturday matinees in mid-and-late December (except possibly when Christmas Eve is a Saturday). Instead, there will be some Saturday-night games during the final weeks of the season on the league-owned NFL Network (and some Thursdays in late November and early December as well).
In the case of Fox, I expect local affiliates will get the airtime back and fill the gap by airing more infomercials (outside of large markets), while CBS will probably fill the gap by covering more early-season college basketball games. One wild-card: With no more late-season Saturday-afternoon NFL games, could NBC and ABC end-up adding two or three Saturday afternoons of NHL and NBA games respectively during December, given that they will not go head-to-head against NFL telecasts and maybe attract viewers??
Opening Weekend: As has been the case for the past 25 or so years (except for the four-year period from 1994 through 1997 when the network did not have the NFL), all of CBS' regional telecasts on the first Sunday of the season (September 10th) will be 1:05 P.M. EDT kick-offs to permit the network to cover the U.S. Open tennis tournament at 4 EDT. Fox has three 4:15 P.M. EDT games that first week, one of which (Dallas at Jacksonville) will likely be broadcast on most of the network, given it's Terrell Owens' first regular-season game in a Dallas Cowboys' uniform.
Sunday Night Is The New Monday Night And Monday Night Is The New Sunday Night: There's no doubt about it. The NFL's premiere television showcase is now Sunday nights on NBC. It's the game that will receive "flexible" scheduling, and even those games (through November 5th) that have already been scheduled feature some (on paper at this point) pretty good match-ups. The Monday games, now on ESPN, do not have as attractive match-ups as they did when ABC had the games.
But two Monday-nights are of interest. On September 11th, there will be a doubleheader (Minnesota at Washington at 7:05 P.M. EDT; San Diego at Oakland at 10:15 P.m. EDT), while two weeks later (September 25th), New Orleans will host Atlanta in their first home game at the Superdome since 2004. That could be quite an emotional night.
Old Home Week: Two NFL superstars who left their old teams in the offseason will return to their old haunts with their new teammates this season. On October 8th, Owens and Dallas will face his old team, Philadelphia, at 4:15 P.M. EDT on Fox, a game that will be broadcast to all but three affiliates of the Fox Network. The exceptions: Phoenix, Jacksonville, and San Francisco, whose local teams will be playing a home game (on CBS) at that hour. The game will be in Philly, so it will be interesting to hear reactions of the fans.
And on Sunday, November 5th, former New England placekicker Adam Vineterri will lead his new team, Indianapolis, back to Foxboro to face his old club. That will be an NBC "Sunday Night Football" telecast and make what already was one of the best NFL rivalries in recent years even more exciting.
Even More Flexible Scheduling: Although the big news about the schedule was the flexibility NBC gets for "Sunday Night Football" during the latter part of the season, CBS and Fox also get some late-season flexibility: On Sundays from November 12th through the end of the regular-season, only games in the Mountain and Pacific time are listed as 4:05 or 4:15 P.M. EST starts. All other games in the Eastern and Central time zones kick-off at 1:05 EST.
After NBC gets it's "pick" of the Sunday-night game, CBS and Fox will then have the option of moving one or more of their 1:05 P.M. games to 4:05 or 4:15 to put them on a larger piece of the network than what would otherwise be possible had the game stayed at 1:05.
An example as to how this might work: Let's look at the schedule for Sunday, November 26th. Let's assume that NBC moves the Chicago at New England game from 1:05 to 8:15 EST for it's "Sunday Night" game.
Fox has the doubleheader that day (although they have no "late" games selected yet). Let's say that the Philadelphia Eagles are leading the NFC East and the Indianapolis Colts are leading the AFC South. Thus, Fox (which will cover this game, since it's in Indianapolis) might decide to move the game from 1:05 to 4:15 EST to put it on most of the network.
Sideline Reporters??: I have not heard or read anything to suggest that CBS has named sideline reporters to replace Bonnie Bernstein (who has started her own business) and Armen Ketayan (now an investigative reporter for CBS News), nor anything about NBC naming a sideline reporter for "Sunday Night Football". Might the networks be thinking of replacing on-air sideline reporters with off-air sideline reporters who relay information to the producer in the truck who in turn relays the information to the game announcers??
Stars On Broadcast: The season-ending NFL Pro Bowl in Honolulu (Saturday, February 10th) will be on broadcast-television (CBS) for the first time in several years. Starting this year, the Pro Bowl will be on the same network as the Super Bowl, and may be the only all-star game of a "big four" pro sport on broadcast television in 2007 (the NHL and NBA all-star games are on cable; the Major League Baseball All-Star Game will likely move from Fox to cable in 2007 as well).
The NFL Still Doesn't Get It: And finally, the league still insists on a two-week gap between the AFC/NFC Conference championships and the Super Bowl. Hopefully, the next NFL commissioner will end this stupid practice and play the Big Game one week after the conference championships.
But then again, to reduce the gap from two weeks to one week would push the Super Bowl back into late January, prior to the start of the February sweeps. The networks (and their affiliates) aren't going to like that.