News: NFL postponements, ESPN layoffs and more

Another week, another round of postponed NFL games. Plus: possible ESPN layoffs and more.

NFL postpones two more games, gives ESPN MNF doubleheader

The NFL announced Thursday that Sunday’s scheduled Broncos-Patriots and Bills-Titans games have been postponed to Monday and Tuesday respectively, marking the second straight week that the league has had to postpone a pair of games. All four postponed games thus far were originally set to air as part of a CBS doubleheader. [Related: 2020 NFL schedule.]

In a shift from this past week, when a postponed Patriots-Chiefs game on CBS competed directly with ESPN’s Monday Night Football, Broncos-Patriots would move from CBS to ESPN and form the first half of a makeshift MNF doubleheader at 5 PM ET. ESPN’s originally-scheduled Chargers-Saints game would remain at 8:15.

According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, ESPN plans to assign Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit — who called the network’s season-opening Steelers-Giants game last month — to Broncos-Patriots.

The Bills-Titans game would remain on CBS and begin at 7 PM, potentially overlapping with a possible Game 7 in the NBA Finals. [NFL PR 10.8, Marchand/Twitter 10.9]

Report: ESPN layoffs coming

Front Office Sports reported Wednesday that ESPN is preparing to cut hundreds of jobs in the coming weeks, with one estimate putting the number between 300 and 700. The layoffs would primarily impact behind-the-scenes staffers but some on-air talent would be affected. Awful Announcing also reported that ESPN is planning layoffs, but that the specific scale and timing remains unknown.

The layoff news comes the same week that ESPN mutually parted ways with SportsCenter anchor Keith Olbermann, who announced his departure on Tuesday, and announced contract extensions with NFL reporter Field Yates and “The Undefeated” writer Domonique Foxworth. [Front Office Sports 10.6, Awful Announcing 10.6, Olbermann/Twitter 10.6, ESPN PR 10.7, 10.8]

Plus: Southland, Bowyer, MLS

ESPN announced Thursday that it has reached a multi-year media rights extension with the Southland Conference through 2024-25 that will include more than 1,500 events on the ESPN+ subscription service. … NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer said Thursday night that he is joining Fox Sports full-time starting next season. … ABC is scheduled to carry three Major League Soccer matches in the final month of the regular season, all on Sundays at 3:30 PM ET, starting with LAFC-LA Galaxy on October 25. [ESPN PR 10.8 a, Adam Stern/Twitter 10.8, ESPN PR 10.8 b]

Game 4 better, but NBA Finals continues to struggle

Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 4

Esl says:

6 years ago

MLB can’t get a break this year. From Sunday through Thursday during the LCS they will have to go up against Sunday night football, an MNF doubleheader, a Tuesday night game, and Thursday night football. Expect record low ratings for the LCS as baseball can’t get a break.
Dale Moog says:

6 years ago

I thought they could leave the game as is with Harlan calling it for ESPN with CBS production. Just let ESPN carry it as if it was a simulcast. They could get someone else to call the MNF game for radio. Also I am shocked that he NFL is putting the Buffalo Tennessee game on nationally. It could be on CBS in the local markets and nationally on NFL network. That is the way I would have done it. These COVID out breaks have been a good thing for fans because we get more national games. I think this may have been the plan all along lol.
- Samuel says:
  
  6 years ago
  
  This is an extremely insensitive comment. The outbreaks have “been a good thing for fans”? Are you serious? So you’re rooting for a virus that’s killed hundreds of thousands of people just so you can watch a football game on a Tuesday night? In what world are you living in? You’ve really got to get your priorities in order. I love to watch sports and especially football. But as someone who’s dealt with personal tragedy as a result of this virus, this is an insulting comment.
Nate Johnson says:

6 years ago

In a year where there’s no new Fall TV shows, I wonder if that gave the flexibility for the Bills/Titans to be shown nationally on CBS? I didn’t figure that earlier this week because I felt that Pats/Chiefs was worthy of a National TV slot. Bills/Titans? I’m not sure given how they was going to be treated since they were a regional game (great that both teams are undefeated). Typically if this is a conflict, new episodes could be shown on an alternate channel from the local TV station affiliate, or they would show it after the Late shows and would suggest to viewers to record it. However, with no new TV series for real this fall, makes me wonder if CBS without any hesitation said yes to Bills/Titans on a Tuesday night.

This is a bummer for FOX and their TNF game of a possible undefeated matchup between Bills/Chiefs (assuming no more positive tests from the Titans). However, I know for a fact MLB is happy that they will have a full week of Joe Buck calling the NLCS games in North Texas which looks to be a dandy between the Braves/Dodgers. I guess we never had an answer on who will call a football game with Troy, while Buck is in Texas focused on baseball. I don’t have time to speculate either.

That MNF double-header is odd, unless they have the Broncos/Pats game produced by CBS. Okay, that may also be odd, but CBS shouldn’t give up on Kevin Harlan. He was scheduled to call that game on TV and now he might lose the assignment because he has to call Bolts/Saints on the radio. Then again who calls Broncos/Pats on ESPN? It can’t be Chris and Kirk right? Why not let Tess and Booger have a reunion? Overall, I enjoy Kevin Harlan’s commentator on a weekly base, and ESPN now has to figure out what to do with another team assuming they’re the ones producing the game. Safe to say, they’re not ready for a ABC/NFL package if they don’t know for sure who can call games and also if they don’t have any qualifiers as well.

Last thing, it’s sad that ESPN is going through these layoffs and these looks as bad as the layoffs were a few years back. This could be attest to the changing times. I know some will point at COVID. Overall, this stings hope of how sports media will be shown and ran. It seems like less and less jobs will be available via sports media which means it will be tough for those come out of college and do everything they can to work their work up in the media latter. To those that say, why not start your own sports show especially given in this digital/virtual climate? What’s tough about that is how some of these men and women that has a strong podcast show or sports show under their production received their status and attention from another platform. Usually those platforms comes from being a former athlete, former media personality on a known network, or social media. It is really a challenge out here. I would suggest to those that dreams of being a known sports media personality to understand the market and have an abundance mindset.