There is a rollicking, yet focused ambience at the “Sunday NFL Countdown” desk in the hours leading up to kickoff as 26 teams within the National Football League prepare to compete on the gridiron. Sunday in New York has been famously described as when the sprawling metropolis is “taking a nap,” but the ESPN crew is awake bright and early to bring fans discussion and analysis ahead of the day’s contests. The buildup to the three-hour program occurs amid a din — some shouting for various statistics, others reviewing notes and graphics — set to the hum of R&B and hip-hop tracks.
Interrupting the calm before the storm is a brief “SportsCenter” hit in which host Mike Greenberg and a panel of analysts talk about the games at hand and what to expect, a proverbial warmup routine of sorts. In just a few hours, the team will gather in a conference room to unwind and watch the Week 11 NFL games, but for now, the group will hold down the next three hours of programming on ESPN in front of an audience of millions.
“When my alarm goes off in the morning, I have two concurrent thoughts,” Greenberg said. “The first is, ‘Boy, I wish I could sleep a little longer,’ but then almost immediately, my next thought is, ‘I am psyched about what I’m going to do now.’ I am excited to get up, take a shower, get in there and start going over the stuff that we’re going to do today and doing this show.”
Although “Sunday NFL Countdown” has aired for more than four decades, the show is primarily originating from The Big Apple for just the fourth season and the first time since 2022. Its new studio space contains two levels of audience seating, a trivia wheel and no fixed ESPN signage, something that deviates from other studios the network uses for its programming.
Rather than using ESPN studios down the hall that house “Get Up” and “First Take,” the show operates out of the same space where Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos host their weekday program on ABC. This arrangement has yielded a distinct look and feel for “Sunday NFL Countdown,” but it presented challenges in that the show did not completely make the change until July. Coordinating producer Drew Gallagher, director Jay Hammond, the creative studio team and coordinating director Mike Feinberg were instrumental in the change and preparing elements in time for the season premiere.
“You’ve got to really design that studio to the specifications of the studio, and they nailed it,” Gallagher said. “We were very excited about that, by the way, because with that whole studio being LED, there’s just a lot of opportunity for us, and we can customize a lot of things in there. I think we’ve only scratched the surface of the things that we can do in that studio.”
Whereas the Bristol studio had significant depth to create a large production facility, the new space is tighter, albeit with enough width to create two areas on the sides that are used for signature segments such as “You Got Mossed,” “Game Breakers,” and “Dog of the Week,” occurring away from the standard desk. The space also has an LED floor that can play analysis tapes, remote cameras mounted to the ceiling and a large display that showcases graphics, videos and “Countdown Cam” tunnel interviews.
In addition to the enhanced capabilities, 7 Hudson Square sits amid a transportation hub that has facilitated commutes for those arriving from other locales, such as former NFL QB Alex Smith.
“There’s no direct flights to Bradley Airport in Hartford, so he was flying into either LaGuardia or Boston and driving, and you’re doing that back and forth every week is tough, and that goes for everybody,” Gallagher said. “New York is just a little easier for the on-air folks, which does matter, particularly for some of the folks who are on Get Up on Monday morning too.”
The journey to Sunday morning
Greenberg arrives at the studios when most of the city is in its slumber and participates in a production meeting with Gallagher, producer Chad Minutillo and other personnel to review the entire show. It marks the final stage of a preparation process that will resume for the next week starting with when the program signs off at 1 PM ET.
Greenberg, who is in his second year as host after Sam Ponder held the position for seven seasons, noted that being a host carries different responsibilities than being an anchor that make him somewhat of a producer in his own right. By showtime, he said, the job becomes somewhat of an open-book test
“Our Sunday viewing time after the game is prep for my Monday show, so there is a huge advantage to this sort of circular schedule I have,” Greenberg said. “There is really no beginning, middle or end to my week. I have something to do all seven days, and each one of them feeds off of the previous and feeds into the next, so that part of it is actually a huge benefit.”
Gallagher and the team have an extensive post-show meeting on Mondays to review strengths and weaknesses before Minutillo starts compiling the rundown two days later. The analysts participate in Zoom calls with producers every Thursday to discuss the upcoming games and go over their opinions, while Greenberg is meeting with personnel on Friday to review the rundown. Minutillo works in Bristol for the show since it equips a remote integration model (REMI) for production, but he drives to New York on Saturdays for the production meeting over dinner with the crew.
“He puts a lot into it, and I commend him for that,” Gallagher said of Minutillo. “Other than that, once the show starts, I don’t think there’s a difference between if they were down the hall from our control room in Bristol or being in New York. It’s that technically smooth.”
Three-time Super Bowl champion Tedy Bruschi played 13 seasons in the NFL, all with the New England Patriots, and offers a unique outlook on the defensive side of the field. Even though he never lined up next to Smith, he collaborates with him every week for the “Film Wall” segment, which implements telestrations and football jargon to explaining nuances of the game. Even though the current team is in its second year together, Bruschi believes they have already established a rapport.
“Our conversations on various topics, I think, have really turned just into organic conversations,” Bruschi said. “I’ll say something that I hadn’t said all week in terms of our meeting on Saturday night, the production meeting on Thursday, and then all the way going to Sunday, something just different comes out from my brain because it works with the conversation, and that’s what sparked the thought and the commentary at that moment.”
Bruschi and Smith are joined by former NFL head coach Rex Ryan and WR Randy Moss as the analysts on “Sunday NFL Countdown,” marking their third season together. The group has mutual respect for one another and maintains a jovial mood on set, so much so that Greenberg sometimes needs to alert them that the show is returning live in mere seconds.
“I think I have to sometimes anticipate what their views will be and what they will say,” Bruschi explained. “I’m not going to go on a two-minute analysis of how good Justin Jefferson is. No one wants to hear me do that. They all want to see and hear Randy Moss do that, and so I know that a lot of the receiver stuff, I defer to the expert.”
A key component of preparing for “Sunday NFL Countdown” comes through accumulating research and other insights that can be used in the discussion. Evan Kaplan and Jacob Nierob are credited as being integral in the operation, leveraging their knowledge and skillsets to accumulate research and statistical packets that give the show a head start every week.
In fact, Kaplan appeared on a pre-taped segment with Greenberg in Week 11 to decipher how playoff probabilities could fluctuate based on game results. Shortly thereafter, Ryan asked about the run-pass percentage for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Kaplan found the answer in short order.
“They’re sort of, in a weird way, our compass for the show,” Gallagher said. “They just make sure we’re pointing in the right direction, which is awesome.”
Keeping the energy up before kickoff
When compared to the other major network pregame shows, “Sunday NFL Countdown” has the longest total run time, naturally raising the question of how to avoid becoming fatigued. In addition to the energy of New York City, the cast expresses a genuine passion for the sport and is excited to parse the topics of the day. Bruschi finds it ironic that the show duration nearly resembles the average length of an NFL game and can detect kickoff approaching as the clock steadily approaches the start of the afternoon slate.
“Chad Minutillo produces a great show with the elements and how timed they are, like ‘Gamebreakers,’ like before the final ‘Game Picks,’” Bruschi said. “That gives a lot of energy. It’s just I love football, so I’d have plenty of energy in a six-hour show.”
The show is structured for table setting in the opening hour followed by deeper discussion and featured storytelling usually around 11 AM ET before the intensity significantly picks up in the final stretch.
Through it all, there is a stage manager working to set up each segment, a steadicam operator capturing moving shots and stagehands striking and adding elements to the set, personnel that Greenberg says set him up for success from the moment he secured the job last summer.
“I walked into a team that functions extraordinarily well together – the people behind the scenes, the producers, the coordinating producers, everybody else involved,” Greenberg said. “There’s an incredibly good esprit de corps if you will, an incredibly good feeling amongst the team.”
Although the show bears the same name as its Monday counterpart, there are key points of contrast in that the latter precedes the prime time game airing on ESPN networks. Namely, while “Monday Night Countdown” previews the Monday night game each week, it also serves as a recap show for the dozen or so games played the previous day.
“Because they’re on site, they have all the infrastructure of ‘Monday Night Football’ at their disposal there,” Gallagher said, “so their mission, ultimately, is to get the viewer ready and excited for the game ahead, while, at the same time, talk [about] the games of the weekend.”
Contributors around the country
Aside from the studio discussions, “Sunday NFL Countdown” has a group of reporters scattered around the country who provide intel and live hits from the sidelines at NFL stadiums. Following news of Bills WR Keon Coleman being ruled out due to missing a team meeting, ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington discussed the situation live from Highmark Stadium, which helped provide optimal context to appropriately react.
Darlington, along with to Courtney Cronin, Dan Graziano, Kimberley A. Martin, Sal Paolantonio and Lindsey Thiry, work in tandem with producer Susan Smith as they gather information and relay it to the audience. ESPN ensures its reporters are present in the locations with the best stories, and it often sends contributor Katie Feeney to produce social media-focused content on site as well.
“Let’s say there’s a quarterback with an injury and is questionable and we need to be monitoring that in pregame, they’re going to make sure that we’re getting those live pictures. You know, ‘There’s quarterback X. We’re going to be watching him for the next five minutes. Guys, what do you see? Sal Pal, what are you hearing on site?’ That’s what the viewer wants on Sunday morning, so without the reporters, we’re not getting that.”
ESPN senior NFL insider Adam Schefter spends his Sunday mornings at the studio equipped with two cell phones to report on the latest information and developments. This morning, however, one of his devices is having a problem accessing email, prompting someone designated to solve internet problems to step in.
Schefter appears just minutes into the show to deliver his first report, and over the next three hours moves around the studio for more live hits. In the waning minutes, he notes a pregame injury for the Giants. When he is not on camera, Schefter sits in the audience, keeping his finger on the pulse of the league.
“Schefty knows everything,” Bruschi said. “He’s spoken to everyone, and I’ve never been around a guy that conducts himself with so much professionalism. Even the way he communicates to us with some of the information he may have is in a classy way that protects anyone that has spoken to him during the course of the week, and I’ve respected him ever since I started.”
With the proliferation of sports betting and interest in live odds, Erin Dolan makes weekly appearances in studio to lend her knowledge and insights. Dolan is on air for both “Dog of the Week” and “Sunday Playbook” where she talks about the lines and trends that are taking place with the backing of ESPN BET branding.
“Our guys aren’t necessarily betting experts, but Erin is, so she’ll serve that audience in a way that’s authentic to them, but also we always want it to be so that there’s takeaways for the non-bettor as well,” Gallagher said. “She has a good way of doing that with everybody there.”
Sunday afternoon, then on to the next one
In the final minutes of the Week 11 edition of “Sunday NFL Countdown,” the show brings in Thiry to give an update from Los Angeles and then gives their “Game Picks” before Greenberg signs off. Just moments later, the ESPN branding disappears from the set and the crew is headed upstairs to a conference room to watch the Sunday afternoon games together. Rather than watching the games on laptops while traveling from Bristol to New York City to either prepare for Get Up or leave the area, the cast stays together and avoids the extra travel.
“The on-air product of the show did not suffer one bit by making this move,” Gallagher said, “and if anything, it was enhanced just by helping the look of the show and kind of fostering more time with the talent being together on Saturdays and Sundays.”
As the interminable grind of the NFL season continues through Week 18 and beyond, “Sunday NFL Countdown” continues to provide an on-air product that is distributed across multiple platforms. In an era where the value of pregame shows and studio programming is being questioned amid altered consumption habits and shrinking margins, Greenberg wants to keep presenting a differentiable product that people cannot get unless they watch the show on television.
Without doing so, he believes there is no chance for the program to succeed in modern television, and first-half viewership would seem to suggest that the program has captured a larger audience, obviously with the caveat of recent Nielsen OOH expansion and Big Data. A boost or decline in the ratings notwithstanding, Greenberg can tell that the program has improved from last season.
“Our job is to inform and entertain football fans for three hours on Sunday morning,” Greenberg said. “The ratings suggest that we’re doing that well, and I’m thrilled for that, but I think just as important as that is that we all know we’re getting it right. It feels good. We’re having fun, and if we’re having fun, the audience is going to have fun.”
