The NFL will schedule a Christmas Day tripleheader for the first time. Plus, NBC has officially named its new Sunday Night Football team and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is switching networks for one week.
NFL plans Christmas tripleheader
The NFL plans to schedule a Christmas Day tripleheader this season with games on CBS, FOX and NBC, league vice president of broadcasting Mike North said on Buffalo’s WGR 550 earlier this week. NBC’s Pro Football Talk reported news of the interview Friday. The NFL has traditionally scheduled only one or two games on Christmas, even when it falls on a Sunday, as it does this year.
It should be noted that NBC and FOX both have some contractual claim to the holiday; NBC has always carried a Christmas night Sunday Night Football game when the holiday falls on a Sunday, and FOX in its new media rights deal with the league won rights to carry a Christmas game each year the schedule allows (though it is not immediately clear whether this year’s game falls under that agreement).
CBS has no contractual claim to the holiday, but as Sports Business Daily reported earlier this year, lobbied the league for a game. [Pro Football Talk 4.22]
NBC officially sets SNF team
NBC officially named Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth and Melissa Stark its new Sunday Night Football team earlier this week. NBC had previously confirmed Tirico’s ascension to the lead play-by-play role — a move that had been a foregone conclusion for years — to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. The New York Post had previously reported NBC’s surprise selection of Stark, who has not been a regular NFL sideline reporter since 2002.
The new team is scheduled to debut on the August 4 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game. [NBC Sports PR]
NBC’s Dale Jr. to guest star on FOX at Talladega
Lead NBC Sports NASCAR analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. will serve as a guest analyst on FOX for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Talladega, a move that Fox Sports EP Brad Zager credits to the FOX-NBC partnership on USFL football. Zager told Sports Business Journal earlier this week that the Dale Jr. guest appearance “wouldn’t have been possible” if not for the relationship he has built with NBC EP Sam Flood in developing the USFL.
FOX is using guest analysts to fill the vacancy left by Jeff Gordon on its lead NASCAR team. Former FOX analyst Darryl Waltrip returned to the booth as a guest analyst last weekend at Bristol. [Sports Business Journal 4.18]
