NFL TV tidbits, including coronavirus contingency. And Le Batard returns to television
TV tidbits from the NFL schedule released Thursday night:
▪ When the Masters was rescheduled from April to Nov. 12-15 because of coronavirus, the question became how CBS would juggle the final round and NFL games on the same day.
The answer emerged Thursday night. CBS is carrying only three NFL games that day, all in the 4:05 p.m. window — Jets at Dolphins (Miami’s only late-afternoon home game all year), Buffalo-Arizona and Denver-Las Vegas. Everyone in the nation will get one of those three games.
That means the Masters likely will start early Sunday morning and be completed by 3:30 p.m. or so, though CBS has not announced the start time of the final round. Lead play-by-play man Jim Nantz is expected to work the Masters and not the NFL that weekend.
To accommodate Saturday’s third round, I would expect CBS’ Southeastern Conference game to air later than its typical 3:30 p.m. start time — if college football is played at all this fall.
“We continue to work closely with our partners at Augusta National, the NFL and the SEC on our programming plans to showcase all three of these great properties the weekend of November 14 and 15,” CBS said in a statement.
▪ As ESPN’s Adam Schefter pointed out, every team that plays in Week 2 has the same bye week as its opponent, which would make it simple for the league to reschedule the first few weeks of the season on the back end of the schedule if necessary because of coronavirus.
Also, every team plays two road games and two homes in the first four weeks. So starting the season late — and simply adding weeks missed on the back end — would not be difficult.
▪ On Christmas, a Friday this year, Fox and NFL Network will carry a Vikings-Saints game at 4:30 p.m., opposite what could conceivably be games on the first day of the NBA season.
Regardless of whether that’s opening day for basketball or not, the NBA would be wise to carry games in the noon, 2:30 p.m., 8 and 10:30 p.m. windows instead of competing directly with the NFL.
▪ Opening week national games: Houston-Kansas City on Thursday night, Sept. 10 on NBC; Dallas-Rams on Sunday night on NBC, and Pittsburgh-Giants, Tennessee-Denver as the opening “Monday Night Football” doubleheader on ESPN. Most, but not all, of the country will get Tampa Bay-New Orleans as the late game on Fox on Sunday, Sept. 13.
▪ Fox will carry most Thursday night games — in a simulcast with NFL Network — but there are always a few early season Thursday games that aren’t deemed attractive enough for Fox and end up only on NFL Network.
Those games this season are Cincinnati-Cleveland in Week 2, Miami-Jacksonville in Week 3 and Denver-Jets in Week 4.
At this point, no team is scheduled to have less exposure than the Dolphins.
The Dolphins have only one game in the late window of the network airing a doubleheader, but even that won’t result in any meaningful exposure for Miami. On that day (Nov. 8 on CBS), the Dolphins play at Arizona at 4:25 p.m., but most of the country will get Pittsburgh-Dallas instead.
The Dolphins’ Oct. 11 game at San Francisco was cross-flexed from CBS to Fox but will have only a regional audience at 4:05 p.m.
▪ The Thanksgiving games, in order: Houston-Detroit, Washington-Dallas, Baltimore-Pittsburgh.
▪ For Weeks 15 and 16, the NFL has listed a combined 10 games from which four will be shifted to Saturday for national telecasts on NFL Network.
So for week 16 (Dec. 26-27), the NFL — by mid-November — will decide which two games will be moved to Saturday from among Dolphins at Las Vegas, San Francisco-Arizona, Tampa Bay-Detroit, Denver-Los Angeles Chargers and Cleveland-New York Jets.
Those two weeks (Dec. 19 and 26) are the only scheduled Saturday games this season.
▪ Though the games are separated by a bye, the Dolphins and Jets will play each other in consecutive games in November — the first time the NFL has done that since 1991.
▪ ABC is simulcasting ESPN’s coverage of the Week 2 Saints-Raiders game because the date of the game — September 21, 2020 — will be the 50th anniversary of the debut of “Monday Night Football.” That’s the only regular-season game ABC is airing.
▪ With two more playoff teams added, there will be tripleheaders on both Saturday and Sunday during Wild Card weekend, with CBS and NBC both getting two games, Fox one and ESPN one.
▪ Eight teams have the maximum five prime-time games: Ravens, Cowboys, Packers, Chiefs, Rams, Patriots, 49ers and Buccaneers.
SHULA PROGRAMMING
▪ From 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, ESPN2 will re-air “Peyton’s Places: The Final Destination,” which features Peyton Manning visiting with the 1972 Dolphins during a champagne celebration after the final undefeated team lost a couple of years ago, highlights from the ‘72 Dolphins perfect season and interviews with players and coach Don Shula.
Manning originally put together this program for ESPN plus, but the ESPN2 airing will give it a broader forum in the wake of Shula’s death on Monday.
▪ ESPN will unveil a new lineup on Monday that features the return of Dan Le Batard’s “Highly Questionable,” which hasn’t aired on ESPN since March 11 because production was shut down for that and some other studio shows due to coronavirus.
“Highly Questionable” has posted videos on Twitter and Facebook during its TV hiatus, and the program’s Twitter account was whimsically renamed Highly Quarantined.
Le Batard’s show, which is filmed on Miami Beach, will return — at least for now — as a 20-minute program, 10 minutes shorter than it had been. “Jalen & Jacoby” also was shortened to 20 minutes, as was “Around The Horn.”
The new daily lineup features a 30-minute edition of “First Take Extra” at 3:30 p.m., highlighting the best conversations from that morning’s “First Take.” That will be followed by that one-hour block of three, 20-minute shows: “Jalen & Jacoby” at 4 p.m., “Highly Questionable” (4:20 p.m.) and “Around the Horn” (4:40 p.m.).
“SportsCenter” will air from 5 to 7 p.m., with “Pardon The Interruption” segments incorporated at 5:30 p.m.
Unaffected will be ESPN’s lineup earlier in the day, featuring “Get Up,” “First Take,” “SportsCenter,” “NFL Live” and “The Jump.” “SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt” will continue to air at 11 p.m.
▪ ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay, who missed the draft while recovering from coronavirus, told colleague Adam Schefter that he couldn’t watch the NFL Draft live because he was “in a dark place” while battling symptoms of the virus.
McShay saw his young children this week for the first time since April 1.
▪ Udonis Haslem will reflect on his Heat career in a new “Inside The Heat” special on Fox Sports Sun at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
This story was originally published May 8, 2020 at 11:10 AM.
