Viewers of Football Night in America may be feeling left in the dark on Sunday night.
As part of an environmentally-conscious theme week, NBC will be incorporating ‘green’ storylines into all of its television programs starting this Sunday. That effort, labeled “Green is Universal” will not be limited to entertainment fare, as ‘green’ messages will even be worked into NBC NFL coverage.
Football Night in America will “deliberately go dark for the last minute of the show ? before fully lit coverage of Dallas-Philadelphia kicks off at about 8:15 p.m. ET ? and stay dark during the halftime and postgame studio shows.” Producer Michael Weisman explains that “if you can get even 10 percent of our audience of 20 million to turn out a few lights in their homes, that’s impactful.”
Whether or not that impact will be substantive, or simply manifest itself into mild irritation on the part of viewers, is debatable. In addition to shutting off the lights on Football Night, NBC will also make several small changes to its studio team.
Jerome Bettis will no longer be referred to as “The Bus”, but instead “The Hybrid Bus“. On-screen logos will be green, and Matt Lauer will be interviewed at halftime live from the North Pole.
