Amazon’s Al Michaels-Kirk Herbstreit Thursday Night Football pairing is official. Plus: FOX got an extra Big Ten football game for letting Joe Buck go to ESPN; the schedule for ESPN’s Alex Rodriguez-Michael Kay Sunday Night Baseball games is out; and more.
Michaels-Herbstreit Thursday Night Football team officially announced
Amazon officially announced Wednesday that it has hired Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit to form its new Thursday Night Football broadcast team, confirming what had been reported for weeks. The duo will pair with NBC Sunday Night Football producer Fred Gaudelli on the 15-game Thursday night package.
Herbstreit will remain with ESPN as a college football analyst and has reached a multi-year contract extension with the company. The extension — which was also announced Wednesday — is for three years, per the New York Post. Herbstreit will be exclusive to Amazon for the NFL, meaning he will no longer pair with college partner Chris Fowler on any ESPN Monday Night Football games.
Michaels and Herbstreit have never before worked together. The former called Thursday Night Football games alongside Cris Collinsworth for NBC in 2017, while the latter has only called two NFL games in his entire career.
The official announcement ends multiple years of speculation regarding both broadcasters. Michaels’ demotion from SNF loomed from the moment NBC acquired Mike Tirico, while Herbstreit has been expected to take on a greater NFL role since his well-received MNF debut two years ago. [Amazon PR 3.23; NYP 3.23]
FOX gets extra Big Ten game in exchange for letting Buck walk
Sports Business Journal reported earlier this week that FOX has acquired an extra Big Ten football game — Penn State-Purdue on the opening night of the season September 1 — from ESPN in exchange for allowing Joe Buck to exit his contract one year early and move to Monday Night Football. Per the report, ESPN was willing to pass on Buck and offer the Monday Night Football play-by-play voice slot to Al Michaels in the event that FOX wanted to hold out for a higher-profile game.
FOX will now carry 28 Big Ten football games this season and ESPN 26, as opposed to the networks’ usual split of 27 each, per SBJ. [SBJ 3.21]
ESPN “Kay-Rod” schedule announced
ESPN on Thursday announced the eight-game schedule for its Alex Rodriguez and Michael Kay “Kay-Rod” alternate presentations of Sunday Night Baseball. The duo will work three of the first four Sunday night games this season — Red Sox-Yankees on April 10, Braves-Padres on April 17 and Phillies-Mets on May 1 — before a nearly two month hiatus, returning for a stretch of three summer weeks June 26, July 3 and July 10. Following another hiatus, they are scheduled to work again August 14 and then September 25.
In addition to the alternate presentations, Kay and Rodriguez are scheduled to work two traditional MLB broadcasts this season, including Giants-Dodgers on the first night after the All-Star break July 21. [ESPN PR]
Plus: PLL-ESPN, Tirico-Masters, Sonnen, Keri
ESPN has acquired rights to the Premier Lacrosse League in a four-year deal that begins this season, it was announced Tuesday. All 47 PLL games will be streamed on ESPN+ with an undetermined number set aside for ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. … NBC’s Mike Tirico will serve as the lead radio voice for coverage of the Masters on Sirius XM, it was announced this week. The news was first reported by the New York Post. … ESPN’s Chael Sonnen is off the air for the time being as he deals with 11 counts of battery stemming from an incident last year. … Longtime baseball writer Jonah Keri was sentenced this week to 21 months in jail for domestic abuse. [ESPN PR; Sirius XM 3.21; ESPN.com 3.22; NYP 3.23]
