NFL on CBS

Encyclopedia : N : NF : NFL : NFL on CBS

The NFL on CBS is the brand name of CBS's coverage of the National Football League's American Football Conference games, produced by CBS Sports.

As with Fox's coverage, the network's stations are divided into different groups based on the most popular or closest team to that market or, if that doesn't apply, based on the allure of a particular game.

Contents

History

CBS' coverage began in the 1956 NFL season, before the 1970 merger of the NFL and the AFL (American Football League, not to be confused with Arena Football League). Prior to 1968, CBS had an assigned crew for each NFL team. From 1970 until the end of the 1993 season, when Fox won CBS' contract, CBS aired the NFL's National Football Conference games. Since 1975, game coverage has been preceded by pre-game show The NFL Today. CBS did not broadcast any NFL games during the seasons from 1994 to 1997, but won AFC rights, taking over from NBC, in the 1998 season.

In December 1993, CBS (which had been home to NFL games for 38 years) lost their rights to then fledging Fox Network. Fox offered a then-record $1.58 billion to the NFL over four years for the rights, significantly more than the $290 million CBS was willing to pay. Fox was only seven years old and had no sports division, but it began building its own coverage by hiring many former CBS personalities such as Pat Summerall, John Madden, James Brown, Terry Bradshaw, and Dick Stockton. Fox's NFL rights ownership made the network a major player in American television by giving it many new viewers (and affiliates) and a platform to advertise its other shows. In the meantime, CBS lost several affiliates, and ratings for its other programming languished.

CBS apparently underestimated the value of its rights with respect to its advertising revenues and to its promotionial opportunities for other network programming. The vast resources of Rupert Murdoch allowed the Fox to grow quickly, primarily to the detriment of CBS. In spring 1994, Fox's parent News Corporation struck an alliance with New World Communications, by now a key ownership group with several VHF CBS affiliates in NFC markets, and wary of a CBS without football. Nearly all of New World's stations converted en masse to Fox beginning that fall.

In early 1998, CBS, still stung by Fox's surprise bid four years earlier, aggressively sought to reacquire some broadcasting rights. CBS agreed to pay $4 billion over eight years ($500 million per season) to air American Football Conference games.

The next group of broadcast contracts, which begin with the 2006-2007 season, will result in a sizeable increase in total rights fees. Both Fox and CBS have renewed their Sunday afternoon broadcast packages through 2011, in both cases with modest increases.

The song used since the beginning of the 2003 season was composed by Los Angeles electronic music group E.S. Posthumus and is called Posthumus Zone.

Recent important games covered by CBS include Super Bowl XXXVIII on February 1, 2004, and the long-awaited rematch played under heavy snowfall between the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots in the 2004-season AFC divisional round of the playoffs on January 16, 2005.

Additional notes

On September 17, 1961, CBS Sports broadcasted the first remote 15-minute pre-game show, the first of its kind on network sports television. Pro Football Kickoff originated from NFL stadiums around the country with a comprehensive look at all the day's games.

On November 25, 1965 (Thanksgiving Day), CBS featured the first-ever color broadcast of an NFL game.

During the October 13, 1973, New Orleans Saints-Cincinnati Bengals game, the broadcasting duo of Don Criqui and Irv Cross was supplemented by the contributions of the first woman ever on a NFL telecast, Jane Chastain. While providing limited commentary, Chastain was used on an irregular basis over the rest of the season.

On January 15, 1978, the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII in front of the largest audience ever to watch a sporting event. CBS scored a 47.2/67 national household rating/share, the highest-rated Super Bowl to date.

CBS Sports decided going into the 1981 NFL season that John Madden was going to be the star of their NFL coverage. But they had trouble figuring out who was going to be his play-by-play partner. So in September (for the first four games of the season), they paired Vin Scully with Madden while Pat Summerall was busy covering the U.S. Open tournament for CBS. For the next four games of the season in October, they paired Pat Summerall with Madden while Vin Scully called Major League Baseball's National League Championship Series and World Series for CBS Radio. After the eighth week of the NFL season, the big wigs at CBS Sports decided that the laconic, brass-voiced Pat Summerall's style was more in tuned with the verbose John Madden than the lyric, poetic Vin Scully. As a consolation prize, CBS Sports gave Vin Scully the "B" team assignment and the right to call the NFC Championship Game on CBS Television with Hank Stram. Meanwhile, Pat Summerall called that game on CBS Radio with Jack Buck while John Madden prepared to do the Super Bowl with Summerall in Pontiac, Michigan. Vin Scully, reportedly wasn't happy about the demotion as well as in his eyes, having his intelligence be insulted. As a result, Scully bolted to NBC (where he started a memorable seven year run as their lead Major League Baseball announcer) as soon as his contract with CBS was up.

On January 24, 1982, CBS Sports broadcasted the highest rated (49.1/73) Super Bowl of all time as the San Francisco 49ers, led by Joe Montana, defeat the Cincinnati Bengals, 26-21. Pat Summerall and John Madden call their first Super Bowl together as they go on to be one of the most popular NFL announce teams ever.

In 1983, Phyllis George went on maternity leave from The NFL Today. She was replaced by Charlsie Cantey.

In April 1985, shortly after calling a NCAA Regional Final and just before he was supposed to work the 15th hole at the Masters, Frank Glieber died of a heart attack. Tom Brookshier replaced Glieber in the NFL on CBS broadcast booth.

On September 9, 1990, The NFL Today kicked off with an all-new talent lineup comprised of Greg Gumbel, Terry Bradshaw, Pat O'Brien, and Lesley Visser. Gumbel and Bradshaw replaced Brent Musburger, who was fired by CBS in April 1990 and Irv Cross, who was demoted to the position of game analyst.

In September 1993, The NFL Today celebrated its 19th season as a 30-minute pre-game show. It and held the distinction of being the highest-rated program in its time slot for 18 years, longer than any other program on television.

CBS televised its last game as the rights holder of the National Football Conference (formerly NFL) package on January 23, 1994 when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the San Francisco 49ers in the , 38-21.

In November 1996, Sean McManus is named President of CBS Sports. McManus would lead CBS' efforts in reacquiring broadcast rights to the National Football League.

On January 12, 1998, CBS acquired the rights to broadcast American Football Conference games until 2005.

On September 6, 1998, after 1,687 days since the last broadcast of The NFL Today, host Jim Nantz welcomed back viewers to CBS for its coverage of The NFL on CBS.

On November 8, 1998, the first NFL game to be broadcast in HDTV was televised on CBS. That game took place at The Meadowlands between the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills. It was also the first time two Heisman Trophy Winners played against each other in the NFL.

On January 28, 2001, CBS Sports, Core Digital, and Princeton Video Image introduce state-of-the-art, three dimensional replay technology called "EyeVision" for its coverage of Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa. In CBS Sports' first Super Bowl broadcast since 1992, it draws 131.2 million viewers for the Baltimore Ravens win over the New York Giants. Super Bowl XXXV was thus the most watched television program of the year.

In 2004, Jim Nantz and Greg Gumbel swapped roles. Nantz took Gumbel's place as the lead play-by-play man (teaming with Phil Simms) while Gumbel took Nantz's spot as the host of The NFL Today.

On February 6, 2006, CBS Sports announced the hiring of James Brown, who will move from studio host of FOX NFL Sunday to the host of the The NFL Today. Greg Gumbel will be moved back to play-by-play, teaming with Dan Dierdorf.

Current commentator pairings (as of Listed in descending order of prominence, in the format play-by-play / color commentary / sideline reporter (where applicable)

Jim Nantz / Phil Simms (producer Lance Barrow, director Michael Arnold)
Greg Gumbel / Dan Dierdorf
Dick Enberg / Randy Cross
Kevin Harlan / Rich Gannon
Gus Johnson / Steve Tasker
Ian Eagle / Solomon Wilcots
Don Criqui / Steve Beuerlein
Bill Macatee / Rich Baldinger

Alphabetical list of past and present commentators

A

B

C

Tony Canadeo
Charlsie Cantey
Frank Clarke
Ken Coleman
George Conner
Bob Costas
Don Criqui
Irv Cross
Randy Cross

D

E

F

Gary Fencik
Bob Fouts
Dan Fouts
Jean Fugett

G

H

Ralph Hacker
Pat Haden
Mal Hammack
Tom Harmon
Alex Hawkins
Kevin Harlan
Jim Henderson
Jim Hill
Lou Holtz
Paul Hornung

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Ara Parseghian
Van Patrick
Don Paul
Drew Pearson
Lowell Perry
Bosh Pritchard

R

S

T

Michelle Tafoya
Steve Tasker
Jim Thacker
Joe Theismann
Ed Thilenius
Chuck Thompson
Spencer Tillman
Clayton Tonnemaker
Joe Tucker

U

Johnny Unitas

V

W

Wayne Walker
Charlie Waters
Solomon Wilcots
Jack Whitaker

Z

Steve Zabriskie

References

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

NFL on CBS

History

Additional notes

Alphabetical list of past and present commentators

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Z

See also

References