NBC Scores with Sunday Night Football

NBC's Sunday Night Football with Al Michaels and John Madden in the booth is a big winner. But that was a given since ABC's Monday Night Football with the same pairing was a big winner. Hands down, they are the best broadcast team in football. ESPN's decision to take Monday Night Football in a direction with which Michael's was uncomfortable with proved to be an unexpected plus for NBC which had already signed Madden. Enough said about that.

I'm less impressed with NBC's Football Night in America pre-game show. Not because I don't like the talent-- the team is very good-- it's mostly because I don't like the set. It seems dark, un-football like, and far too busy on screen. The u-shaped anchor desk has a three-panel video display on the front and a big NBC logo sits on the floor. The backdrop appears to be a big bookcase, but when the director punches up a close up shot, you can see that it's actually several "windows" on a video array. Whenver the director uses the wide shot showing all four anchors at the desk, I'm distracted from whatever they're talking about. I don't like it.

In addition to Michaels and Madden, here's what I do like about the NFL's return to NBC:

1. The Theme Music. It screams Roman gladiator loud and clear and that's what NFL players are-- gladiators!
2. The Graphics. Unlike FOX, which puts graphics on the screen in such a way that it looks like they are painted on the field, NBC is using what I would call a subtle graphics presentation. The score/down/clock graphic doesn't block your main view of the screen; player notes are vibrant and easy to read; animated wipes are crisp. They add information to the game viewing experience withouth becoming the game viewing experience.
3. Jerome Bettis. For a rookie front-line studio analyst, he appears amazingly comfortable on camera. That's not to say I though he would struggle. I knew he would be good because I had seen him do some stuff on the NFL Network. But NFLN puts a lot of players and former players on TV and most of them are not that good. It's a different ballgame at NBC but just like his days with the Pittsburgh Steelers, The Bus showed up fully fueled ready for a long, smooth ride down the broadcast highway.
4. Sterling Sharpe. Not that there's a sibling rivalry going on, but Sterling on NBC and Shannon on CBS is an interesting dynamic. I like both of the Sharpe brothers and in this case, Sterling adds real life to the NBC studio team. Bob Costas is Bob Costas, which is to say he's solid but not very exciting. Chris Collinsworth isn't bad, he isn't great. He's just OK to me. And, Bettis is still adjusting to life in a studio instead of on a field. Sharpe can be life of this party and I expect he will be. His insights are great and he has no problem expressing them.
5. Andrea Kramer. She's one of the best sideline reporters in the business. Hell, she's one of the best reporters, period, in the business. In a time where many sideline reporters are just pretty faces with nice bust lines and not an ounce of journalism background, Kramer is a deep digging, fact finding, comprehensive reporter who asks all the right questions and gets real stories of interest for football fans. NBC did a good thing luring her from ESPN to work with Michaels and Madden.
6. Game Time. 8:30 PM start is only 30 minutes earlier than what ABC had for its Monday night games, but that half hour means a lot. A game that ends around 11:30 in stead of midnight or later means a lot to the rabid fan who's been watching football all day and night and has to get up for work in the morning. Granted, this really isn't a change since ESPN's Sunday Night Football also started at 8:30 PM. But, Monday Night Football on ABC always started at 9:00 PM and would often run beyond midnight making that morning turnaround rough for fans.

For the true NFL fan, it's hard for any network to screw up coverage of a game. We watch for the football. Not the announcers; not the graphics; not the theme music; not the studio hosts. We watch for the hard hitting action that is pro football at its best, pure and simple. That said, NBC's Sunday Night Football is no better or no worse than NFL brodacasts on Fox, CBS, or ESPN. Next to join the fray-- the NFL Network, which begins live game broadcasts on Thanksgiving night.

Oh, Good Evening!