News: Gus Johnson, Melissa Stark, Big Ten rights

(Fox Sports)

Gus Johnson will call NBA playoff games for TNT this year; the Sunday Night Football sideline job is going to Melissa Stark — not Kathryn Tappen; the Big Ten expects to award its remaining media rights next month.

Gus Johnson to call NBA playoff games for TNT

Fox Sports broadcaster Gus Johnson will call NBA playoff games for TNT this year, working alongside Greg Anthony on Raptors-Sixers Game 2 Monday night and Bulls-Bucks Game 2 on Wednesday. Johnson called some NBA Summer League games last season and has served as an occasional voice of the Milwaukee Bucks and previously the New York Knicks.

TNT regulars Brian Anderson, Kevin Harlan, Ian Eagle and Spero Dedes will fill out the rest of the network’s play-by-play rotation.

In other play-by-play news, Beth Mowins will lead off ESPN’s NBA playoff coverage Saturday calling Jazz-Mavericks alongside Jeff Van Gundy — marking the first time a female play-by-play voice has called a national playoff telecast in the four major sports.

Stark to get SNF gig as NBC skips over Tappen

NBC Sports has made the surprise decision to name Melissa Stark the new sideline reporter on Sunday Night Football, the New York Post reported Friday. In selecting Stark, the sideline reporter on ABC’s Monday Night Football from 2000-03, NBC is passing over Kathryn Tappen.

Tappen was widely considered the heir apparent to the departing Michele Tafoya on Sunday Night Football. Not only did she fill in for Tafoya on several occasions during last season, she also worked the sidelines alongside Tafoya during February’s Super Bowl.

Stark replaced Lesley Visser as ABC’s MNF sideline reporter in 2000, joining Eric Dickerson, Dennis Miller and Dan Fouts as newcomers on the series that season. She lasted the longest of the four, her tenure extending into the first two years of the Al Michaels-John Madden partnership before she was replaced by Lisa Guerrero in 2004.

After leaving the industry for four years, Stark returned in 2011 with NFL Network where she has worked ever since.

With Fox deal set, Big Ten expects to award remaining rights next month

The Big Ten already has a media rights agreement in place with Fox Sports and expects to award the remaining rights by the end of next month, Sports Business Journal reported Friday. The conference has had discussions with CBS, NBC, ESPN, Amazon and Apple about the remaining rights and Turner Sports is expected to begin formal discussions soon. CBS would use the Big Ten to replace the SEC package it will lose after 2023 and NBC is said to be interested in pairing Big Ten and Notre Dame games in doubleheader windows.

Details of the agreed-to Fox extension will not be clear until the remaining rights are negotiated.

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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 3

Nate Johnson says:

4 years ago

Hey Paulsen. I want to send my apologies on the first block of my initial comment to this post. When I made the comment I was thinking of the year of the Football season and not the actual year the moves were made from the sideline reporters. To minimally take up for myself, I normally go by the year of a football season when speaking about the NFL and its players, teams, playoffs, and even sports media personalities and coverage. Sometimes I’ll be a little loose on that when it comes to the Super Bowl, but that’s where I was at mentally when I was making the post and I obviously didn’t catch that until it was too late. I didn’t mean to be disrespectful on your platform if that’s how you felt initially.
Esl says:

4 years ago

I’m shocked by the decision by NBC not to have Kathryn Tappen be the new sideline reporter for SNF. As noted by Paulsen, Tappen filled in a few times during last season. Something must have happened behind the scenes. This came out of nowhere. I don’t think anyone in sports media saw Melissa Stark coming back to sideline reporting. Personally I think Tappen is going to leave NBC for a hockey role with either TNT or espn
Nate Johnson says:

4 years ago

Paulsen, Stark was with MNF from 2000-02. After Super Bowl 37, she was replaced by Lisa Guerrero (2003). That was Guerrero only season whom Tafoya replaced and remained the LEAD sideline reporter until MNF on ABC program ended (I had to emphasize lead because Tafoya was on maternity leave during the 2005 season and was relieved by Sam Ryan. Tafoya did return to the sidelines for Super Bowl XL with Suzy Kolber). Wanted to clear all of that up.

I must say it is a surprise that NBC did select Stark over Tappen as the lead sideline reporter. There’s so much to unfold from that, but what I will say is that Stark is qualified to have the position and whatever work ethic she left behind in her first stint with the NBC family of networks and also what her references and her recommendations said about her following her tenure with the NFLN put her in position to sideline SNF. Premium sports positions is a highly competitive field. With that said, I won’t be surprised if Tappen co-hosts FNIA with Maria Taylor and Jac Collinsworth who will be onsite at the game. Tappen has plenty of experiences as a studio host and who knows maybe that is something she prefers than to travel to 22 destinations in a 20 consecutive week span.

I remember there was a time when TNT would have 3 reliable commentary pairings in the first 2 rounds with a floating 4th commentary pairing in only the first round. It’s amazing how different it is with 5 different commentary pairings in the first round and I believe they been using 4 different commentary pairings in the 2nd round. To me that’s TNT way of saying we have terrific depth of talent that can be used as much as we value some of our high investments. Different sports and network, but we’re seeing the same with Bob Costas on TBS. With that said, I am happy for Gus Johnson to add NBA playoffs call to his resume. I believe this will be his 2nd postseason non-consolation event he will call so that’s definitely an accomplishment on his end. I still miss Gus Johnson calling March Madness.

B1G Ten B-package for football will be very interesting to see how it may unfold. My big question though is how does the B1G Ten view their men’s basketball broadcasting rights. For years we seen CBS telecast a host numbers of their games and also the Semis/Finals of their tournament before the selection show. I can’t even recall when the last time a B1G Ten school played football on CBS. So that should reveal how the B1G Ten separates their basketball rights from football. We just saw the SEC receive a lucrative deal for both football and basketball broadcasting rights. Unfortunately, we might not ever know publicly how the SEC valued both football and basketball. So with all of that being said, FOX stays and now we have a question of the B-package of football. I believe this will come down to this, if CBS doesn’t want to telecast the football conference championship and is okay with just B1G Ten matchups at 3:30 Eastern with a Black Friday DH, and one primetime game and they keep the B1G Ten basketball Semis/Finals I could see them winning the bid IF NBC does not offer a higher bid with the B1G Ten Football Championship game in alternating years. I am saying all of this without knowing the details of the FOX side of the deal. I would expect FOX to have the B1G Ten Football Championship game through the entire term, but considering how the B1G Ten probably don’t want ESPN to win the complete CFP package next go around, agreements could only be where things are at the moment, while value and finances be on hold so they could project and budget for at least partial of the CFP package. Final points, I doubt the B1G Ten will choose Amazon mainly because CBS and NBC has a notable digital streaming platform and I simply have a strong gut feeling that the B1G Ten will no longer be on ESPN/ABC starting Fall of 2023 unless ESPN/ABC pretty much matches overpays what FOX is offering and I mean never say never, but that would be a lot to ask for on ESPN/ABC’s end.