NBC Sunday Night Football

NBC Sunday Night Football
File:Sunday Night Football on NBC.png NBC Sunday Night Football logo
Genre	Football telecasts
Directed by	Drew Esocoff
Presented by	Commentators: English: Al Michaels Cris Collinsworth Michele Tafoya Studio hosts: Bob Costas Dan Patrick Tony Dungy Rodney Harrison Hines Ward Spanish: Jessi Losada René Giraldo Edgar López
Theme music composer	John Williams (main theme) Desmond Child and Joan Jett (opening theme)
Opening theme	"Sunday Night Football Theme," performed by Carrie Underwood
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	10
Production
Producer	Fred Gaudelli
Production locations	Various NFL stadiums (game telecasts and Super Bowl pre-game shows) Pre-game show: Studio 8G/8H, GE Building, New York City (2006–2013) NBC Sports Headquarters, Stamford, Connecticut (2014–present)
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	180 minutes or until game ends
Production companies	National Football League NBC Sports
Original release
Network	NBC (English) NBC Universo (2014–present) (Spanish simulcasts of select games)
Release	August 6, 2006 (2006-08-06) – present
Related
NFL on NBC

NBC Sunday Night Football is a weekly television broadcast of National Football League (NFL) games on NBC in the United States. It began airing on August 6, 2006 with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, which opened that year's preseason. NBC took over the rights to the Sunday prime time game telecasts from ESPN, which carried the broadcasts from 1987 to 2005 (concurrently with NBC assuming the rights to Sunday evening regular-season games, ESPN took over the broadcast rights to Monday Night Football from sister network ABC beginning with the 2006 season).

For the 2011–12 season, Nielsen ranked NBC's Sunday Night Football as the most-watched program on U.S. network television, beating American Idol, which held that honor for eight consecutive seasons beginning in 2004; Sunday Night Football repeated this feat as the most-watched program for the 2013–14 season.

As of 2014, Al Michaels serves as the play-by-play announcer for the broadcasts, with Cris Collinsworth as the color commentator and Michele Tafoya as the sideline reporter. Upon NBC's assumption of the Sunday prime time game rights, Fred Gaudelli and Drew Esocoff, who serve as the respective lead producer and director, joined Sunday Night Football in the same positions they held during the latter portion of the ABC era of Monday Night Football. John Madden, the color commentator for the first three years of the program, retired prior to the 2009 season; he was succeeded in that role by Collinsworth.

Since 2014, sister cable channel NBC Universo has carried Spanish-language audio simulcasts of select games, after years of aborted attempts to simulcast the games on Telemundo; as with the NFL's other television partners, NBC provides Spanish-language audio feed of the game broadcasts via second audio program (SAP), although the network promotes the simulcasts as being "provided by Telemundo". With the former mun2's relaunch on February 1, 2015, NBC Universo simulcast Super Bowl XLIX with NBC, with the channel expected to carry Spanish-language simulcasts of NFL games and NBC Sports properties.

Studio show

Main article: Football Night in America

The studio show Football Night in America – featuring Bob Costas, Dan Patrick, Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison, Hines Ward, Peter King and Mike Florio – is an 80-minute pre-game that precedes the game broadcasts each week, featuring a recap of concluded and any remaining ongoing Sunday NFL contests. Costas, Tafoya, Collinsworth and Michaels also contribute to the studio show from the game site.

Contract

NBC's current NFL contract includes the rights to the season-opening Thursday night NFL Kickoff Game and two Saturday games in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. Under the initial six-year deal, the network was also awarded the rights to two Super Bowl games, following the 2008 (Super Bowl XLIII) and 2011 (Super Bowl XLVI) seasons, and the Pro Bowl games in the years which NBC was slated to air the Super Bowl. Beginning in 2012, through an extension to the contract that runs through 2022, NBC also gained the rights to air a primetime Thanksgiving game (which had previously been part of NFL Network's Thursday Night Football package), one divisional playoff game in lieu of a Wild Card game in the postseason, and the rights to Super Bowls held or to be held in 2015, 2018 and 2021. However, the Pro Bowl is not included in the new contract as ESPN was set to gain exclusive rights to the game in 2015, with NBC's broadcast of the 2014 Pro Bowl being the final time the game would air on broadcast television for the foreseeable future.

NBC is the current home of the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, which begins the NFL's preseason each August. However, the 2007 game aired on the NFL Network as the league had planned to stage the China Bowl just a few days later (before it was postponed indefinitely), to be televised by NBC as a tie-in to its coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Normally, there are two other preseason telecasts on NBC; however, because of the Beijing Olympics, only two were shown in 2008. Two preseason games (the Hall of Fame game and one other match-up, depending on other NBC Sports commitments), and the Thursday night season opener were retained as part of the new contract beginning in 2014.

During Wild Card Saturday, Tom Hammond (play-by-play) and Cris Collinsworth (color commentator) called the afternoon game for NBC from 2007 to 2009, while Al Michaels and John Madden handled the evening game. In addition, due to Madden's fear of flying, Collinsworth substituted for Madden on October 19, 2008 for the game featuring the Seattle Seahawks at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This was due to Madden not wanting to make back-to-back-to-back cross-country trips by bus (the October 5 game was in Jacksonville and the October 12 game was in San Diego). Collinsworth served as commentator for the Pro Bowl in Honolulu, Hawaii in place of Madden following Super Bowl XLIII, and (in his capacity as Michaels' broadcast partner) will presumably do so again before Super Bowl XLVI.

For the 2009 playoffs, Hammond teamed with Joe Gibbs and Joe Theismann to call the early Wild Card game, while Michaels and Collinsworth called the late game. For the 2010 playoffs, Hammond and Mike Mayock called the early Wild Card game, while Michaels and Collinsworth called the late game. Michaels and Collinsworth called the late Wild Card game from 2011 to 2013 as well, while Mayock was joined for the early game by Tom Hammond in 2011, and Dan Hicks in 2012 and 2013 (the last year in which NBC would broadcast the Wild Card Saturday doubleheader). Beginning with the 2014 playoffs, NBC's Wild Card Saturday game coverage was reduced to a single-header late game, with Michaels and Collinsworth as announcers, as ESPN obtained rights to the early Wild Card Saturday game.

Scheduling

Further information: NBC Sunday Night Football results (2006–present) and each game's results and statistics

Opening game

The first regular season game to be shown by NBC under this contract, between the Miami Dolphins and the Pittsburgh Steelers, aired on September 7, 2006, followed by the first Sunday-night game – between the Indianapolis Colts and New York Giants – on September 10, 2006. The actual first game of the run – the 2006 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game between the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles – was televised on August 6, 2006.

Flexible scheduling

NBC Sunday Night Football is the beneficiary of the league's new flexible-scheduling system. Since the NFL now considers Sunday Night Football to be its featured game of the week, for the final seven weeks of the season (seven of the final eight weeks during the 2006 and 2011 seasons because of Christmas weekend), the NFL has the flexibility in selecting games that are more intriguing and typically have playoff implications to air on Sunday night.

World Series conflicts

In its first four seasons of Sunday night coverage, NBC took one week off in late October or early November, so as not to conflict with Fox's coverage of baseball's World Series. In 2006 NBC did not air a game on October 22, which was the scheduled date for Game 2 of the World Series, but a potential conflict still existed on October 29 had the series gone seven games (the conflict never arose, however, as the 2006 World Series ended in five games). With the change in World Series scheduling beginning in 2007, NBC did not air an NFL game in order to avoid a conflict with World Series Game 4, which is the first chance a team would have to clinch the series. In 2007, there was no game on October 28; in 2008, there was no game on October 26; and, in 2009, there was no game on November 1. Although no games aired on these nights, Football Night in America still aired as scheduled at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

NBC televised a game on October 31, 2010 and again on October 23, 2011, opposite Game 4 of the World Series on Fox in both cases. Both games featured the New Orleans Saints at home, first in 2010 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, then in 2011 against the Indianapolis Colts. New Orleans and Indianapolis do not have a Major League Baseball team, and the Pittsburgh Pirates have had poor seasonal performances in recent years, at the time having not recorded a winning record since 1992.

Ratings have been mixed for these results, with the NFL winning the night in 2010 while MLB won in 2011. While the Saints won both games, the former matchup featuring a major ratings draw in the Steelers, combined with the latter matchup against the Colts being a 62–7 blowout while Game 4 of the 2011 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers was a more closely contested game, caused the ratings to slip in 2011.

In 2012, the NFL once again scheduled the Saints to play on Sunday Night Football in late October, this time against the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field on October 28 (Denver does have an MLB team, the Colorado Rockies, that has had limited success in recent seasons, though they did not contend for the National League West in 2012). The game wound up being scheduled opposite the fourth (and final) game of the 2012 World Series.

For 2013, SNF aired the Packers–Vikings rivalry game at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on October 27, opposite Game 4 of the 2013 World Series. Both the Packers and Vikings have a baseball team in their respective home states (Wisconsin's Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota's Twins), but the two Major League Baseball teams have struggled in recent years.

The 2014 game, between the Packers and Saints in New Orleans, was scheduled against Game 5 of the 2014 World Series, which under the seven-game format would be played only if necessary (a split in the first two games between the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals assured the series would need at least five games to determine a champion). Major League Baseball moved the start of the series to a Tuesday instead of Wednesday so it could avoid competing with the NFL on Thursday and Monday nights in addition to Sunday night.

2000s

2006

In the 2006 season, in addition to the World Series off-week, there was no game scheduled for Christmas Eve night; NBC broadcast that week's game (Eagles at Cowboys) on Christmas afternoon instead. A half-hour version of Football Night in America aired before the Christmas game and the two "Wild Card Saturday" games. During the 2006 season, no game was initially scheduled for NBC in the affected weeks – instead, the schedule slot for the NBC game was left vacant, with one Sunday afternoon game being moved to the primetime slot (the schedule for the affected weeks simply read "one of these games will move to 8:15 Eastern"). CBS and Fox could each protect four of its games during Weeks 10 through 15 and also each protect one of its games for Week 17; however, these two networks had to decide which games to protect in early October 2006, after Week 4 of the NFL season.

2007

For the first time since NBC gained the rights to Sunday Night Football, a tentative full-season schedule was unveiled, including games in the last seven weeks of the season. Those games could be replaced under flexible scheduling if the need arose. The same rules under which CBS and Fox protect games for their own packages still apply.

Three of the games in the last seven weeks of the season were eventually replaced with more compelling matches. This resulted in the unprecedented situation – twice – of having a team playing on consecutive Sunday nights. New England had consecutive Sunday nighters: the November 18 New England at Buffalo game was moved to prime time and was followed on November 25 by the already-scheduled Philadelphia at New England game. Likewise, the Washington Redskins played a scheduled game at the New York Giants on December 16, and their December 23 game in Minnesota was moved to prime time. For the last week of the season, the Tennessee Titans–Indianapolis Colts game was moved, switching places with the Kansas City Chiefs–New York Jets game that was originally scheduled in the Sunday night slot; the Titans needed a win to secure the final AFC playoff spot.

In addition, the annual preseason Hall of Fame Game telecast was shifted to NFL Network, in anticipation of NBC airing the China Bowl contest from Beijing; however, the China Bowl was canceled.

2008

The 2008 schedule, released on April 15, continued the 2007 practice of a scheduled game possibly being moved in favor of a more compelling one during Weeks 11 through 16 (November 16 through December 21), but left the slot open on the final Sunday, December 28. The NFL Kickoff Game between the Washington Redskins and defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants that was played on September 4 started at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time instead of the normal 8:30 p.m. time in order to avoid conflict with the nomination speech that John McCain gave at the Republican National Convention that night; the game ended at 10:01 p.m. Eastern Time, averting any conflict.

As had happened in 2007, a team played on consecutive Sunday nights due to a game being moved into the Sunday night time slot. The originally scheduled New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys game on December 14 was followed by a flexed December 21 home game for the Giants against the Carolina Panthers; the Giants-Panthers game was flexed because it carried serious playoff implications, as the winner would clinch the NFC's top seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. This was the second of three flexed games, with a December 7 interconference matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Washington Redskins. The league filled the open spot on December 28 with a game between the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers with major playoff implications, as the winner of that game would win the AFC West and earn a home game in the playoffs while the loser would be eliminated.

2009

The 2009 schedule, released on April 14, continued the 2007 and 2008 practice of scheduling a game every Sunday night during the season (except during the World Series) but declaring the games in Weeks 11 through 16 (November 22 through December 27) subject to change, should a more compelling matchup arise. The pattern of the 2007 and 2008 schedules was continued, as the slot for the final Sunday night of the season – January 3, 2010 – was left vacant. Two games were "flexed" in the 2009 season, as the Minnesota Vikings-Arizona Cardinals game replaced the original December 6 matchup between the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins.

To fill the vacant game slot for the last week of the season, NBC was given the matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and New York Jets that was originally scheduled for 4:15 p.m. Eastern on CBS, with this game having playoff implications for both teams. For the Jets, a win would have put them in the playoffs, while the Bengals had the potential to improve their seeding for the playoffs with a victory. The Jets-Bengals game ended up being the last game played at Giants Stadium (the Jets could have hosted the AFC Championship game, but the Baltimore Ravens did not hold up their end of the deal).

2010s

2010

The 2010 schedule, released on April 20, placed a Sunday night game (Pittsburgh Steelers at New Orleans Saints) against a World Series game for the first time since the NBC Sunday night contract began. It also continued the previous practice of scheduling a Sunday night game during every week of the season, and declaring the games in Weeks 11 through 16 (November 21 through December 26) as "flex games," meaning they reverted to Sunday afternoon if a more attractive matchup arose.

The Week 16 game, between the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles, originally scheduled for December 26, was moved to December 28 due to a major blizzard that affected most of the Eastern United States. The NFL postponed the game after Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter declared a snow emergency for the city. It was the 23rd NFL game to be played on a Tuesday, but the first since 1946. This was the only game, outside of the final Sunday night, to be "flexed" in the 2010 season; the original schedule called for the San Diego Chargers to play the Bengals in Cincinnati (the game was moved to CBS, and was indeed blacked out in Cincinnati). Because of this, a full 90-minute edition of Football Night aired on December 26, with a short five-minute pre-game leading into the game on the 28th, while Faith Hill's introduction was not played due to time constraints before kickoff.

For the Week 17 matchup, NBC featured the 7–8 St. Louis Rams playing the 6–9 Seattle Seahawks in a win-and-in game, where the winner of the game would qualify for the playoffs as the NFC West Division Champion.

2011

The 2011 schedule, released on April 19, once again placed a Sunday night game (Indianapolis Colts at New Orleans Saints on October 23, the fourth straight time these teams played each other on national television) opposite a World Series game. Sunday night games between November 13 and December 18 (inclusive) were "flex games", which could have reverted to Sunday afternoon if a more competitive matchup arose (one was; see below). The final Sunday night of the season – January 1, 2012 – was likewise a "flex game"; the slot, vacant when the schedule was released, was filled by the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants (see below). The Hall of Fame Game scheduled for August 7, and to be shown on NBC, was canceled due to the lockout that offseason; it was the only game to be affected.

The NFL announced on November 8 that the Week 13 rivalry game between the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots would be moved to 1:00 p.m. Eastern on CBS, while a replacement game would be announced by November 22. This was due to the Colts struggling without their star quarterback Peyton Manning (without him, the Colts lost 62–7 to the New Orleans Saints in a Sunday night game on October 23). This also marked the first time the NFL announced that a Sunday night game was being moved to the afternoon without simultaneously announcing a replacement. On November 21, the matchup between the Detroit Lions and New Orleans Saints was flexed into the Sunday night slot. As compensation to Fox because they only had two other games in the early time slot, the league gave them the Denver Broncos-Minnesota Vikings game that was originally to air on CBS. This was the first time that the league moved an interconference telecast to the home team's Sunday afternoon regional broadcaster.

On November 14, the NFL decided to keep the Week 12 matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs on November 27 in place after the league considered flexing it out for other matchups, particularly the AFC East showdown between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets and the interconference matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Tennessee Titans, due to the AFC West (of which the Chiefs are a member) being a weak division for 2011.

On December 7, the NFL ended up keeping the Week 15 matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Diego Chargers on December 18, a decision that came a day late due to the NFL Committees meetings that took place on the day before. NBC wanted the game between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos as it featured a matchup between Tom Brady and Tim Tebow, two players with high popularity. While CBS did not protect that game, the network was fighting to keep the game since they had lost the aforementioned Week 13 Broncos-Vikings game to Fox, denying the network the earlier chance to capitalize on Tebow's marketability.

For the second consecutive season, and third overall, the last Sunday night game that was flexed in featured a contest in which the winner would become the division champions and earn a home game in the playoffs while the loser would be eliminated. This particular matchup was for the NFC East between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium, a rematch of Week 14's Sunday night broadcast. This was the first time NBC had shown both meetings of division rivals during a regular season.

The 2011 season ended with an average of 20.7 million viewers and was the highest-rated program of the 2011–12 television season, dethroning American Idol, which was the highest-rated program for eight consecutive seasons. As a further result, Sunday Night Football became the first-ever television sports series of any kind to finish a television season as the most-watched show.

2012

The 2012 schedule, released on April 17, once again placed a Sunday night game (New Orleans Saints at Denver Broncos) against a World Series game. This was the third straight year a World Series game competed against a Sunday night game. During the halftime of that game, NBC News aired a brief special report regarding Superstorm Sandy, anchored by Brian Williams. Sunday night games between November 18 and December 23 (inclusive) were "flex games"; they would revert to Sunday afternoon if a more competitive matchup arose.

The only flexed game of the season that displaced a scheduled game took place on December 23; the San Diego Chargers at New York Jets game reverted to the afternoon, and the San Francisco 49ers played in Seattle that night. This resulted in the 49ers playing on consecutive Sunday nights, both on the road (the team played in New England the previous Sunday night, December 16). A portion of the San Francisco-New England game aired on the NBC Sports Network and CNBC due to NBC News' live coverage of Barack Obama's speech following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

The final Sunday night of the season – December 30, 2012 – likewise was a "flex game"; the slot was left vacant when the schedule was released, as has been the practice of the past four seasons. It was filled by the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins. Usually announced on the Tuesday before game day (but sometimes before), the game typically highlights a situation in which the winner advances to the playoffs while the loser does not; the winner of this flex game would win its division, although the Redskins would still advance to the playoffs as a wild card team – even if the team lost – if certain other teams lost. After the first 15 games were played that day, which included the Minnesota Vikings clinching the #6 seed in the NFC with a win, the game would turn out to be a winner-take-all, in which the winner would clinch the No. 4 seed in the NFC and the loser would be eliminated regardless. The Redskins would eventually defeat the Cowboys 28–18 and clinch their first NFC East crown since 1999.

2013

The 2013 schedule, released on April 18, once again placed a Sunday night game (Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings) against a World Series game. This was the fourth straight year that a World series game competed against a Sunday night game. Sunday night games between November 17 and December 22 (inclusive) were "flex games", they would revert to Sunday afternoon if a more competitive matchup arose. The final Sunday night of the season – December 29, 2013 – likewise was a "flex game"; the slot was left vacant when the schedule was released, as has been the practice of the past five seasons. The game site (and, by extension, its teams) was determined after the completion of most Week 16 games. It was filled by the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys.

The league announced on November 1, 2013, that the Week 11 Kansas City Chiefs–Denver Broncos game, originally scheduled as CBS's only late 4:05 p.m. Eastern Time singleheader game, was flexed into the Sunday Night Football, replacing the originally scheduled Green Bay Packers–New York Giants game. CBS originally selected the Chiefs–Broncos matchup as one of their "protected games" from flex-scheduling, but later allowed the league to flex it so it could be seen by a national audience. This would be one of two cases of a team playing on consecutive Sunday nights due to one of the games being moved in to the Sunday night slot (as the Broncos would play the New England Patriots the following Sunday night); the Philadelphia Eagles, the other team to play on consecutive Sunday nights, played at home against the Chicago Bears on December 22 and played in Dallas on December 29.

On December 2, 2013, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported (via Twitter) that the Week 15 rivalry game between the Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals for December 15 would remain in the Sunday night slot, a report later confirmed by the NFL. The league had considered flexing the game out due to the Steelers starting the season 0-4, which included a 20-10 loss to the Bengals on Monday Night Football earlier in the season that was more of a blowout than the final score indicated. Ultimately, it was decided to keep the rematch in the Sunday night slot due the Steelers making a late playoff push, the team's fanbase that provides high ratings regardless of how well the Steelers are doing, as well as a lack of compelling matchups for the week, with only two other pairings that did not have a team with a losing record by the flex deadline (Patriots at Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Ravens at Detroit Lions, the latter being a Monday night game which could not be flexed out of its slot).

On December 10, 2013, the NFL decided to flex the Week 16 Chicago Bears-Philadelphia Eagles matchup into the Sunday night slot, replacing the New England Patriots-Baltimore Ravens matchup, which moved to the late afternoon slot on CBS. The move surprised many in the television industry, as all four teams were strong playoff contenders. Some have speculated that since the Patriots had an opportunity to lock up the AFC East before their game in Baltimore (the Patriots were ultimately upset by the Dolphins 24-20), while the other three teams would not be able to clinch playoff spots (nor would they be eliminated) prior to Week 16, that the Bears-Eagles matchup might be more compelling. There was also speculation that moving the Patriots-Ravens game to the late afternoon slot on CBS gives that network a more compelling matchup in their week to have a doubleheader, as the other two matchups scheduled to air on CBS in the late afternoon slot featured teams that were having down years (Steelers-Packers) or weren't expected to contend for the playoffs and only appealed to their home markets (Raiders-Chargers); the Patriots-Ravens matchup ultimately received CBS's primary broadcasting crew (Jim Nantz and Phil Simms) and national coverage outside the local markets and blacked out markets of the other late games. John Ourand of SportsBusiness Journal reported that the league wanted to keep the total number of games taken from CBS and Fox, dating back to the start of the current television contracts, roughly equal. Otherwise, an obscure rule in the broadcast contracts would have prevented the league from possibly flexing a Week 17 AFC game, originally scheduled to be televised on CBS, to the final Sunday night slot.

2013 Sunday Night Football "flex schedule" games
Week	Planned game	Selected game	Ref.
11	Packers at Giants	Chiefs at Broncos
12	Broncos at Patriots
13	Giants at Redskins
14	Falcons at Packers	Panthers at Saints
15	Bengals at Steelers
16	Patriots at Ravens	Bears at Eagles
17	no game scheduled	Eagles at Cowboys

2014

When the 2014 NFL schedule was released on April 23, it placed a Sunday night game (Green Bay Packers at New Orleans Saints) against a World Series game for the fifth straight year. Starting with this season, NBC was permitted to begin flexing games as soon as Week 5, with the restriction that no more than two games may be flexed between Weeks 5 and 10. The final Sunday night of the season – December 28, 2014 – likewise was a flex game; the slot was left vacant when the schedule was released, as been the practice of the past six seasons. The game's teams (and, by extension, its location) was announced after most week 16 games it was filled by the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers. Country/pop superstar Carrie Underwood continued her role as the performer of the Sunday Night Football opener.

On November 11, 2014, the NFL announced that the November 16 game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants game would air as scheduled, even though the Detroit Lions-New England Patriots game was considered to be a better matchup, citing that the Cowboys are one of the most popular NFL teams playing in the country's largest media market.

For the first time since flexed scheduling went into effect, no Sunday night games were flexed during the season other than Week 17 (where the matchup is usually determined as late as six days prior to the Sunday of Week 17).

On December 21, 2014, the NFL announced that the rivalry game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals would be flexed into the Week 17 Sunday Night Football slot, with the winner clinching the AFC North. The league considered flexing the Atlanta Falcons-Carolina Panthers game into the Sunday night slot as it decided the NFC South while the loser would be eliminated, but the division being historically weak (it was assured to have a division winner with a losing record by the end of Week 16), combined with the Steelers being a major draw, led to the league's decision. With the Steelers and Bengals clinching a playoff spot in Week 16, it also marked the first time since the NFL scheduled all-intradivisional matchups in Week 17 in 2010 that a game flexed to the Week 17 slot featured at least one team (in this case both) that was already in the playoffs. It was later reported by Sports Illustrated columnist Peter King that the league chose to flex the Steelers-Bengals game because CBS has not had a game flexed in the Week 17 slot since 2009; the aforementioned Falcons-Panthers matchup was later flexed to CBS as part of the new television contract that allows intraconference matchups to be flexed between CBS and Fox.

2015

The 2015 schedule was released on April 21, 2015. The defending Super Bowl champions the New England Patriots will face the Pittsburgh Steelers during the NFL Opening Kickoff Game on Thursday, September 10, 2015. Other notable games include the Seattle Seahawks versus the Green Bay Packers (Week 2) and the New England Patriots versus the Indianapolis Colts (Week 6) in a rematch of their respective conference championship games. It will also place a Sunday night game (Green Bay Packers at Denver Broncos) against a world series game for the sixth straight year. The final sunday night game of the season – Sunday January 3, 2016 – likewise is a flex game the slot was left blank when the schedule came out and has been the practice over the past seven years.

2015 schedule

Preseason

Date	Kickoff (ET)	Visiting team	Final score	Host team	Game site
August 9	8:05 p.m.	Pittsburgh Steelers		Minnesota Vikings	Fawcett Stadium
August 30	8:30 p.m.	Arizona Cardinals		Oakland Raiders	O.co Coliseum

Regular season

Week	Date	Kickoff (ET)	Visiting team	Final score	Host team	Game site
1	September 10 (Thur.)	8:30 p.m.	Pittsburgh Steelers		New England Patriots	Gillette Stadium
	September 13	8:30 p.m.	New York Giants		Dallas Cowboys	AT&T Stadium
2	September 20	8:30 p.m.	Green Bay Packers		Seattle Seahawks	CenturyLink Field
3	September 27	8:30 p.m.	Denver Broncos		Detroit Lions	Ford Field
4	October 4	8:30 p.m.	Dallas Cowboys		New Orleans Saints	Mercedes-Benz Superdome
5	October 11	8:30 p.m.	San Francisco 49ers		New York Giants	MetLife Stadium
6	October 18	8:30 p.m.	New England Patriots		Indianapolis Colts	Lucas Oil Stadium
7	October 25	8:30 p.m.	Philadelphia Eagles		Carolina Panthers	Bank of America Stadium
8	November 1	8:30 p.m.	Green Bay Packers		Denver Broncos	Sports Authority Field at Mile High
9	November 8	8:30 p.m.	Philadelphia Eagles		Dallas Cowboys	AT&T Stadium
10	November 15	8:30 p.m.	Arizona Cardinals		Seattle Seahawks	CenturyLink Field
11	November 22	8:30 p.m.	Kansas City Chiefs		San Diego Chargers	Qualcomm Stadium
12	November 26 (Thur.)	8:30 p.m.	Chicago Bears		Green Bay Packers	Lambeau Field
	November 29	8:30 p.m.	New England Patriots		Denver Broncos	Sports Authority Field at Mile High
13	December 6	8:30 p.m.	Indianapolis Colts		Pittsburgh Steelers	Heinz Field
14	December 13	8:30 p.m.	Seattle Seahawks		Baltimore Ravens	M&T Bank Stadium
15	December 20	8:30 p.m.	Cincinnati Bengals		San Francisco 49ers	Levi's Stadium
16	December 27	8:30 p.m.	Pittsburgh Steelers		Baltimore Ravens	M&T Bank Stadium
17	January 3	8:30 p.m.	TBD		TBD	TBD

Notes

• All dates are on Sunday unless indicated otherwise.
• The teams and game sites from Weeks 5–16 are subject to change as a result of flexible scheduling, for the exception of the Chicago Bears–Green Bay Packers game in Week 12, which occurs on Thanksgiving.
• The teams and game site for Week 17 will determined at the end of Week 16.

Similarities to ABC's NFL coverage

Much of NBC's Sunday Night Football production crew comes from ABC/ESPN, including Fred Gaudelli and Drew Esocoff (who respectively serve as producer and director of the broadcasts), as ESPN moved most of its previous Sunday night crew over to Monday Night Football. Michaels, Madden and Kremer also came to NBC directly from ABC/ESPN, and Football Night in America's Sterling Sharpe was a member of ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown in recent years (calling several Sunday night games for the network in 2005). With regard to using ABC/ESPN talent, NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said, "I was not interested in the quote, unquote vanity of starting anew ... There's not a lot of room for experimentation."

In addition, NBC has the starters introduce themselves, much as ABC did in the last few years of its run, and the short post-game show (done to allow affiliates to start their late newscasts) follows a similar format to ABC's.

Michaels and Madden ended each telecast in the 2007 and 2008 NFL seasons by selecting an MVP for that night's game to receive the Horse Trailer award (with a photo of each recipient being affixed to the side of a production truck, also known as a "horse trailer"). This concept originated from Madden's days with the NFL on CBS, where he invented the similar "Turkey Leg Award" for the Thanksgiving Day game in 1989 (he later took the concept to Fox, then expanded it to every game of the year with the Horse Trailer Award when he joined ABC in 2002). In the 2006 season, the MVP concept was modified slightly, where the game's MVP was called the "Rock Star of the Game" and had his photo placed on a display at the "Top of the Rock" observation deck atop the GE Building, NBC's New York headquarters, in New York. When Madden retired following Super Bowl XLIII, the Horse Trailer Player of the Game award was discontinued.

Theme music

Academy Award winner John Williams composed the instrumental theme music for Sunday Night Football. For Super Bowl XLIII, NBC commissioned Joel Beckerman of Man Made Music to create new instrumental cues adding techno and rock elements around the main brass melody. These cues replaced the original Williams arrangements full-time at the start of the 2009 season. Singer Pink sang the theme song for the broadcast in 2006, a reworking of the Joan Jett song "I Hate Myself for Loving You" retitled "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night". Several alternative versions were used throughout the season, substituting different lyrics when appropriate (such as "Waiting All Year For Opening Night").

In 2007, country singer Faith Hill replaced Pink as the singer of the opening theme, and a new arrangement of the Joan Jett song coincided with her debut. The Faith Hill intro, in particular, was not without criticism and parody. The intro was lampooned in the October 9, 2010 episode of Saturday Night Live, host Jane Lynch as Hill (with Jason Sudeikis as Al Michaels and Bill Hader as Cris Collinsworth). In the 30 Rock episode "Season 4", the character of Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) sings what appears to be an allusion to the Faith Hill intro for NBC's fictional Tennis Night in America program. In the South Park episode entitled "Faith Hilling", Eric Cartman sings an obvious spoof of Hill's actual Sunday Night Football song. On April 15, 2013, Hill announced that she would no longer sing the intro song for Sunday Night Football.

The use of the reworked Joan Jett song is another similarity to ABC's Monday Night Football coverage. From 1989 to 2011, Hank Williams, Jr. opened MNF with a reworking of his song "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" entitled "All My Rowdy Friends Are Back for Monday Night (Are You Ready for Some Football?)".

On October 7, 2012, the Soul Rebels Brass Band had a featured performance on Sunday Night Football, performing the show's theme song.

It was announced May 7, 2013, that Carrie Underwood would take over singing the theme song.

Show opening

The song is at the centerpiece of the opening montage, which has changed several times over the years. Williams' music has always played in the background over the official welcome after the opening is completed and the teams take the field.

2006

For the first season, Pink appeared to sing from the top of a skyscraper as a helicopter zoomed down on a city skyline with enlarged players Shaun Alexander, LaDainian Tomlinson and Tom Brady and the field, the results of computer-generated imagery. A television monitor, which resembles the monitor at Times Square leased at the time by NBC, showed game preview footage and opening credits.

2007

Faith Hill, who replaced Pink as the theme song's performer, sang on a stage while some of the key players in the game and announcers Al Michaels and John Madden arrived in limousines and walk on a red carpet as they head to a simulated theater. The marquee outside the theater showed the logo of then-official NFL communications partner Sprint, which paid a product placement fee, and one of the "bystanders" recorded the red carpet scene on a Sprint camera phone. Access Hollywood co-hosts Shaun Robinson and Tony Potts also appeared in the opening. In addition, some of the lyrics were changed slightly and the musical arrangement tilts toward country more than rock, to reflect the change in singers.

2008

The 2008 opening, which debuted on September 7, takes place in a stadium. Hill performs surrounded by video screens with simulated game action, and the song ends with a computer-generated fireworks display. Once again, a Sprint camera phone is used, this time by a fan. Among the spectators are NFL stars Ray Lewis and Antonio Gates. Again, there were some lyrics changes, among them was the substitution of the lyrics "last one standing better turn out the lights."

Super Bowl XLIII

A special intro sequence was used for Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009. Hill performs with CGI blue neon lights in the settings of the background and at the end of the video, the Vince Lombardi Trophy enters through pouring water, showing the trophy in front of the city of Tampa (the host city of Super Bowl XLIII).

2009

For 2009, Faith Hill appears in the intro sequence performed in a closed-studio setting, surrounded by video monitors, neon lights and a message board that displayed the names of the production staff. Sprint returned for more product placement, as a branded cell phone appeared to give an alert that the game was about to start.

2010

Faith Hill was seen in front of a Ford Mustang convertible as the song began, overlooking a bluff; the scene was taped in the Hollywood Hills in Southern California. A number of NFL stars appeared in front of various landmarks throughout the United States, including Peyton Manning at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Eli Manning at Times Square, Desean Jackson at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Larry Fitzgerald in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and Drew Brees on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Hill herself drove down a road with some simulated billboards with the opening credits and a product placement ad for Verizon (which replaced Sprint as the league's telecommunications sponsor) and was also seen at the Washington Monument. Some of the lyrics changed yet again; for example, the opening line once again asked, "Alright, Sunday night, where are you?" Hill gathered with the NFL stars on a CG football field inside a stadium at the end of the video. In Week 16, the introduction did not air due to the game moving to Tuesday night and time constraints.

2011

There were a few significant changes from the previous year, including Faith Hill (who herself returned for her fifth year as part of the telecast's opening) arriving in a motorcycle. In addition, Verizon returned for more product placement. Most of the scenes, including the NFL stars' appearances in front of various landmarks throughout the U.S. and Hill at the Washington Monument (with the minor difference being her wardrobe), were repeated from 2010, however several new NFL stars appeared, including Adrian Peterson and Brian Urlacher; in the last few seconds of the sequence, all of them gather on a computer-generated football field. In another notable change, the opening credits were dropped for the season. J. Ivy, a spoken word poet from Chicago who has worked with Kanye West and Jay-Z, also appears during the opening.

Super Bowl XLVI

Faith Hill performed another special Super Bowl version of the song at the start of the network's broadcast of Super Bowl XLVI on February 5, 2012. With computer-generated technology, this was filmed in a closed-studio setting, with Hill surrounded by video screens showing clips from past Super Bowls. A Verizon smartphone (product placement) was seen at the beginning of the video sequence.

2012

Some changes were made to the show's opening for the 2012 season, which included Faith Hill walking through the tunnel towards the stage. She then performs with a rock band in front of a live audience, with video screens in the background. Shortly after the start of the song, guests appeared on the CG video screens each week (such as three of the judges from The Voice for Week 1 and the Chicago Fire Department for Week 3) singing the line "We want it too!". The live audience uses their smartphones to form the Verizon logo. NFL stars are also seen going through the tunnel with moving CG images of city landmarks, players and team logos. Initially, the stars presented were Aaron Rodgers (Packers), Clay Matthews (Packers), Ray Lewis (Ravens), Patrick Willis (49ers), Jimmy Graham (Saints), DeMarcus Ware (Cowboys), Calvin Johnson (Lions), Larry Fitzgerald (Cardinals), Jared Allen (Vikings), Rob Gronkowski (Patriots), Darrelle Revis (Jets) and Eli Manning (Giants). The opening itself was remixed with Nick Mangold (Jets) and LeSean McCoy (Eagles) filling in for Ray Lewis and Darrelle Revis. The opening title sequence was not used at the start of the NBC Sunday Night Football Thanksgiving Special broadcast (November 22, 2012), nor on December 16, 2012, two days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

2013

Carrie Underwood became the performer for the theme song for the 2013 season, replacing Faith Hill. Her intro debuted on September 8, with the theme arrangement itself tilted even more towards country to reflect the change in singers. In this animation sequence, Underwood performs on stage inside a computer-generated stadium. Verizon also returned for more product placement. Some of the NFL stars appearing in this opening include Andrew Luck (Colts), Eli Manning (Giants), Peyton Manning (Broncos), Clay Matthews (Packers) and J.J. Watt (Texans). The animation ends with the NBC Sunday Night Football logo written in laser lighting. As was the case the previous year, the opening graphic sequence was not used at the start of the Sunday Night Football on Thanksgiving Night broadcast on November 28, 2013.

2014

Underwood continued her role as Sunday Night Football's show opener, which debuted on September 7. Once again, Verizon returned to provide product placement. Some of the NFL stars that are represented in the opening are Phillip Rivers (Chargers), Luke Kuechly (Panthers), DeMarcus Ware (Broncos), Clay Matthews (Packers), Brandon Marshall (Bears), Jimmy Graham (Saints), LeSean McCoy (Eagles) and Colin Kaepernick (49ers). This time, Underwood is seen performing on a computer-generated stage. In another major tweak, the lyrics toward the end of the song changed, with the commentators' first names (Al & Cris) being replaced with "come on along with the best on TV." As was the case of the previous two years, the opening sequence was not used for the start of the Sunday Night Football on Thanksgiving Night broadcast on November 27, 2014.

Super Bowl XLIX

Carrie Underwood performed a special Super Bowl version of the song at the start of the network's broadcast of Super Bowl XLIX on February 1, 2015.

Graphics

The scoring banner used from 2006 to 2008.

The graphics, logos and scoreboard for NBC's Sunday Night Football telecasts were designed by Troika Design Group, along with the city skyline graphics used in the introductions to both Football Night in America and the games proper. It was effectively the first time the network used permanent time/score boxes throughout any of their sports broadcasts outside of Olympic Games broadcasts, where permanent scoring displays were compulsory; prior to 2006, the network continued the previous mode of presenting the scores on-screen for a short time every few minutes or so, a method common in American sports broadcasting until Fox introduced constant scoring displays in 1994.

NBC's game telecasts use the same type of horizontal bottom-screen scoreboard that Monday Night Football used in the 2005 NFL season (and was subsequently used by ABC Sports until its rebranding in August 2006). After its debut, the graphics also began to be phased in across other NBC Sports properties, including its coverage of Notre Dame football and the annual Bayou Classic game (which uses exactly the same graphics used on SNF broadcasts), National Hockey League coverage (which uses the SNF graphics but with a scoreboard on the top), and tennis and golf (which use a modified version influenced by the look, but with bolder text for readability purposes). NBC's Olympics coverage continues to use a different package mixed between NBC's graphics and those of the IOC's world feed. The NBC football graphics are also used, in some form or another, on certain locally produced preseason telecasts carried by NBC owned-and-operated stations and affiliates that serve as flagship outlets for NFL teams (such as New York Giants preseason games on WNBC, and the Minnesota Vikings on KARE-TV).

The scoring banner used from 2009 to 2011 (regular season).

NBC's bottom-line scoring banner underwent a significant revamp for the 2009 season, although it debuted during the network's Super Bowl XLIII coverage on February 1, 2009. The changes included presenting downs and yardage in a feather derived from NBC's iconic peacock logo in the colors of the team currently on offense. In addition, when a team scores a touchdown, the banner will open, the team's logo and initials will slide to the left of the banner and "TOUCHDOWN" is displayed in the remainder of the banner. After a few moments, the banner will show the drive information. Then the banner returns to normal and show the change in the team's score. Additionally (beginning with Week 9), timeout indicators were added below each team's respective scores. For the 2010 season, the timeout indicators were changed to three white trapezoids below the team abbreviations, and the play clock was moved from above the team in possession of the football to above the game clock (for the final two minutes of regulation and if necessary, overtime). The down markers also changed in 2010, which is now featuring the team logo next to the down marker.

The scoring banner used from 2012 to 2014, starting with the 2011 NFL Wild Card playoffs to Week 17 of the 2014 NFL regular season. Notice the addition of timeout indicators at the bottom, and the cleaner and larger looking font in the team's initials.

On January 2, 2012, during the NHL Winter Classic (with a sneak two days before during a Notre Dame hockey game on Versus), the graphics of all of NBC Sports' productions were updated to a new package intended to unify the graphical image between both the network and the rebranded NBC Sports Network, which relaunched that same day. Subsequently, on Wild Card Saturday (January 7), the network's NFL presentation was changed to the new graphical styling to match the style and layout of the then-recently christened NBC Sports Network. Most of the banner's styling remains the same, but with a cleaner and larger font for readability and a more neutral NBC logo to the left rather than the "aggressive peacock" used since 2006. Elements such as team and individual player stats take on team colors (main color as the background, secondary color as the accent), and the down/yardage/possession graphic also takes on team coloring, with neutral team comparison stats and other elements having a gold/blue/black coloring. Additionally, the play clock appeared directly above the game clock throughout the entire game.

Beginning with the 2014 Hall of Fame Game on August 3, 2014, the play clock was moved to the right side, next to the down/yardage graphic, of the bottom-screen score banner, which itself remained in the 4:3 safe area. In addition, beginning with the NFL Kickoff Special on September 4, 2014, an electronic gray-colored line-of-scrimmage marker was added to the virtual on-field graphic. NBC's Sunday Night Football was also the last of the five NFL broadcast partners to switch to a full 16:9 letterbox presentation on its 4:3 standard-definition feed, a downscaled version of the HD feed's native 16:9 format (utilizing the Active Format Description #10 flag), following Fox (2010), ESPN's Monday Night Football (2011), NFL Network's Thursday Night Football (2012) and CBS (2013). Some of the graphics were also repositioned.

On January 3, 2015, during the Wild Card playoffs, NBC Sports debuted a revamped graphics package for its NFL coverage on Wild Card Saturday Night, which is formatted for the 16:9 letterbox presentation. The package was part of a new graphics set introduced across NBC Sports' properties on January 1, 2015, during its coverage of the Premier League and the 2015 NHL Winter Classic.

International broadcasts

In Canada, Sunday Night Football telecasts are televised live on TSN, using the NBC feed (despite not being an over-the-air channel, it is simsubbed by Bell TV and cable providers which carry feeds from the service). In the United Kingdom, the telecasts air live on Channel 4 carrying the NBC branding and commentators during games; it is hosted by Nat Coombs with Mike Carlson providing analysis. In Australia, SNF is broadcast live on 7mate, with the games airing early on Monday afternoon due to the country being located a day ahead of the United States near the eastern fringe of the International Date Line.

In Brazil, SNF is broadcast on ESPN Brasil, with the original English audio available as a separate feed via second audio program. Brazilian Portuguese audio is hosted by Everaldo Marques on play-by-play and Paulo Antunes as color commentator; Rômulo Mendonça fills in occasionally as play-by-play and Paulo Mancha or Antony Curti as color commentator.

The Sunday Night Football telecasts are also aired in Latin America, ESPN Latin America, with Álvaro Martín as play-by-play announcer and Raúl Allegre providing color commentary.

Nielsen ratings

Season	Total viewers (in millions)	Rating	Share
2006	17.5	11.0	18
2007	16.0	10.0	16
2008	16.6	10.2	16
2009	19.4	11.7	19
2010	21.8	13.0	21
2011	21.5	12.9	20
2012	21.4	12.8	20
2013	21.495 (game telecasts) 15.599 (pre-kick)	12.8	21
2014	21.3	12.5	21

Through the first four weeks of the 2010 NFL season, Sunday Night Football had an average total viewership of 22.9 million viewers, the most for the first four weeks of a prime time NFL package in 14 years (since ABC earned a 24.0 million average viewership in 1996 on four broadcasts of Monday Night Football).

The Washington Redskins-Dallas Cowboys game on January 14, 2013 was the highest-rated Sunday Night Football broadcast ever, earning 30.426 million viewers (22.074 million during the period from 8:31 to 11:25 p.m. Eastern Time) and a household rating of 12.7. This also made it the most watched regular-season primetime game in 16 years, since a November 18, 1996 Monday Night Football game on ABC between the Green Bay Packers and the Cowboys (which was watched by 31.5 million viewers).

For the 2013 season, Sunday Night Football averaged 21.9 million viewers (for 15 broadcasts, as well as the Turkey Bowl) in 2013, up 5% versus its viewership in 2012, and an increase of 3% with a 12.9 household rating. In terms of sheer reach, this marked the highest average viewership for an NFL prime time package since 1996. Its highest rated game telecast was the Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts on October 20, 2013, which was watched by 26.9 million viewers.

See also

• Flexible scheduling
• NFL on NBC
• Monday Night Football
• ESPN Sunday Night Football
• TNT Sunday Night Football
• Sunday Night Football (radio)
• Thursday Night Football
• NFL on CBS
• Fox NFL

External links

Official sites

• Official website
• NBC Sunday Night Football All Access

Others

• NBC Sunday Night Football at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• New NBC talking heads have history across NFL telecasts
• NBC a much happier NFL TV Partner – Sports Business News October 27, 2006
• Sunday Night Football NFLTV