Monday Night Football

This article is about broadcasts of National Football League games on Mondays. For an overview of NFL telecasts on ESPN, see NFL on ESPN. For Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli, see Manningcast. For overview of NFL telecasts on ABC, see NFL on ABC. For other uses, see Monday Night Football (disambiguation).

Monday Night Football
Also known as
  • ABC Monday Night Football (1970–2005, 2020–present)
  • ESPN Monday Night Football (2006–present)
GenreNFL game telecasts
Created byRoone Arledge
Directed byChet Forte (1970–1986)
Larry Kamm (1987)
Craig Janoff (1988–1999)
Drew Esocoff (2000–2005)
Chip Dean (2006–2018)
Jimmy Platt (2019–2022)
Derek Mobley (2023–present)
Presented byCommentators:
Joe Buck (play-by-play)
Troy Aikman (color commentator)
Chris Fowler (play-by-play, select games)
Louis Riddick (color commentator, select games)
Dan Orlovsky (color commentator, select games)
Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, and Bill Belichick (ESPN2)
Reporters:
Lisa Salters (sideline)
Laura Rutledge (sideline, select games)
Molly McGrath (fill-in sideline)
Michelle Beisner-Buck (features)
Rules Analyst:
Russell Yurk
Jerry Bergman (select games)
Opening theme
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons55 (NFL seasons)
No. of episodes718 (games)
Production
Executive producer
Producers
Production locationsVarious NFL stadiums (game telecasts)
ESPN Studios, Bristol, Connecticut (studio segments)[1]
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time3–4 hours
Production companies
Original release
NetworkABC
ReleaseSeptember 21, 1970 (1970-09-21) –
February 5, 2006 (2006-02-05)
NetworkESPN
ReleaseSeptember 11, 2006 (2006-09-11) –
present (present)
NetworkABC
ReleaseSeptember 21, 2020 (2020-09-21) –
present
Related
Monday Night Countdown
NFL on ABC
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Monday Night Football (often abbreviated as MNF) is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that air on Monday nights. It originally ran on ABC from 1970 to 2005, before moving exclusively to sister network ESPN from 2006 to 2019. While still airing on ESPN, MNF returned to ABC in 2020 beginning with select ESPN simulcasts, later expanding to select ABC exclusive telecasts in 2022, and since 2023 ABC has aired the bulk of the games in simulcast with ESPN. In addition, ESPN2 features the Manningcast alternate telecast of select games, which was established in 2020, and since 2021, ESPN+ has served as the U.S. streaming home of MNF.

During its initial run on ABC, MNF became one of the longest-running U.S. television series, as well as one of the highest-rated, particularly among male viewers. Since 1993, it has been preceded by the ESPN pregame show Monday Night Countdown. Per an NFL broadcasting policy intended to allow those who do not subscribe to cable or satellite television to see local games televised by a pay television network, the ESPN-exclusive games are also made available on an over-the-air station in each participating team's local market.

MNF is broadcast in Canada on TSN and RDS, in most of Australia on ESPN Australia, in Portugal on Eleven Sports, on TV 2 Sport in Denmark, on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom,[2] and in some other regions of the world outside the U.S. on ESPN International. A Spanish-language version airs on ESPN Deportes in the U.S. and on ESPN International in Latin America, while a Portuguese version airs on ESPN Brasil.[3]

  1. ^ "ESPN creates rooftop 'bubble' for NFL coverage in under a month". Newscast Studio. September 14, 2020. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
  2. ^ "The NFL returns to Channel 5". NFL.com. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
  3. ^ Shapiro, Leonard; Maske, Mark (April 19, 2005). "'Monday Night Football' Changes the Channel". The Washington Post. p. A1.