Al Michaels returning for another season of "Thursday Night Football"

Broadcaster Al Michaels shares a laugh with Titans fans before a game between the Tennessee Titans and Dallas Cowboys at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022.

Saturday’s Packers-Bears game will not be the last in the decades-long career of Al Michaels.

Amazon Prime Video has confirmed to Richard Deitsch of Sports Business Journal that Michaels will continue to call “Thursday Night Football” next season. Michaels told Deitsch that he feels “great” and that as long as he believes that he is at the top of his game, he would like to continue calling games.

The longtime voice of ABC’s “Monday Night Football” and NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” has been the voice of “Thursday Night Football” since the package moved to Prime Video in 2022. (He previously worked Thursday night games for NBC in 2017.) That role now includes an annual playoff game, with Prime Video set to carry one game on Wild Card weekend for the life of its rights deal.

Michaels, who was part of the Super Bowl rotation while with ABC and NBC, has called two playoff games since leaving his “SNF” role after the 2022 Super Bowl. The first was a Chargers-Jaguars Wild Card game he called for NBC as part of an “emeritus” role in 2023. But after a widely panned performance alongside Tony Dungy, he did not return to NBC’s Wild Card coverage the following year, even though the network produced a record three games. He returned to the postseason picture last season when Amazon made its Wild Card debut with Steelers-Ravens.

This year, Prime has arguably the highest-profile game of the weekend as the Packers face the Bears for just the third time in postseason play.

As is common for aging announcers, Michaels has faced scrutiny in recent years for the quality of his performance. But as easily the most accomplished play-by-play voice still working for any broadcaster, it seems increasingly likely that he will exit broadcasting on his own terms.

It is also true that there is no obvious successor to Michaels on “TNF,” as the likely choices — Ian Eagle and Kevin Harlan, who call NBA games for the streamer — already work NFL games for CBS.

Tags: NFL Broadcasters Thursday Night Football

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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 12

Chuck says:

5 months ago

Good. I’m 46 years old, and I do not remember when Al Michaels wasn’t doing NFL play-by-play in prime time. In a world where change is the only constant, it is comforting to hear Al call a game. And he can still do it well. I will feel a great sense of loss whenever he steps away or is no longer able to do a good job. I see no need to hasten that moment.
sunrise089 says:

5 months ago

Granted this a niche criticism but inside what is otherwise this site’s usual standard of excellent reporting has been multiple mentions of Bears-Packers as the top game of the wild card slate. If you polled fans and networks I’m not confident it would even make the top three. The major market recently-in-the-Super Bowl 49ers at the defending champion major market Eagles seems clearly the top game to me, and I’m not even sure the argument for putting Bears-Packers ahead of it.
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  5 months ago
  
  I can understand the counter-argument to an extent (maybe it’s behind 49ers-Eagles, but at worst its #2 in my opinion), but to me Bears-Packers is perhaps the most storied rivalry in football. They played two great games against each other that drew strong numbers within the past month or so. You have two young promising QBs, the nation’s #3 TV market, and some relative novelty too (you don’t often see the Bears this time of year).
  - sunrise089 says:
    
    5 months ago
    
    Thanks for the response Jon.
    
    I’d rank the games 49ers-Eagles, Bills-Jags, Bears-Packers, Chargers-Patriots, Texans-Steelers, and Rams-Panthers. And I’d be more inclined to drop the Bears game to fourth versus raise it to second. Two arguments why:
    
    1) Certainly you’re right that this matchup, due to the age of the teams, is historic. But to the viewing public I’m not sure the juice is there the way you think it is. QBs, national storylines, and recent success all drive ratings (as does market size of course, but Green Bay is tiny). Chicago is not a very good team, and their most famous member is the head coach. Josh Allen is, by far, the most famous player in the playoffs. If you keep ranking QBs after that Trevor Lawrence (#1 overall, established in league, weird but distinctive look) is going to get mentioned before either nfl north quarterback, as will presumptive mvp Drake Maye. Add in the fact that the Bills, Jags, Pats, and 49ers were all better than either nfc north team, and the fact that neither team has done much in the postseason recently OR been leading the national conversation as one of the top teams/Super Bowl favorites, and I just don’t see it. But I guess the ratings will tell the story 🙂
    
    2) This is of course your wheelhouse and not mine, but isn’t the nfl telling is what they think of the games by the broadcast slots? Fox and CBS, the flagship partners, get the flagship games in the flagship Sunday windows. The nfl is all about maximizing reach this year (ie the thanksgiving games as you’ve thoroughly documented), so isn’t putting the top games on broadcast and on Sunday consistent with what their strategy looks like for 2025?
    - Jon Lewis says:
      
      5 months ago
      
      As a general rule, yes, but I think the NFL has not hesitated to put high-quality games in that Saturday night window on streaming. I think building up the streamers is a top priority for the league, and putting Packers-Bears on Amazon is in keeping with that approach.
      
      I would also say that when we talk about which games are the highest-quality for TV, that’s not necessarily the highest-quality on the field. I definitely do not look at Bills-Jaguars as in any way comparable from a TV point of view to Packers-Bears.
ESL says:

5 months ago

Al still is as sharp as ever. I think it really depends on the quality of the game at this point in his career. When the game is good, he is invested, and really is attentive and is enthusiastic. It’s when it is a bad game, he loses interest, and this is when the critics come out.
Football fan says:

5 months ago

Good for him he should retire on his own terms not when some media writers think he should
Nate Johnson says:

5 months ago

I’m glad Michaels is able to work through his 5-year deal with Amazon. It seems like yesterday when I was advocating on here for FOX to sign him post-Joe Buck with 2 in 3 year Super Bowl broadcasting they had lined up. In between that was of course that situation with NBC where they didn’t want him calling a postseason game after under-calling the Chargers/Jaguars Wildcard matchup mentioned in the article. I definitely want to see some of my favorites end on good and positive terms and I tip my cap to Amazon for doing that.

Who knows what the future holds after 2026 season for Michaels. For one, he is on record to say that he wants to retire like John Madden did from broadcasting where when he hits him that he’s done, it’s over; no looking back or second guessing. Of course Amazon is in charge on re-signing or extended his deal, but I want Michaels career to end on a good and positive note as we saw in 2025 with Hubie Brown, Lee Corso, and Gary Danielson plus back in 2021 with Marv Albert.

Replacement candidates for Michaels on Prime Video? I know it wouldn’t be easy, but I would say Noah Eagle. I know NBC would make that move difficult to make, but I believe they could bring in Noah Eagle and set him up to call Prime Video’s first Super Bowl sometime in the 2030s. Not many clearer options after Noah Eagle. I believe Chris Fowler and Rich Eisen had their chances to prove they could be on the level of other NFL top callers and I don’t believe they accomplished that. Adam Amin I believe wants to be heavy in both NFL and MLB, and right now MLB isn’t on Prime Video. Andrew Catalon comes off to me as wanting to be loyal with CBS and also replace Jim Nantz on the Masters and PGA Tour (2035 is a long time to wait though Andrew). Joe Davis situation would be similar to Amin’s. I know he’ll still have the Dodgers, but I’m sure he would want to continue to call World Series through the remainder of FOX current MLB deal. Tough decisions and sacrifices.
- Ryan P Strnad says:
  
  5 months ago
  
  Its probably too late now, hes in his mid 70s, but I am surprised JIM LAMPLEY was never mentioned for a Thursday night NFL gig along the way.
Ryan P Strnad says:

5 months ago

OK, so much for those stories I keep getting on my laptop cover page that Al.Michaels is making mistakes. To be honest, I saw the game he called on Christmas night, and he sounded good to me. Im sure him doing NBA for Amazon Prime is out of the question though.
K-Dap says:

5 months ago

I think Michael Grady would be an outside the box choice for a Michaels successor. I know he’s never called NFL, but a talented announcer like him could do it imo.
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  5 months ago
  
  I was thinking about Grady to be honest, but he would have to get considerably more reps — years worth — on NFL games before getting a #1 gig like this. The days where jobs like this would go to a Bryant Gumbel or even a Brad Nessler (highly accomplished voices but not particularly associated with NFL) are long gone.