sunday football games

Sunday Night Football

NBC Sunday Night Football is a weekly television broadcast of Sunday eveningNational Football League games on NBC that began airing on Sunday, August 6, 2006 with the pre-season opening Hall of Fame Game. Al Michaels serves as theplay-by-play announcer, with Cris Collinsworth as the color commentator andMichele Tafoya as the sideline reporter. Fred Gaudelli and Drew Esocoff, the lead producer and director respectively, carry over their duties from ABC's telecasts ofMonday Night Football. John Madden, the color commentator for the first three years of the program, retired prior to the 2009 season; Collinsworth succeeded him. ESPN, which aired Sunday night games from the 1987 through 2005 NFL seasons, took over Monday Night Football from sister network ABC starting in 2006.

In the 2011–12 season, it was named the highest rated, most watched TV program in Nielsen ratings. In second place was American Idol, a show that had previously held the title of most watched TV program for eight consecutive seasons and eight straight years.

Starting in 2012, under the new NFL television contract, a Spanish-language simulcast will eventually air on sister network Telemundo; currently like all networks with NFL television contracts, NBC's SAP channel features Spanish-language audio, though promoted by NBC as "provided by Telemundo".

Studio show

The studio show Football Night in America, featuring Bob Costas, Dan Patrick, Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison, Hines Ward, Scott Pioli, and Peter King precedes the broadcast each week, featuring a recap of the other Sunday NFL contests. Costas, Tafoya, Collinsworth, and Michaels also contribute to the studio show from the game site.

Scheduling

Opening game

The first regular season game to be shown by NBC under this contract, Miami at Pittsburgh, aired September 7, 2006, followed by the first Sunday-night game—Indianapolis at the New York Giants—on September 10, 2006. The actual first game of the run—the 2006 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game between Oakland and Philadelphia—was televised on August 6, 2006.

2013

The 2013 schedule released on April 18, will once again place a Sunday night game (Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings) against a World Series game. This will be the fourth straight year that a World series game will compete against a Sunday night game. Sunday night games between November 17 through December 22 (inclusive) are "flex games", they will revert to Sunday afternoon if a more competitive matchup arises. The final Sunday night of the season—December 29, 2013—likewise is a "flex game"; The slot was left blank when the schedule was released, as has been the practice of the past five seasons. The game site (and, by extension, its teams) will be determined after the completion of most Week 16 games.