NFL moves Dolphins from prime time. What to know with NFL, college playoff, NBA TV changes
The Dolphins-at-Cleveland Browns Week 17 game, viewed by the NFL in April as a game worthy of a late-season prime time spotlight, ultimately didn’t turn out to be one.
And so as expected, the league on Tuesday flexed Dolphins-Browns out of prime time on Sunday night, Dec. 29 and moved it to a 4:05 p.m. regional game on CBS. Atlanta-Washington will replace it as NBC’s Sunday night game.
Here’s a guide to what’s new, and what you need to know, from a television perspective on the final three weeks of the NFL season, the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff that starts this week, and the new NBA TV deals that begin next season.
Updating all of them:
NFL final three weeks of regular season
▪ Besides Dolphins-Browns being flexed out of prime time, the NFL on Tuesday also shifted three Sunday games to Saturday, Dec. 28, on NFL Network: Chargers-New England at 1 p.m., Denver-Cincinnati at 4:30 p.m., Arizona-Los Angeles Rams at 8 p.m.
▪ Among several changes in the final weeks of the regular season, this will be the most significant: Netflix will stream its first two NFL games in its history when it carries Kansas City-Pittsburgh at 1 p.m. and Baltimore-Houston at 4:30 p.m. on Christmas.
Three CBS announcers — Ian Eagle and studio analysts Nate Burleson and J.J. Watt — will call the Chiefs-Steelers game.
NBC’s Noah Eagle will call the Ravens-Texans game with Fox’s Greg Olsen.
Netflix will use 10 studio announcers, which would presumably set a record if anyone kept such records.
There will be a Los Angeles pregame set including NFL podcaster (and former NFL Network host) Kay Adams, former Saints QB Drew Brees, former ESPN analyst and Commanders quarterback Robert Griffin IIl, ESPN’s Mina Kimes and NFL Network analyst Manti Te’o.
A Pittsburgh-based studio set will include ESPN’s Laura Rutledge, NBC’s Devin McCourty and CBS and ESPN analyst Jason McCourty.
NFL Net’s Ian Rapoport and CBS officiating expert Gene Steratore also will be involved.
Netflix Christmas coverage begins at 11 a.m., two hours before kickoff.
The NFL says it’s not concerned about potential streaming malfunctions after frequent freezing severely marred Netflix’s coverage of the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight last month.
▪ On the Saturday in Week 16 last season, the NFL gave one game to NBC and a prime time game to its streaming service, Peacock.
On the Week 16 Saturday this weekend, NBC will get one game (Kansas City-Houston) at 1 p.m., and Fox gets the other (Baltimore-Pittsburgh) at 4:30 p.m. There won’t be a Saturday night game.
▪ For Week 18, two of any of the 16 games scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 5 will be moved to Saturday, Jan. 4 on ESPN, as usual. But Dolphins-Jets seems likely to remain on Sunday, at 1 or 4:25 p.m.
▪ Broncos-Chargers (this week) and Seahawks-Bears next week are the final two Amazon Prime Thursday games this season. But Amazon will replace Peacock as the rights-holder for the wild card playoff game on the first Saturday night of the postseason.
▪ For this weekend, CBS will use lead announcing team Jim Nantz and Tony Romo on Dolphins-49ers, even both teams are 6-8 and on the fringes of playoff contention. That game will go a significant portion of the country; we will tweet regionalization maps on Wednesday (@flasportsbuzz).
The NFL, in consultation with CBS, moved the Patriots-Bills game from 1 p.m. to 4:25 p.m. so that CBS could offer another viewing option, especially in the Northeast. Jaguars-Raiders will get a small CBS audience at 4:25 p.m.
Minnesota-Seattle, scheduled for regional coverage at 4:05 p.m., on Fox, was the most appealing game eligible to be moved to the primary CBS game in the 4:25 p.m. window, but that game lost appeal with the Vikings clinching a playoff spot on Sunday and the Seahawks falling out of the NFC West lead.
College Football Playoff TV plans
▪ TNT, which has carried Mountain West games to modest audiences this year, will be thrust into the national college football spotlight when it carries two first-round playoff games on Saturday afternoon.
TNT reached a five year deal to sublicense some playoff games from ESPN — including two first-round games in 2024 and 2025, plus two first-round games and two quarterfinal games in 2026, 2027 and 2028.
Besides airing on TNT, the games will be simulcast on TBS, TruTV and streaming service Max.
ESPN announcers and production teams will handle the game broadcasts for TNT, but Turner hired its own talent for a two-hour pregame, halftime and postgame shows.
ESPN’s Mark Jones and Roddy Jones call SMU-Penn State at noon, and ESPN’s Dave Pasch and Dusty Dvoracek call Clemson-Texas at 4 p.m..
TNT’s studio show includes No. 2 NBA host Adam Lefkoe, plus former NFL players Champ Bailey, Takeo Spikes and Victor Cruz.
Giving those two CFP games to TNT this weekend will prevent ESPN, an NFL rights-holder, from directly competing with the two attractive simultaneous NFL games on NBC and Fox on Saturday afternoon.
▪ ABC and ESPN kept two CFP games for itself this weekend: Indiana-Notre Dame at 8 p.m. Friday, with Sean McDonough and Greg McEloy on the call; and Tennessee-Ohio State at 8 p.m. Saturday, with Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit at the mike. ESPN2 will offer a more casual presentation of the Ohio State game on ESPN2, with Pat McAfee and guests talking over live video of the game.
▪ ESPN will avoid any additional CFP overlap with NFL games after Saturday.
For the quarterfinals, one game will be Tuesday night, Dec. 31: Boise State against the Penn State-SMU winner, from Glendale, Arizona.
The three other quarterfinals will be Wednesday, Jan. 1: Arizona State against the Clemson-Texas winner at 1 p.m. in Atlanta; Oregon vs. the Ohio State-Tennessee winner at 5 p.m. in Pasadena, California.; and Georgia vs. the Notre Dame-Indiana winner at 8:45 p.m. in New Orleans.
The playoff semifinals will be Thursday, Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Miami and Friday, Jan. 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Arlington, Texas. The championship in Monday, Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Atlanta.
▪ While NFL networks typically use only their top two announcing teams on playoff games, ESPN has more postseason inventory and awarded its top six announcing teams with playoff assignments.
The Fowler/Herbstreit lead team will call four, including the championship game, and the McDonough/McElroy team likely will get three games.
Bob Wischusen-Louis Riddick and Joe Tessitore-Jesse Palmer got quarterfinal assignments, and the Jones and Pasch teams got the first-round TNT games.
▪ ABC assigned Tom Hart and Jordan Rodgers to the UM-Iowa State Pop-Tarts Bowl at 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 28, opposite a simultaneous Heat-Hawks game and Denver-Cincinnati.
NBA TV plans for 2025-26
Amazon and NBC — which will replace TNT as rights-holders alongside ABC/ESPN beginning next season — are progressing with their talent hires.
NBC will use Mike Tirico and Noah Eagle as its top two play-by-play announcers, and Jamal Crawford is expected to be on the lead team or No. 2 team. But there are a lot of moving parts here. NBC has interest in TNT’s Reggie Miller and Dwyane Wade for prominent roles, as well.
The network liked Wade’s performance when he called men’s Olympic games with Noah Eagle this summer. Whether Wade would want to make the commitment to do a high volume of games is unclear.
Amazon, meanwhile, already has hired CBS’ Ian Eagle as its lead NBA announcer. CBS’ Kevin Harlan reportedly is on Amazon’s radar, as well. And a third TNT NBA announcer — Stan Van Gundy — is a candidate for a role.
Meanwhile, Amazon is hiring one of its NFL reporters, Taylor Rooks, as its studio host (per The Athletic) and Dirk Nowitzki as a studio analyst, per NBA reporter Marc Stein.
▪ Though ABC/ESPN will acquire rights to carry TNT’s “Inside the NBA” next season in a sublicensing deal, Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t yet have a contract to remain on the show. Ernie Johnson Jr., Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and O’Neal haven’t discussed the news publicly. ESPN has said it won’t add any cast members to “Inside the NBA.”
Assuming there aren’t any hitches, that crew will appear on opening week telecasts, Christmas games, ABC games after Jan. 1, the final week of the season, The Finals and playoff games.
This story was originally published December 17, 2024 at 1:39 PM.
