NBC Sunday Night Football

NBC Sunday Night Football
Current SNF logo, in use since 2022
Also known asSunday Night Football on NBC
SNF
GenreAmerican football telecasts
Directed byDrew Esocoff
Presented byCommentators:
Mike Tirico (play-by-play)
Cris Collinsworth (color commentator)
Noah Eagle (play-by-play, select games)
Todd Blackledge (color commentator, select games)
Jason Garrett (color commentator, select games)
Reporters:
Melissa Stark
Kathryn Tappen (select games)
Kaylee Hartung (select games)
Rules analyst:
Terry McAulay
Spanish commentators:
Miguel Gurwitz (play-by-play)
Rolando Cantú (color commentator)
Theme music composerJohn Williams (2006–2011) & Joel Beckerman (Super Bowl XLVI–present) (main theme)
Opening theme"Waiting All Day for Sunday Night" by Carrie Underwood (2013–present)
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons17+
No. of episodes307+ (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerFred Gaudelli
ProducerRob Hyland
Production locationsVarious NFL stadiums (game telecasts and Super Bowl pre-game shows)
Pre-game show:
NBC Sports Headquarters, Stamford, Connecticut
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time210 minutes and until game ends (inc. adverts)
Production companiesNational Football League
NBC Sports
Original release
NetworkNBC
Peacock
Telemundo and Universo (Spanish audio/broadcast) and TeleXitos
ReleaseAugust 6, 2006 (2006-08-06) –
present
Related
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

NBC Sunday Night Football (abbreviated as SNF) is an American weekly television broadcast of National Football League (NFL) games on NBC and Peacock in the United States. It began airing on August 6, 2006, with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game,[1] which opened that year's preseason. NBC took over the rights to the Sunday prime time game telecasts from ESPN, which carried the broadcasts from 1987 to 2005. At the same time, ESPN began broadcasting Monday Night Football when it was dropped from sister network ABC. Previously, NBC had aired American Football League (AFL), and later American Football Conference (AFC), games from 1965 until 1997, when CBS took over those rights.

During the 2011–12 season, Sunday Night Football became the first sports program to hold the position as Nielsen's most-watched program on U.S. network television during the year,[2] beating American Idol, which held that honor for eight consecutive seasons beginning in 2004;[3] Sunday Night Football repeated this feat three years running, beginning with the 2013–14 season.

Upon NBC's assumption of the Sunday prime time game rights, Al Michaels, John Madden, Fred Gaudelli, and Drew Esocoff, who served as the respective play-by-play announcer, color commentator, lead producer, and director, joined SNF in the same positions they held during the latter portion of the ABC era of Monday Night Football. Madden retired prior to the 2009 season,[4] and was succeeded in that role by Collinsworth. Tirico succeeded Michaels following Super Bowl LVI in February 2022.

Since 2014, sister cable channel Universo has carried Spanish-language simulcasts of select games, after years of aborted attempts to simulcast the games on Telemundo. As with the NFL's other television partners, NBC provides Spanish-language audio feed of the game broadcasts via second audio program (SAP), formerly noted as being "provided by Telemundo" before the rebranding of that entity's sports division to Telemundo Deportes. With the former mun2's relaunch on February 1, 2015, Universo began to carry the full season with the start of the 2015 season and simulcast Super Bowl XLIX, the channel carrying Spanish-language simulcasts of NFL games and NBC Sports properties. Telemundo would later carry Spanish language broadcasts of select games, beginning in 2021, with an NFL Super Wild Card game. Telemundo also broadcast Super Bowl LVI in 2022. Recently, TeleXitos has been a near simulcast of Universo programming at all hours and as a result has shown the football broadcasts.

  1. ^ ""Sunday Night Football" Debuts". NBC Sports History Page. Archived from the original on August 6, 2017. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
  2. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (May 24, 2012). "Full 2011–2012 TV Season Series Rankings". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
  3. ^ "TV's most watched shows of the 2011–2012 season". The Washington Post. May 23, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
  4. ^ "John Madden retires from broadcasting". NBC Sports. April 16, 2009. Archived from the original on April 17, 2009. Retrieved April 16, 2009.