WTF?


They just talked, its over??? WTF, did ABC lose it or NFL can the schedule???

Wikipedia

Starting in 2006, ESPN will begin airing the Monday night games and NBC will get ESPN's Sunday night package. The NFL's decision to swap the nights games are on cable and network TV is because Sunday has become the prime night for TV ratings. Sunday nights on television are the best of any night of the week. ABC decided to stay with its successful prime-time package of shows, headlined by Desperate Housewives, leaving NBC with the Sunday night package. The Sunday night game now will be the "showcase" game of the week on the NFL schedule. While the ESPN broadcasts will have the MNF name and heritage, NBC is a broadcast network as is ABC, whereas ESPN is a cable service not freely available to all Americans, though any ESPN games will still air on free broadcast TV in the home markets of each team. For that reason, NBC, not ESPN, will gain rights to the wild-card doubleheader that has traditionally aired on ABC, as well as a share of the rotating rights to the Super Bowl. Also, John Madden has elected to join NBC for its broadcasts, despite the success of the Michaels-Madden pairing. After initially renewing their NFL television contract, ABC was awarded the telecasts to Super Bowl XXXIV, Super Bowl XXXVII, and Super Bowl XL. Due to the end of ABC's contract with the NFL, the Super Bowl XL broadcast will be the network's final NFL telecast (at least for the foreseeable future).

It's going to be on ESPN next season.


ETA: I think ABC is getting the sunday night games instead.

ETA #2: I don't think it's going to be called Monday Night Football (what's on ESPN next season), though.

Yep.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news Cav.

Turn out the lights, the party's over!
Jim

AFAIK, It's over.  

I don't have cable anymore, so, that's it.



I'm not as sad as I thought I'd be, but...damn.

It's just not right.

OTOH, I'm glad ABC will have football on Sunday nights now.

Quoted: It's going to be on ESPN next season.

I never watch any games on ESPN, while I like a lot of their sportsnews shows, I abhor the way they do football.

Just like everything in America lately. Follow the money. Give it a couple of seasons and it will be Monday night football again on the free airwaves. I'm hoping......

I have watched it for all 36 years, missing very very few games.
I figure ESPN is just the next edition and will continue to watch it, especially since it will apparently still be Monday Night Football.
Jim

Wonder howmuch EPSN will raiser their rates increasing everyones bill even if you dont watch it

Schedules are going to be more fluid.
The thinking is rather than have a Monday with a firm schedule and possibly crappy teams playing it will be easier to reschedule a Sunday game rather than play on a different day.
They will have the option of changing the start time of a game for SNF.
For instance 2 hot teams that where playing in the afternoon can have the game rescheduled to be played at 8PM for SNF.
If the game was originally scheduled to air on FOX or CBS, ABC can ask to have the game rescheduled and I know FOX has the option to tell ABC to stick-it so many times, but after that X-amount of times runs out, the NFL has the say on the game start time.

ETA: I would hate to be the guy who drove 4-6 hours to a game only to find out they are playing it at night and you can't stay because you have to be at work early the next morning.

Quoted: Schedules are going to be more fluid. The thinking is rather than have a Monday with a firm schedule and possibly crappy teams playing it will be easier to reschedule a Sunday game rather than play on a different day. They will have the option of changing the start time of a game for SNF. For instance 2 hot teams that where playing in the afternoon can have the game rescheduled to be played at 8PM for SNF. If the game was originally scheduled to air on FOX or CBS, ABC can ask to have the game rescheduled and I know FOX has the option to tell ABC to stick-it so many times, but after that X-amount of times runs out, the NFL has the say on the game start time. ETA: I would hate to be the guy who drove 4-6 hours to a game only to find out they are playing it at night and you can't stay because you have to be at work early the next morning.

This just keeps getting worse.

abc ownes espn

Sunday night football is going to NBC not ABC.

I hate loosing the tradition of Monday night football on ABC but I work second shift anyways so now I'll be able to get that Sunday night game now that it will be on free TV. I dropped extended cable and lost ESPN in the process.It sucks right now due to the bowls are on ESPN, but next weekend they will be on the free networks.

Monday Night Football coming to ESPN


NEW YORK -- Are you ready for some football? On ESPN?

And NBC?

But not ABC.

"Monday Night Football," which 35 years ago was one of the biggest gambles in television history and then became the backbone of ABC's revival, is headed to cable. ESPN, which like ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co., will take over, beginning with the 2006 season, what has been a TV institution and made the NFL a prime-time ratings draw.

The league's financial package with ESPN has not been confirmed.

NBC, meanwhile, gets back into the NFL picture with a six-year deal to take over the Sunday night telecasts previously owned by ESPN. NBC lost the AFC Sunday afternoon package to CBS after the 1997 season. NBC is part of General Electric Co.

"When the deal concluded with a handshake on Saturday," said NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol, "I walked up Park Avenue to my apartment and spent most of the time remembering most of the beginnings on ABC. I was Roone Arledge's assistant and I was the only one he would allow to come into the meetings with Pete Rozelle for the first prime-time package, when Roone was trying to sell Pete on why it would work.

"In my happiness that the prime-time broadcast is moving to NBC, I couldn't help but think how sad Roone would be at this point."

Disney shares slipped 2 cents to $26.92 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, while GE shares rose 26 cents to $36.26.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue emphasized that the marquee television series, at least according to the league, will be the Sunday night package, for which NBC is paying $600 million a year, according to the sources.

"In the current media environment, Sunday is now the better night for our prime-time broadcast package," Tagliabue said Monday.

Also, the NFL's hopes for a more flexible prime-time schedule will be realized with the new agreements.

NBC will start its Sunday broadcasts with a pregame show at 7 p.m. eastern; games will begin at 8:15. In the last seven weeks, the league will be able to shift afternoon games to prime time to ensure more meaningful games are shown on national TV.

There also will be a time switch on ESPN's games, with an earlier start time of 8:40 p.m. eastern.

"The earlier kickoff times for both packages, NBC's Sunday night programming devoted to the NFL and flexible scheduling for Sunday night are all positive changes," Tagliabue said.

The commissioner still hopes to sell a package of eight late-season Thursday night/Saturday night games, although those telecasts could wind up on the NFL Network, one of Tagliabue's pet projects.

With the move of Monday night games to cable, a tradition will be altered, if not ended. After all, "Monday Night Football" has been a pillar of ABC's programming since it began in 1970, when Howard Cosell anchored the show that now stands as the second-longest running prime time network series, trailing CBS's 60 Minutes by two years.

"The turning point at ABC was when Roone Arledge moved sports to prime time and with that deal it happened for the first time," Ebersol recalled. "That was all him, and it was the reason why ABC moved up from third place."

After the coming season, however, ABC will be the only major network not carrying the NFL.

NBC also gets two first-round playoff games and the Super Bowl in 2009 and 2012 as part of the deal.

"A great deal with the NFL is the best deal you can get in television," Ebersol said.

ESPN said it had been assured by the league that it would get high-quality games.

"ESPN could have stayed on Sunday night," ESPN vice president Mark Shapiro said. "Unequivocally, our task was to continue ABC's tradition of Monday Night Football. We've been assured we're getting the preferred schedule."

Added George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports: "From the Disney perspective, it was a smart move for ABC by moving out of football and having ESPN move into Monday nights."

NBC has been struggling in prime time this season, and even risks an unprecedented fall into fourth place in the ratings. ABC's newfound ratings strength with "Desperate Housewives" on Sunday nights has been particularly damaging.

Viacom Inc.'s CBS and News Corp.'s Fox already have agreed to pay a total of $8 billion over six years for the rights to Sunday afternoon games.

The NFL will continue to show all cable games on free, over-the air television in home markets. So local stations will carry ESPN's Monday night games in the cities of the teams involved.

Quoted: Sunday night football is going to NBC not ABC.

see above

Monday night football was best with Al Michaels, Dan Dierdorf, and Frank Gifford.

Boomer and Dan Fouts were pretty good, too. In fact, Dan Fouts was damn good.

Quoted: Monday night football was best with Al Michaels, Dan Dierdorf, and Frank Gifford. Boomer and Dan Fouts were pretty good, too. In fact, Dan Fouts was damn good.

Quoted: Quoted: Monday night football was best with Al Michaels, Dan Dierdorf, and Frank Gifford. Boomer and Dan Fouts were pretty good, too. In fact, Dan Fouts was damn good. www.sitcomsonline.com/mnf.gif

Dude, you're old.

Who are they?

Quoted: Who are they?

ABC basically owns ESPN (80% share)

Quoted: Quoted: Who are they?

Dude, I'm messin' witcha.

It's clearly Roone Arledge, Pete Rozelle, and a young Don Meredith, right?

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Who are they? Dude, I'm messin' witcha. It's clearly Roone Arledge, Pete Rozelle, and a young Don Meredith, right?

May your next 80 yards slab all be 95 degree smokin hot mud.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Who are they? Dude, I'm messin' witcha.

Don't ever mess with Mongo!

Sunday night is HBO night for me - Sopranos, Deadwood, whatever.

ESPN's NFL Sunday night history has been one of exceptional boredom - typically terrible teams, terrible broadcasters and terrible camera  work.

They often seem to be a pair of 3-10 teams in an almost empty stadium, sitting 1000 yards away from the field.

ETA: to make it worse, they could  turn Joe Morgan into a football analyst. Joe Morgan is the worst broadcaster in the entire history of all mankind in the entire history of the world, past, present, and future.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Who are they? Dude, I'm messin' witcha. It's clearly Roone Arledge, Pete Rozelle, and a young Don Meredith, right?

MNF was so over hyped it was obnoxous.  
I could take it if I tuned in around 9:10pm, after all the overdrawn opening hoopla was over with.  They should have just treated it as the "just another football game" which it always was.

I've watched over the years but it got to the point where the only time I did watch was when the Cowboys play. If they had started the games at 7 instead of 8 I would have spent more time watching. I'm not going to stay up until 1130 or midnight during the work week unless it's something special. Also the older I get the more my "who cares who's playing" grows.

I'm becoming more convinced that there is a conspiracy to make broadcast television programming increasingly piss poor to get more satellite and cable subscribers.  I'm not buying those services until I can buy the 9 or 10 channels I want without all the other noise - who watches reruns ad infinitum of shows from the 70's and 80's that were crappy the first time?  The truth is, I could get by on the "Cowboy Movie Channel" and two or three news and weather channels pretty well.

Quoted: Starting in 2006, ESPN will begin airing the Monday night games and NBC will get ESPN's Sunday night package. The NFL's decision to swap the nights games are on cable and network TV is because Sunday has become the prime night for TV ratings. Sunday nights on television are the best of any night of the week. ABC decided to stay with its successful prime-time package of shows, headlined by Desperate Housewives, leaving NBC with the Sunday night package. The Sunday night game now will be the "showcase" game of the week on the NFL schedule. While the ESPN broadcasts will have the MNF name and heritage, NBC is a broadcast network as is ABC, whereas ESPN is a cable service not freely available to all Americans, though any ESPN games will still air on free broadcast TV in the home markets of each team. For that reason, NBC, not ESPN, will gain rights to the wild-card doubleheader that has traditionally aired on ABC, as well as a share of the rotating rights to the Super Bowl. Also, John Madden has elected to join NBC for its broadcasts, despite the success of the Michaels-Madden pairing. After initially renewing their NFL television contract, ABC was awarded the telecasts to Super Bowl XXXIV, Super Bowl XXXVII, and Super Bowl XL. Due to the end of ABC's contract with the NFL, the Super Bowl XL broadcast will be the network's final NFL telecast (at least for the foreseeable future).

jesus, when did tv get so frigging complicated???

Quoted: MNF was so over hyped it was obnoxous.   I could take it if I tuned in around 9:10pm, after all the overdrawn opening hoopla was over with.  They should have just treated it as the "just another football game" which it always was.

Agree completely.
I rarely tune in until about 9:10 or so, after all the stupid intro and credits are done.
They have turned football games into TV shows rather than live coverage of a sporting event.

I have no interest in the commentators, the storyline, the 'show'....all I want to see are the plays made on the field. Having been at last nights game (and stayed until the bitter end), I can still say that I would rather freeze my ass off watching my team lose miserably than seeing the same thing on TV.

There are maybe two Monday night games that are good in a given year. Having a fluid schedule will fix this and make Monday/Sunday night games more of a marque matchup.

Tradition be damned if it means watching Farve drag his old ass around the field during a 48-3 shelacking of Green Bay at the hands of Baltimore.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Who are they? Dude, I'm messin' witcha.   Don't ever mess with Mongo Webster's Dad!

Fixed it

Quoted: There are maybe two Monday night games that are good in a given year. Having a fluid schedule will fix this and make Monday/Sunday night games more of a marque matchup. Tradition be damned if it means watching Farve drag his old ass around the field during a 27-7shelacking of Green Bay at the hands of Chicago.

fixed it for you.  

This fucking sucks.

Fuck ABC.

If ESPN has the same retarded announcers that they have on their Sunday night games, then Monday night won't be worth watching.

Quoted: Starting in 2006, ESPN will begin airing the Monday night games and NBC will get ESPN's Sunday night package. The NFL's decision to swap the nights games are on cable and network TV is because Sunday has become the prime night for TV ratings. Sunday nights on television are the best of any night of the week. ABC decided to stay with its successful prime-time package of shows, headlined by Desperate Housewives, leaving NBC with the Sunday night package. The Sunday night game now will be the "showcase" game of the week on the NFL schedule. Snip...

Damn right they are... Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, then the Adult Swim lineup for Sunday night.

Who are (from left ) Alex Karras , Howard Cosell , and Frank Gifford . For $2000.00 Alex .

Quoted: Who are (from left ) Alex Karras , Howard Cosell , and Frank Gifford . For $2000.00 Alex .

How old is Karras in the photo?  He looks like he's 14 or 15.