NBC’s “Football Night in America” is officially moving on-site every week of the season. Plus: the NHL Winter Classic is returning to New Year’s Eve; Kara Lawson is returning to TV; and more, including the official date and time for the NFL’s Rio game.
Football Night in America officially moving on-site
NBC’s “Football Night in America” NFL pregame show will officially originate from the site of “Sunday Night Football” every week starting this season, host Maria Taylor announced Sunday during an “NBA Showtime” segment introducing the network’s new NFL analyst Mike Tomlin, whose hiring was also officially announced.
The decision to shift the show on-site had been previously reported by Andrew Marchand of The Athletic.
“Football Night” has always primarily been an in-studio program, though it has for years included a secondary on-site component that for many years was hosted by Bob Costas. Most recently, the on-site portion of the show has featured host Jac Collinsworth with analysts Rodney Harrison and Tony Dungy, the latter of whom will not be returning next season.
The shift exclusively on-site makes “Football Night” consistent with NBC’s two other Sunday night pregame programming, “Basketball Night in America” prior to “Sunday Night Basketball” and its on-site studio segments leading into “Sunday Night Baseball.”
Winter Classic returning to New Year’s Eve, will presumably face NFL
The NHL announced Friday that its annual Winter Classic will return to New Year’s Eve next season, with the Mammoth hosting the Avalanche in a game that per commissioner Gary Bettman will take place “late afternoon, early evening, prime time in the East.” The game previously took place on New Year’s Eve two years ago, attracting its smallest audience in the process.
Notably, the New Year’s Eve date puts the Winter Classic in direct competition with NFL “Thursday Night Football.” While the NFL schedule has yet to be announced, it is almost certain that the league will play a Thursday night game that day, with the College Football Playoff already having moved its usual New Year’s Eve game to December 30.
This past season’s Winter Classic took place on January 2. The game had previously taken place on the New Year’s Day holiday — either the day itself, or January 2 in years when January 1 fell on a Sunday — every year since its 2008 inception.
In recent years, the Winter Classic has fallen far behind the Stadium Series as the most-watched NHL outdoor game. This past season, the Stadium Series had twice the audience as the Winter Classic, airing on the February weekend between the NFL conference championship games and Super Bowl. Next season’s Stadium Series pits the Golden Knights against the Stars from Cowboys Stadium in a primetime window on ABC the week after the Super Bowl.
Duke’s Lawson returning to TV as WNBA analyst for Prime Video
Duke women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson, who for a time was one of the most prominent women in basketball broadcasting, has joined Amazon Prime Video as a WNBA game analyst starting this season, it was announced last week. The role marks her first in television since leaving ESPN to join the Boston Celtics in 2017.
With ESPN, Lawson was a lead analyst on women’s college basketball games and also called men’s pro and college games, holding those roles while still an active WNBA player.
Lawson joins a game analyst rotation on Prime that will also include WNBA TV mainstay LaChina Robinson — who will also be working for NBC — Prime NBA analyst Candace Parker and newcomer Cynthia Cooper. Parker and Cooper will also appear in studio, along with Prime NBA analyst Swin Cash, newcomers Teresa Weatherspoon, Lindsey Harding and Ty Young, and host Allie Clifton. Michael Grady, Lisa Byington and Mike Watts will handle play-by-play
While Prime Video has carried WNBA games since 2021, it is producing those telecasts for the first time this season as part of the new media rights deal that also granted it rights to NBA games.
Plus: NFL in Rio, Fanta-Derby, Cara Banks, Ackerman retirement
- The NFL announced Friday that its International Series game from Brazil will air as part of the Week 3 NFL national window on CBS and Paramount+. The Cowboys, who were previously announced as the home team, will face the Baltimore Ravens. International Series games have largely aired in standalone early morning or primetime of late, usually on NFL Network or streaming services.
- NBC Sports play-by-play voice John Fanta will be part of NBC’s Kentucky Derby coverage next weekend, it was announced last week. Fanta will serve primarily as an infield reporter conveying the atmosphere among the fans. In less than a year with NBC Sports, Fanta has taken on a number of prominent roles on several of the company’s highest-profile properties.
- NBC Sports’ Cara Banks debuted this weekend as the company’s lead LPGA voice, expanding her play-by-play role from the occasional assignments she held in past years. Banks has been with NBCUniversal since joining Golf Channel in 2015, and moved to NBC full time after Golf Channel was spun off into the new venture Versant.
- Big East commissioner Val Ackerman is retiring in August, it was announced last week, bringing to an end a 13-year tenure that began with the relaunch of the conference in 2013. Ackerman was previously the first president of the WNBA.
