NBC is bringing back its old U.S. Open theme and changing its Sunday Night Football open.
Sports Business Daily reported Tuesday that NBC will use a new version of its longtime U.S. Open theme, Yanni‘s In Celebration of Man, on coverage of the British Open. The revised version “will incorporate bagpipes” (SBD, 6/28).
According to Golf Digest, Yanni originally created the theme in 1992 hoping that CBS would use it for its Winter Olympics coverage. CBS rejected the offer, paving the way for NBC to pick up the theme for a Summer Olympics preview show the same year. It then became the U.S. Open theme after NBC picked up rights to that event in 1994.
This is not the first time NBC has brought back a well-regarded theme. After losing NBA rights in 2002, the network’s brought back the theme music — Roundball Rock by John Tesh — for Olympic basketball coverage in 2008. It has also kept around its old Major League Baseball theme, which itself was taken from the short-lived FOX series The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., for Olympics coverage.
In other news, NBC will debut a new Sunday Night Football anthem, ditching the cover Joan Jett‘s I Hate Myself For Loving You it has used since it began airing SNF in 2006. The new open will again be sung by Carrie Underwood and be based on her 2014 song Somethin’ Bad.
Music videos are now the opening of choice in sports television, with networks eschewing the scene-setting dramatic intros common in the 1980s and 1990s. NBC will debut an updated version of its Blake Shelton-sung NASCAR open this weekend and ESPN last week introduced a new Sunday Night Baseball open by Flo Rida. Notably, the series that started the trend — Monday Night Football — has gone nearly five years without its Are You Ready For Some Football? intro without missing a beat.
(News from Sports Business Daily, NBC Sports Group Press Box)
