title: NME

text: In April 1994, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was found dead, a story which affected not only his fans and readers of the "NME", but would see a massive change in British music. Grunge was about to be replaced by Britpop, a new genre influenced by 1960s British music and culture. The term was coined by "NME" after the band Blur released their album "Parklife" in the month of Cobain's death. Britpop began to fill the musical and cultural void left after Cobain's demise, and with Blur's success and the rise of a new group from Manchester called Oasis, Britpop would continue its rise for the rest of 1994. By the end of the year, Blur and Oasis were the two biggest bands in the UK, and sales of the "NME" were increasing thanks to the Britpop effect. In 1995, "NME" covered these new bands, many of whom played the "NME Stage" at that year's Glastonbury Festival, where the paper had been sponsoring the second stage at the festival since 1993. This would be its last year sponsoring the stage; subsequently, the stage would be known as the 'Other Stage'.


title: NME

text: In August 1995, Blur and Oasis planned to release singles on the same day in a mass of media publicity. Steve Sutherland put the story on the front page of the paper, and was criticised for playing up the duel between the bands. Blur won the "race" for the top of the charts, and the resulting fallout from the publicity led to the paper enjoying increased sales during the 1990s as Britpop became the dominant genre. After this peak, the paper experienced a slow decline as Britpop burned itself out fairly rapidly over the next few years. This left the paper directionless again, and attempts to embrace the rise of DJ culture in the late 1990s only led to the paper being criticised for not supporting rock or indie music. The paper did attempt to return to its highly politicised 1980s incarnation by running a cover story in March 1998 condemning Tony Blair, who had previously associated himself with Britpop bands such as Oasis, and this received a certain level of attention in the wider media.


title: NME

text: Sutherland did attempt to cover newer bands, but a 1998 cover feature on the Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor saw the paper dip to a sales low, and Sutherland later stated in his weekly editorial that he regretted putting them on the cover. For many, this was seen as an affront to the principles of the paper, and sales reached a low point at the turn of the millennium. From the issue of 21 March 1999, the paper was no longer printed on newsprint, and more recently, it has shifted to tabloid size with glossy colour covers.


title: NME

text: In 2000, Steve Sutherland left to become brand director of the "NME", and was replaced as editor by 26-year-old "Melody Maker" writer Ben Knowles. In the same year, "Melody Maker" officially merged with the "NME", and many speculated the "NME" would be next to close, as the weekly music-magazine market was shrinking - the monthly magazine "Select", which had thrived especially during the Britpop era, was closed down within a week of "Melody Maker". In the early 2000s, the "NME" also attempted somewhat to broaden its coverage again, running cover stories on hip-hop acts such as Jay-Z and Missy Elliott, electronic musician Aphex Twin, "Popstars" winners Hear'say, and R&B groups such as Destiny's Child. However, as in the 1980s, these proved unpopular with much of the paper's readership, and were soon dropped. In 2001, the "NME" reasserted its position as an influence in new music, and helped to introduce bands including the Strokes, the Vines, and the White Stripes.


title: NME

text: In 2002, Conor McNicholas was appointed editor, with a new wave of photographers including Dean Chalkley, Andrew Kendall, James Looker, and Pieter Van Hattem, and a high turnover of young writers. It focused on new British bands such as the Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, and the Kaiser Chiefs, which had emerged as indie music continued to grow in commercial success. Later, Arctic Monkeys became the standard-bearers of the post-Libertines crop of indie bands, being both successfully championed by the "NME" and receiving widespread commercial and critical success.


title: NME

text: In December 2005, accusations were made that the "NME" end-of-year poll had been edited for commercial and political reasons. These criticisms were rebutted by McNicholas, who claimed that webzine Londonist.com had got hold of an early draft of the poll.


title: NME

text: In October 2006, "NME" launched an Irish version of the magazine called "NME Ireland". This coincided with the launch of Club NME in Dublin. Dublin-based band Humanzi was first to appear on the cover of NME Ireland. The Irish edition of the magazine could not compete with local competitors such as "Hot Press" therefore it was discontinued after its fourth issue in February 2007.


title: NME

text: After the 2008 NME Award nominations, Caroline Sullivan of "The Guardian" criticised the magazine's lack of diversity, saying:


title: NME

text: In May 2008, the magazine received a redesign aimed at an older readership with a more authoritative tone. The first issue of the redesign featured a free seven-inch Coldplay vinyl single.


title: NME

text: Krissi Murison was appointed editor in June 2009, launching a new redesigned NME in April 2010. The issue had 10 different covers, highlighting the broader range of music the magazine would cover, and featured Jack White, Florence and the Machine, LCD Soundsystem, Rihanna, Kasabian, Laura Marling, Foals, M.I.A., Biffy Clyro and Magnetic Man.


title: NME

text: Murison was replaced as editor in July 2012 by Mike Williams, who had previously been the magazine's deputy. Williams is now Editor in Chief, with full responsibility for NME's cross platform output. Under Williams, NME has launched the NME Daily app, a new career focussed event called Lifehacks, and successfully relaunched both NME magazine and NME's website, NME.com.


title: NME

text: In 2013, "NME's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" was criticized by the media. "The Guardian" pointed out that Features Editor Laura Snapes included, in her top 5 "greatest albums of all time", four albums from the same band which was The National.Consequence of Sound similarly observed that "if Laura Snapes had her wish, the top four would all be The National albums".


title: NME

text: In February 2015, it was reported that the "NME" was in discussions about removing the cover price and becoming a free publication. This was confirmed in July 2015.


title: NME

text: The free NME launched on 18 September 2015, with Rihanna on the cover. Distributed nationwide via universities, retail stores and the transport network, the first circulation numbers published in February 2016 of 307, 217 copies per week were the highest in the brand's history. Since relaunch the magazine has featured a number of high-profile international pop stars on the cover such as Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Kanye West and Green Day alongside emerging talent like Zara Larsson, Years & Years, Lady Leshurr and Christine and the Queens.


title: NME

text: The free, pop-oriented NME magazine was praised for reconnecting NME with its target audience, and was awarded a silver at the 2016 Professional Publishers Association Awards for its historic first-ever cover as a free title, featuring Rihanna. Editor in Chief Mike Williams received the Editor Of The Year Award at the BSME Awards 2016, the judges stating that under Williams' leadership, NME had "bounced back from an uncertain future and established itself confidently and creatively in a new market."


title: NME

text: In March 2018, "The Guardian" reported that the NME was to cease publication in print after 66 years. The online publication would continue.


title: NME

text: In 2019, TI Media, the successor to IPC, sold "NME" and "Uncut" to Singaporean company BandLab Technologies.


title: NME

text: In 2021, the "NME" became the main brand for the music publishing division of Caldecott Music Group, when BandLab Technologies was reorganised. As well as publishing print magazines in the United Kingdom and Australia, NME Networks is responsible for a trio of online music publications and the main NME.com website, which now also has an area devoted to the Asian music scene and acts such as


title: NME

text: The Itchyworms, SEVENTEEN, Voice Of Baceprot, Sponge Cola and I Belong To The Zoo from countries such as South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia.


title: NME

text: In December 2019, BandLab Technologies announced the launch of NME Australia. Initially a website only, new interviews were given covers and numbered as issues, with Amyl & The Sniffers on the inaugural cover. At the time BandLab announced the Australian edition would not have a local editor, and would instead be controlled by a team in London and Singapore, with content from Australian contributors.


title: NME

text: A print edition was announced in April 2020, beginning with issue #5, following their online covers numbering. Tash Sultana became the first cover artist for the print edition, which have gone on to feature artists such as The Avalanches, Jaguar Jonze, Tkay Maidza, and Lorde on future covers.


title: NME

text: In 1996, the "NME" launched its website NME.com under the stewardship of editor Steve Sutherland and publisher Robert Tame. Its first editor was Brendan Fitzgerald. Later, Anthony Thornton redesigned the site, focusing on music news. In November 1999, the site hosted the UK's first webcast, of Suede "Live in Japan". In 2001, the site gave away a free MP3 of the Strokes' single "Last Nite" a week before its release.


title: NME

text: The website was awarded Online Magazine of the Year in 1999 and 2001; Anthony Thornton was awarded Website Editor of the Year on three occasions – 2001 and 2002 (British Society of Magazine Editors) and 2002 (Periodical Publishers Association).


title: NME

text: In 2004, Ben Perreau joined NME.com as the website's third editor. He relaunched and redeveloped the title in September 2005 and the focus was migrated towards video, audio and the wider music community. It was awarded Best Music Website at the Record of the Day awards in October 2005. In 2006, it was awarded the BT Digital Music Award for Best Music Magazine and the first chairman's Award from the Association of Online Publishers awarded by the chairman Simon Waldman in recognition of its pioneering role in its 10-year history.


title: NME

text: In October 2007, David Moynihan joined as the website's fourth editor. In 2008, the site won the BT Digital Music Award for Best Music Magazine, plus the Association of Online Publishers' Best Editorial Team Award, the British Society of Magazine Editors Website Editor of the Year and the Record of the Day Award for Best Music Website. In June 2009, NME.com won the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) award for Interactive Consumer Magazine of the Year. In 2010, it won both the AOP and PPA website of the year award. That same year, NME.com expanded its coverage to include movies and TV as well as music.


title: NME

text: Luke Lewis took over as editor of NME.com in March 2011, bringing a new focus on video content and user engagement, bringing comments to the fore and introducing user ratings on reviews. In 2011, NME.com had over 7 million monthly unique users (source: Omniture SiteCatalyst, 2011).


title: NME

text: In May 2011, NME.com launched NMEVideo.com, a sister site dedicated to video, and released the NME Festivals smartphone app. Sponsored by BlackBerry, it featured line-ups, stage times, photo galleries and backstage video interviews, and was downloaded 30,000 times. The following month, NME launched its first iPad app, dedicated to Jack White.


title: NME

text: In September 2011, NME.com organised and live-blogged a real-time Twitter listening party of Nirvana's 1991 album "Nevermind" to mark that album's 20th anniversary. The site also launched a new series of self-produced band documentary films, entitled The Ultimate Guide.


title: NME

text: In October 2011, the site celebrated its 15th birthday by publishing a list of the 150 best tracks of NME.com's lifetime. The number one song was Radiohead's "Paranoid Android".


title: NME

text: In 2015, NME appointed Charlotte Gunn as digital editor, replacing Greg Cochrane. Under Gunn, NME.com doubled in size and with a focus on social and video built a sustainable future as an online only brand. Gunn was appointed Editor in March 2018, after the closure of the weekly print magazine, and left the post in February 2020.


title: NME

text: In 2020, NME.com began its Gaming channel. NME Networks' Chief Operating and Commercial Officer Holly Bishop stated that it would include "long reads, hero content, franchises, reviews and interactive streams".


title: NME

text: NME Awards is an awards show held every year to celebrate the best new music of the past year. The nominations and eventual winners are voted for by the readers of the magazine. The 2022 ceremony, branded as the BandLab NME Awards 2022, took place on 2 March 2022 at the O2 Academy Brixton.


title: NME

text: In 2002, the "NME" started publishing a series of themed magazines reprinting vintage articles, interviews and reviews from its archives. The magazine special editions were called "NME Originals", with some featuring articles from other music titles owned by IPC, including "Melody Maker", "Rave" and "Uncut" magazines. Notable issues so far have featured Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead, the Beatles, punk rock, gothic rock, Britpop, the Rolling Stones, mod, Nirvana, and the solo years of the Beatles. The series has had several editors, the most prominent of whom have been Steve Sutherland and Chris Hunt. The most recent issue of NME Originals was published in 2005, as these themed archive magazines have been issued under the "Uncut" associated titles "The Ultimate Music Guide" and "Ultimate Genre Guide" instead.


title: NME

text: In December 2021, BandLab Technologies became Caldecott Music Group (CMG) with the publisher's former name now being used for CMG's music technology division. The "NME" brand was put under a new division called NME Networks, which also includes "Uncut" magazine (and its spin-offs), Guitar.com, and "MusicTech".


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: Missing white woman syndrome is a term which is used by social scientists and media commentators in reference to the media coverage, especially on television, of missing-person cases involving young, attractive, white, upper middle class women or girls compared to the relative lack of attention towards missing women who were not white, of lower social classes, or of missing men or boys. Although the term was coined in the context of missing-person cases, it is sometimes used of coverage of other violent crimes. The phenomenon has been highlighted in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and other predominantly white countries.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: American news anchor Gwen Ifill is widely considered the originator of the phrase. Charlton McIlwain defined the syndrome as "white women occupying a privileged role as violent crime victims in news media reporting", and posited that missing white woman syndrome functions as a type of racial hierarchy in the cultural imagery of the US. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva categorized the racial component of missing white woman syndrome as a "form of racial grammar, through which white supremacy is normalized by implicit, or even invisible standards".


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: The phenomenon has led to a number of tough on crime measures, mainly on the political right, that were named for white women who disappeared and were subsequently found harmed. In addition to race and class, factors such as supposed attractiveness, body size, and youthfulness have been identified as unfair criteria in the determination of newsworthiness in coverage of missing women. News coverage of missing black women was more likely to focus on the victim's problems, such as abusive boyfriends, criminal history, or drug addiction, while coverage of white women often tended to focus on their roles as mothers, daughters, students, and contributors to their communities.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: American news anchor Gwen Ifill is credited with originating the phrase at the Unity: Journalists of Color journalism conference in 2004. At the conference, she said "I call it the missing white woman search syndrome. If there is a missing white woman you're going to cover that every day."


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: In 2003, the "San Francisco Chronicle" published an article detailing the disparity between the coverage of the Laci Peterson case, and that of Evelyn Hernandez, a Hispanic woman – both of whom disappeared in 2002.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: A report that aired on CNN in 2006 noted the differences in the level of media coverage given to missing white women (such as Laci Peterson and Natalee Holloway), when compared to the level of coverage given to LaToyia Figueroa, a pregnant black Hispanic woman. Figueroa disappeared in Philadelphia in 2005, the same year Holloway disappeared.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: A 2010 study of news coverage of missing children found that black missing children cases were significantly underrepresented, when compared to national statistics. Missing black girls were significantly underrepresented in national news reporting. The coverage of death cases for black boys was significantly greater than expected. Coverage of non-black female kidnapping cases was greater than expected. A subsequent study found that children from minority groups, especially black children, were more likely to remain missing for longer periods of time.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: A 2013 study that addressed media coverage of missing children, focusing on gender, but not race, found that "the results revealed that gender and age play only a minor role in deciding which abduction incidents are covered by newspapers, as well as the extent to which they are reported on. Specifically, newspapers dedicated more words to female victims than male victims, and reported more on younger children (aged 11 and under) than older children (aged 12 and over) when they were the victim of a nonfamily abduction."


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: In 2015, a report was published that re-examined the results from Min and Feaster's 2010 study about media coverage of missing children and confirmed that the media coverage of white missing persons was disproportionate compared to non-whites; but found that the coverage of females was not as biased as the 2010 study concluded.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: In 2016, Zach Sommers, a sociologist at Northwestern University, published a study explaining that while there is a sizable body of research that shows that white people are more likely than people of color to appear in news coverage as victims of violent crime, there is relatively little when it comes to missing persons cases. Sommers cross-referenced the missing persons coverage of four national and regional media outlets against the FBI's missing persons database and found that black people were disproportionately less likely to appear in the news when compared to their rates of missingness; he also found that among those missing persons who appeared in the news, the coverage was much more intense (i.e., more articles were written) for white women and girls than other demographic groups.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: Professor Eduardo Bonilla-Silva theorised that the subtle standard of placing a premium on white lives in the news helps to maintain and reinforce a racial hierarchy with whites at the top. For example, black women are members of both a marginalized racial group and a marginalized gender group. Crucially, though, black women have an "intersectional experience [that] is greater than the sum of racism and sexism". In other words, like white women, black women are subject to sexism, but the form of that sexism differs for black women because of the compounding effects of racial discrimination; with missing white woman syndrome being a pertinent manifestation of this social phenomenon. Some sociologists have argued that the tone of media coverage for black female victims differs markedly from coverage of white female victims in that the former are more likely to be blamed for purportedly putting themselves in harm's way, either knowingly or unknowingly. Victim blaming in this context reinforces the notion that black female victims are not only less innocent, but also less worthy of rescue relative to white women. Other observers note the lack of publicity given to black female victims of police brutality in news coverage, attributing the silence to a tradition of "sexism and patriarchy" in American society.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: Kym Pasqualini, president of the National Center for Missing Adults, observed that media outlets tend to focus on "damsels in distress"—typically, affluent young white women and teenagers.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: In a 2016 "Esquire" article about the disappearance of Tiffany Whitton, journalist Tom Junod observed that white women of lower social status, such as Whitton, a 26-year-old unemployed drug addict who was on parole, do not get much media attention, as "media outlets are ruthlessly selective, and they tend to prefer women who are white, pretty, and, above all, innocent." Whitton's mother stated that producers of shows like "Nancy Grace" told her they weren't interested in her daughter's case. Dr. Cory L. Armstrong wrote in "The Washington Post", "the pattern of choosing only young, white, middle-class women for the full damsel treatment says a lot about a nation that likes to believe it has consigned race and class to irrelevance."


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: In 2017, a research paper from the University of South Florida studied media coverage and found that " ... disparities in coverage were seen based on race and age. In addition, the narratives of the reports were framed as cautionary tales, and victims were seen as active participants in their disappearance."


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: In 2019, two criminologists, Danielle C. Slakoff from California State University, Sacramento and Henry F. Fradella from Arizona State University, published an open-access research article about the Missing White Woman Syndrome. They examined 4 years' worth of coverage in 11 different U.S. newspapers. Slakoff and Fradella found that White missing women and girls received more initial and repeated coverage than missing black women.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: The Wyoming Urban Indian Health Institute published a study in 2020, by professor Emily A. Grant, which found that 710 Indigenous people were reported missing in the state of Wyoming between 2011 and 2020, and assessed the media coverage, and concluded that media coverage of Indigenous and people of color was significantly less than coverage of missing white people.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: According to a 2008 study published in "The Law and Society Association", aboriginal women who go missing in Canada receive 27 times less news coverage than white women; they also receive "dispassionate and less-detailed, headlines, articles, and images".


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: In January 2006, the London Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Ian Blair, accused the media of ‘institutional racism’ in its reporting of murders. He contrasted the reporting of the death of the male white lawyer Tom ap Rhys Price with the murder of the male Asian builders' merchant Balbir Matharu. He said ‘murders in minority communities do not seem to interest the mainstream media’. He said that the death of Damilola Taylor, a 10-year-old black boy, was clearly an exception to this. He said he had been surprised at how much coverage the murders of two 10-year-old white girls in Soham had received.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: University of Leicester Criminology Professor Yvonne Jewkes cites the murder of Milly Dowler, the murder of Sarah Payne, and the Soham murders as examples of "eminently newsworthy stories" about girls from "respectable" middle-class families and backgrounds whose parents used the news media effectively. She writes that, in contrast, the killing of Damilola Taylor, a 10-year-old boy from Nigeria, initially received little news coverage, with reports initially concentrating upon street crime levels and community policing in London, and largely ignoring the victim. Even when Damilola's father flew into the UK from Nigeria to make press statements and television appearances, the level of public outcry did not, Jewkes asserts, reach "the near hysterical outpourings of anger and sadness that accompanied the deaths of Sarah, Milly, Holly, and Jessica". However, according to the BBC, the killing of Damilola Taylor had shocked the UK.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: Two cases of missing-white-girl syndrome that have been given as contrasting examples: the murder of Hannah Williams and the murder of Danielle Jones (both were white). It was suggested that Jones received more coverage than Williams because Jones was a middle-class schoolgirl, whilst Williams was from a working-class background with a stud in her nose and estranged parents. Another explanation for the difference in the coverage has been given: the eroticisation of the victim by news reports about a sexual relationship between Jones and her murderer, her uncle.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: Sandile Memela, chief director for social cohesion at South Africa's Department of Arts and Culture, noted amidst the Oscar Pistorius trial that there existed substantial differences between how media outlets reported on the murders of Reeva Steenkamp and Zanele Khumalo; two South African models, respectively white and black, who had been murdered by their boyfriends under nearly identical circumstances. Memela asserted that the discrepancy between the media coverage of the Steenkamp and Khumala murders amounted to "structural racism" within South African society, and stated: "As a country we seem to have chosen to ignore the agony, pain and suffering of the Khumalo family for no other reason than that they are black."


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: On September 11, 2014, the South African news network SABC3 aired an investigative report which raised concerns around the "Missing White Woman Syndrome"; where the death of Steenkamp was juxtaposed with the death of Zanele Khumalo.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: Social scientists have reported biases in media coverage for other situations that involve white women, but are not missing-person cases.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: Social commentaries pointed to media bias in the coverage of soldier Jessica Lynch versus that of her fellow soldiers, Shoshana Johnson and Lori Piestewa. All three were ambushed in the same attack during the Iraq War on March 23, 2003, with Piestewa being killed, and Lynch and Johnson being injured and taken prisoner. Lynch, a young, blonde white woman, received far more media coverage than Johnson, a Black single mother, and Piestewa, an Indigenous Hopi single mother from an impoverished background, with media critics suggesting that the media gave more attention to the woman with whom audiences supposedly more readily identify.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: Lynch herself leveled harsh criticism at this disproportionate coverage that focused only on her, stating in a congressional testimony before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: In October 2013, a girl estimated to be about four years of age was found in the custody of a Roma couple in Greece and was presumed to have been abducted. The story about the "blonde angel" and the search for her biological parents received international media coverage. A Romani rights activist commented on the case to say "imagine if the situation were reversed and the children were brown and the parents were white." The child was later identified as Maria Ruseva. Her biological mother was a Bulgarian Roma who gave Maria up for adoption.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: Critics have also cited excessive media coverage of murder trials where the defendant is female, white, young and attractive, and included them along with Missing White Woman Syndrome instances in an all-encompassing narrative nicknamed the "woman in jeopardy" or "damsel in distress" genre. In such cases, the media will focus on the accused, rather than the victim as in Missing White Woman Syndrome cases, and they will be more ambiguous about their guilt than in other criminal cases regardless of evidence. Cited examples include Amanda Knox, Jodi Arias and Casey Anthony.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: Several laws have been created in the aftermath of disappearance cases, and are sometimes informally named after the missing person. Commentators have observed that disappearances of white women give rise to such laws more often than missing non-white women or missing men. Such laws in the United States include Laci and Conner's Law (named after Laci Peterson), Amber alert laws (Amber Hagerman), Jessica's Law (Jessica Lunsford), Caylee's Law (Caylee Anthony), Megan's Law (Megan Kanka), Dru's Law (Dru Sjodin), Lori's law (Lori Hacking), Kristen's Act (Kristen Modafferi), and Skylar's Law (Skylar Neese).


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: The following missing-person cases have been cited as instances of missing-white-woman syndrome by media commentators. The commentators stated that these missing persons garnered a disproportionate level of media coverage relative to non-white, or less-wealthy, or male missing persons.


title: Missing white woman syndrome

text: The following missing person cases have been used as counterexamples by social scientists or media commentators. These are missing person cases which, according to the source, did not receive as much media attention they would have received if they were white, or female, or more affluent.


title: Ben Lloyd-Hughes

text: Benedict Lloyd-Hughes (born 14 April 1988) is a British actor. He is known for portraying Josh Stock in the British series "Skins" (2007) and for his role as Will in the film "Divergent" (2014). He plays Tsar Alexander in the 2016 BBC television series "War & Peace", and Greg in the 2020 series "Industry. "Lloyd-Hughes joined the main cast of period drama "Sanditon" (based on Jane Austen's unfinished novel), as Alexander Colbourne for its second series which aired in 2022."


title: Ben Lloyd-Hughes

text: Lloyd-Hughes was born in 1988 in London, the son of Lucy Appleby and Timothy Lloyd-Hughes. He has an older brother, actor Henry Lloyd-Hughes, and a sister, football journalist Flo Lloyd-Hughes. Both brothers acted in "Miliband of Brothers", a satirical docu-drama centered around the 2010 Labour leadership election. He attended St. Paul's School, London. In 2011 he finished his acting training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Fred Macpherson, lead singer of the band Spector, and formerly of Les Incompétents and Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man, is his cousin.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: NBC Sunday Night Football (abbreviated as SNF) is an American weekly television broadcast of National Football League (NFL) games on NBC and Peacock 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. At the same time, ESPN began broadcasting "Monday Night Football" when it was dropped from sister network ABC. Previously, NBC had aired American Football League (AFL), and later American Football Conference (AFC), games from 1965 until 1997, when CBS took over those rights.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: During the 2011–12 season, "Sunday Night Football" became the first sports program to hold the position as Nielsen's most-watched program on U.S. network television during the year, beating "American Idol", which held that honor for eight consecutive seasons beginning in 2004; "Sunday Night Football" repeated this feat three years running, beginning with the 2013–14 season.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: As of 2022, Mike Tirico serves as the play-by-play announcer for most broadcasts while Al Michaels does so for special events, Cris Collinsworth serves as color commentator, and Melissa Stark serves as the sideline reporter, with Terry McAulay serving as the rules expert. Upon NBC's assumption of the Sunday prime time game rights, Michaels, John Madden, Fred Gaudelli, and Drew Esocoff, who served as the respective play-by-play announcer, color commentator, lead producer, and director, joined "SNF" in the same positions they held during the latter portion of the ABC era of "Monday Night Football". Madden retired prior to the 2009 season, and was succeeded in that role by Collinsworth. Tirico succeeded Michaels following Super Bowl LVI in 2021.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: Since 2014, sister cable channel Universo has carried Spanish-language 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), formerly noted as being "provided by Telemundo" before the rebranding of that entity's sports division to Telemundo Deportes. With the former mun2's relaunch on February 1, 2015, Universo began to carry the full season with the start of the 2015 season and simulcast Super Bowl XLIX, the channel carrying Spanish-language simulcasts of NFL games and NBC Sports properties. Telemundo would later carry Spanish language broadcasts of select games, beginning in 2021, with an NFL Super Wild Card game. Telemundo also broadcast Super Bowl LVI in 2022.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: NBC's broadcast begins at 7 p.m. Eastern Time with its pre-game show, which runs until kickoff (which usually occurs around 8:20 p.m. Eastern). The show serves the same purpose as "NFL Primetime" did for ESPN, offering recaps of the early action as well as a preview of the game to come. The show emanates from the NBC Sports studios in Connecticut as well as at the game site. Maria Taylor, Tony Dungy, Jason Garrett, Chris Simms and Mike Florio broadcast from the studio while Jac Collinsworth and Rodney Harrison report from the game. Tirico, Collinsworth and Stark will also appear.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In 2021, a post-game show began airing on NBC's Peacock streaming service under the name "Peacock Sunday Night Football Final". It is hosted by Kathryn Tappen and Chris Simms.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The network's current NFL contract includes the rights to the season-opening Thursday night NFL Kickoff Game, another game played on Thanksgiving Night, and three playoff games, two in the Super Wild Card round and one in the Divisional Playoffs. Under the initial 6-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 and two more Pro Bowls in 2013 and 2014. 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 in 2015 (Super Bowl XLIX), 2018 (Super Bowl LII), and 2022 (Super Bowl LVI). However, the Pro Bowl is not excluded 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 prior to ABC's simulcast with ESPN on the 2018 edition. NBC regained rights to air two Super Wild Card games, beginning with the 2020–21 postseason. The Sunday Night game also aired on Telemundo, NBC's Spanish network, and was able to be streamed on NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock. On March 18, 2021, a new television deal with the NFL was reached with CBS, Fox, NBC, and ESPN/ABC. The new deal allows NBC to retain its NFL rights with a continuation of Sunday Night Football, including the Kickoff Game and the annual Thanksgiving Night game, expanded streaming rights for Peacock, which includes an additional game for the first 6 seasons of the new deal. NBC also gained three more Super Bowls, which air in 2026 (for Super Bowl LX), 2030 (for Super Bowl LXIV), and 2034 (for Super Bowl LXVIII). The new deal will run through 2033.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: NBC is the current home of the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, which begins the NFL's preseason each August. Usually the game is aired on the Sunday after the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony the night before. In 2017, the game was moved to the Thursday before the Induction Ceremony, which made the game the official start of Hall of Fame Weekend. Due to NBC's broadcast commitments to the Summer Olympics, every four years the game is moved to either the NFL Network or in 2021, Fox Sports. One preseason game (the Hall of Fame game). But only one preseason game was shown in 2021. The Thursday night season opener was retained as part of the new contract that began in 2014. The Thursday Night season opener and the Thanksgiving Night Game will be retained as part of the new contract beginning in 2023.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: From 2006 until 2013, NBC's contract included the rights to both Saturday wild card playoff games that had been previously aired by ABC as part of its "Monday Night Football" contract. Tom Hammond provided play-by-play for the early game until 2012, with Dan Hicks taking the position in 2013. Cris Collinsworth was the initial color commentator for these broadcasts, doing so until 2008 when he replaced John Madden as lead analyst in 2009. Mike Mayock, NBC's Notre Dame color commentator until 2012, took over as color commentator in 2013. In 2020, NBC gained rights to the Saturday and Sunday night Super Wild Card games, with one of those games being called by the Notre Dame Football crew consisting of Mike Tirico (calling his first NFL playoff game since the 2015–16 postseason when he was at ESPN/ABC, and first at NBC), and Tony Dungy (calling his first ever NFL playoff game).


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: "NBC Sunday Night Football" is the beneficiary of the league's new flexible-scheduling system. Since the NFL now considers "SNF" 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, 2011, 2016 2017 and 2022 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 2006 World Series, but a potential conflict still existed on October 29 had the series gone to a game seven (the conflict never arose, however, as the Cardinals won the World Series in five). With the change in World Series scheduling beginning in 2007, NBC did not air an NFL game in order to avoid a conflict with Game 4 of the World Series, 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 had poor seasonal performances in those recent years, at the time having not recorded a winning record since 1992.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In 2012, the NFL once again scheduled the Saints to play on "SNF" in late October, this time against the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on October 28 (Denver does have an MLB team, the Colorado Rockies, that 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: For 2013, "SNF" aired the Green Bay Packers-Minnesota 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 struggled in 2013.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In 2015, the NFL once again scheduled the Packers to play on "SNF", this time against the Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on November 1. Both the Packers and the Broncos entered the game undefeated at 6-0. However, the game wound up being scheduled opposite the fifth (and final) game of the 2015 World Series between the Royals and the New York Mets that night. Both the Packers and the Broncos have a baseball team in their respective home states (Wisconsin's Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado's Rockies), but both of those MLB teams performed poorly that season.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: For 2016, "SNF" aired the Philadelphia Eagles-Dallas Cowboys rivalry game at AT&T Stadium on October 30, opposite to Game 5 of the 2016 World Series between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs. Both the Eagles and the Cowboys have a baseball team in their respective home cities (Philadelphia's Phillies and Dallas's Texas Rangers, the latter plays their home games at nearby Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas). The Phillies did not contend for the National League East in 2016, while the Rangers won the American League West title that season, but they lost in three games to the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS; on the other hand, the Cleveland Browns and the Chicago Bears, the NFL franchises of the participating World Series cities, were performing at the bottom of its respective divisions in recent years, with the Browns' issues dating back to the team's return to the league in 1999. As for the two games that aired simultaneously on October 30, the Cubs beat the Indians, 3-2, to force a Game 6 of the World Series on November 1, while the Cowboys beat the Eagles, 29-23, in overtime.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In 2017, the NFL once again scheduled the Steelers to play on "SNF", this time against the Detroit Lions on October 29. This game aired opposite Game 5 of the 2017 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros. Both the Steelers and the Lions have a baseball team in their respective home cities (Pittsburgh's Pirates and Detroit's Tigers, the latter plays their home games at nearby Comerica Park in Detroit), but neither of their baseball counterparts did well that season; as for the NFL franchises of the participating World Series cities, the Rams (who moved back to Los Angeles from St. Louis in 2016) were in contention for the NFC West through Week 8 of the 2017 season (meanwhile, Los Angeles' other team, the Chargers, who moved from San Diego in 2017, were struggling at that same point of the season) while the Houston Texans, who had reached the playoffs the previous two seasons, also struggled. As for the two games that aired simultaneously on October 29, the Steelers beat the Lions, 20-15, while in Game 5 of the World Series, the Astros beat the Dodgers, 13-12, in 10 innings, however, the win was brought under heavy scrutiny after it was discovered the Astros used whistles to tip off hitters of what pitch was coming during the game, as well as using trash cans during the season.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In 2018, for the fifth time, the NFL scheduled the Saints to play on the "Sunday Night Football"-World Series competition game, this time, against the Vikings, in a rematch of the Minneapolis Miracle game. However this game wound up being scheduled opposite the fifth (and final) game of the 2018 World Series, between the Los Angeles Dodgers season and the Red Sox that night. The city of Minneapolis does have an MLB team, however, the Twins failed to qualify for the postseason in 2018. As for the city of New Orleans, they do not have an MLB team. As for the teams that are playing, the Red Sox, put up the best record in MLB, while the city's football team, the Patriots, were riding a 5-2 record through 7 games. The Dodgers meanwhile clinched the National League pennant for the second consecutive year, as for the city's two teams, the Rams were at the time, the last undefeated team in the NFL at 7-0, while the Chargers started 5-2 and were half a game back with the arch-rival Chiefs in the AFC West race (the Chiefs won the AFC West title that season before losing to the eventual Super Bowl LIII champion Patriots in the AFC Championship Game). The Rams would go on to controversially win the NFC Championship Game in overtime, but then lose to the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In 2019, for the fourth time, the NFL scheduled the Packers to play on the "Sunday Night Football"–World Series competition game, this time against the Chiefs, in a rematch of Super Bowl I. This game aired opposite Game 5 of the 2019 World Series between the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals. Both the Packers and the Chiefs have a baseball team in their respective home states (Wisconsin's Milwaukee Brewers made the postseason, but lost to the eventual World Series Champion Nationals in the NL Wild Card Game, and Missouri's Kansas City Royals, failed to make the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season). As for the two games that aired simultaneously on October 27, the Packers beat the Chiefs, 31–24, while in Game 5 of the World Series (of which the series itself was tied at 2-2), the Astros beat the Nationals, 7–1 heading into Game 6 of the World Series on October 29.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In 2020, for the first time ever, the NFL flexed a game that was scheduled against the Fall Classic. The league flexed the Seattle Seahawks-Arizona Cardinals game to the "Sunday Night Football"–World Series competition game, in place of the originally scheduled Tampa Bay Buccaneers versus Las Vegas Raiders game which was flexed out due to the Raiders having a COVID-19 outbreak. This game aired opposite Game 5 of the 2020 World Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Las Vegas does not have an MLB team, while Arizona, Seattle, and Tampa Bay all have teams. As for those two games the Cardinals came from behind to beat Seattle 37–34 in overtime, while in Game 5 of the World Series (of which the series itself was tied at 2–2), the Dodgers beat the Rays, 4–2. Two days later, the Dodgers won again by a score of 3-1, giving the franchise its first championship since 1988.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: For the 2021 season, the NFL scheduled the Dallas Cowboys-Minnesota Vikings game as the "Sunday Night Football" World Series competition game. This was the first time since 2016 and 2018 respectively that both teams played on SNF against the Fall Classic. This game aired opposite Game 5 of the 2021 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros. While Dallas and Minnesota have MLB teams in their respective home states, both the Rangers and Twins performed poorly that season. The Astros won that game, 9-5, to stay alive in the series, but lost two days later as the Braves won their first title since 1995.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In the 2022 season, for the first time since 2008, there was not one occurrence in which both a "SNF" game and a World Series game occurred on the same day, but the first time in which only the NFL games were played. Originally, the NFL had scheduled the Green Bay Packers-Buffalo Bills game as the competing contest, to be played on October 30; however, with Major League Baseball starting the World Series on October 28, and in part due to the lockout before the season, that day became a travel day. The 2022 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros began on a Friday instead of Tuesday, as in past years. Since Minute Maid Park, the venue at which the series began, has a retractable roof, as expected neither of the first two games were postponed. However, Game 3 (the first game after the series shifted to Philadelphia) was postponed on October 31; at that time, MLB announced that all remaining games would be played one day later than scheduled. This created a possible conflict between Game 7 and the November 6 contest between the Tennessee Titans and the Kansas City Chiefs. But this was averted when, the night before, the Astros defeated the Phillies 4-1 to win the title, their second in six seasons with the other being in the infamous 2017 season. The closest MLB team to the Packers is the Milwaukee Brewers, in a market officially shared with them, while the Bills' closest MLB neighbors are the Toronto Blue Jays. The latter two cities are interconnected in both sports; the 2020 and 2021 teams played some home games in Buffalo due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while the Bills once played select home games at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Tennessee doesn't have a neighboring MLB team, while the Kansas City Royals, the neighboring MLB team in Kansas City, had a losing record for the seventh season in a row in 2022, covering every season since its last World Series title in 2015.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: On October 23, 2022, for the first time, NBC showed a NASCAR Cup Series race and an "SNF" game from the same metropolitan area on the same day. In a race that started at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, Kyle Larson won the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead–Miami Speedway; then in a game that kicked off at 8:25 (a few minutes later than usual due to ceremonies honoring the 1972 Miami Dolphins, still the only NFL team to complete an undefeated season including playoffs), the Miami Dolphins defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 16-10 at Hard Rock Stadium. Both venues are in Miami-Dade County, Florida.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The "SNF" game on September 27, 2020 between the Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints prompted the National Hockey League to schedule games 4 and 5 of the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals on the previous two days back-to-back, as NBC was contractually prohibited from moving the telecast to NBCSN. This was the result of the NHL season being paused for over four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic earlier, causing an atypical conflict between the sports.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In the same 2020 NFL season, two games of the NBA Finals, broadcast on ABC, went up against "SNF" games: Philadelphia Eagles versus San Francisco 49ers on October 4 (Game 3) and Minnesota Vikings versus Seattle Seahawks on October 11 (Game 6, which was also the clinching win for the Los Angeles Lakers). This was the result of the NBA season being suspended for more than four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic earlier, causing an atypical conflict between the sports.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: For the first time since NBC gained the rights to "SNF", 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: Three of the games in the last seven weeks of the season were eventually replaced with more compelling matches. This resulted in the 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In addition, the annual preseason Pro Football 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 clinches the NFC's top seed and home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. This was the second of three flexed games, with a December 7 inter-conference match-up between the Baltimore Ravens and Washington Redskins displacing a New England Patriots at Seattle Seahawks game. 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 while the loser would be eliminated.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 lost in the Divisional Round to the Indianapolis Colts).


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 . 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 champion while the loser would be eliminated. The Seattle Seahawks defeated the St. Louis Rams by a score of 16-6, thus advancing to the playoffs whilst the Rams were eliminated from playoff contention.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The NFL announced on November 8 that the Week 13 rivalry game between the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots was moved to 1 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 inter-conference telecast to the home team's Sunday afternoon regional broadcaster.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: On December 7, the NFL ended up keeping the Week 15 match-up 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: For the second consecutive season, and third overall, the last Sunday night game that was flexed in featured a contest in which the winner became the division champions and earn a home game in the playoffs while the loser was 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 49ers-Patriots 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 highlighted a situation in which the winner advanced to the playoffs while the loser did not; the winner of this flex game would win its division, although the Redskins would have still advanced 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 turned out to be a winner-take-all, in which the winner clinched the No. 4 seed in the NFC and the loser was eliminated regardless. The Redskins eventually defeated the Cowboys 28–18 and clinched their first NFC East crown since 1999.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 single-header 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 match-up 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 into 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 to 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 match-ups 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).


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 match-up, 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 match-up 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 match-up in their week to have a doubleheader, as the other two match-ups 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 match-up ultimately received CBS's lead 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: No Sunday night Game was originally scheduled for Week 17 of the NFL season, thus allowing the ability to move the most intriguing and playoff-relevant matchup of the week to the Sunday night time slot. The final game of the 2013 NFL regular season was played on December 29, 2013 between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys to determine the NFC East division champion while the loser was eliminated. The Eagles won 24-22, thus advancing to the playoffs, eliminating the Cowboys.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 had 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.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: On November 11, 2014, the NFL announced that the November 23 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 match-up, citing that the Cowboys are one of the most popular NFL teams playing in the country's largest media market.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 match-up is usually determined as late as six days prior to the Sunday of Week 17).


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: 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 was 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 match-ups 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 match-up was later flexed to CBS as part of the new television contract that allows intraconference match-ups to be flexed between CBS and Fox.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The 2015 schedule was released on April 21, 2015. The defending Super Bowl champions the New England Patriots faced the Pittsburgh Steelers during the NFL Kickoff Game on Thursday, September 10, 2015. Other notable games included 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 also placed 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 – January 3, 2016 – likewise was a flex game; the slot was left vacant when the schedule came out as has been the practice over the past seven seasons. The game's teams (and by extension, its location) was announced after most Week 16 games. It was filled by the Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers. The Arizona Cardinals wound up playing on consecutive Sunday nights — at the Seattle Seahawks in Week 10 and then, at home against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 11 (Cardinals won both of those games), with the latter being flexed into the Sunday night slot. The December 20 game (Cincinnati Bengals at San Francisco 49ers) reverted to the afternoon, replaced by the Arizona Cardinals-Philadelphia Eagles game. The Minnesota Vikings wounded up playing on consecutive Sunday nights beginning in Week 16 at home against the New York Giants and on the road in Week 17 against the Green Bay Packers.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The 2016 schedule was released on April 14, 2016. NBC's first telecast of the season featured a rematch of Super Bowl 50 when the Denver Broncos played host to the Carolina Panthers, the first time the Super Bowl participants faced each other in Week 1 of the subsequent year since 1970. It also placed a Sunday night game (Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys) against a World Series game for the seventh straight year. The Thanksgiving night match-up featured the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Indianapolis Colts, and for the first time since 2011, NBC carried a Christmas Day game as the Broncos traveled to play the Kansas City Chiefs, a rematch of the Week 12 game in Denver that was flexed into that week's Sunday night slot. In addition, NBC carried five late season "Thursday Night Football" games in conjunction with NFL Network in a similar arrangement to the one NFLN has with CBS. As before, flexible scheduling rules went into effect in Week 5, with Week 16 excluded because the majority of the schedule was played on Christmas Eve. The final Sunday night game of the season – Sunday, January 1, 2017 – likewise was a flex game; the slot was left vacant when the schedule came out as has been the practice over the past eight seasons. The game's teams (and by extension, its location) was announced after most Week 16 games. It was filled by the Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: Also this season, NBC was home to two Super Bowl rematches. As previously mentioned, the Carolina vs. Denver game was a rematch of Super Bowl 50. Then, 9 weeks later on a Sunday night, the Patriots hosted the Seattle Seahawks in a rematch of Super Bowl XLIX, a game that was also seen on NBC, on February 1, 2015.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The Week 5 game between the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers was placed against the second presidential debate. The debate did not air on NBC due to contractual obligations; however, it was carried by several other channels including sister networks CNBC and MSNBC.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The Week 7 game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Arizona Cardinals ended in a 6-6 tie following a missed field goal from each team in the last minutes of overtime. This became not only the first tie to be featured on "Sunday Night Football", but also the first tie not to see a touchdown since 1972, as well as the lowest scoring tie, and the second lowest score in the prime time slot.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: After the addition of "Thursday Night Football" to NBC's rights holdings, the network elected to give Al Michaels time off. Mike Tirico, who left ESPN to become the heir apparent to Michaels at NBC, called select telecasts in his place.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: On November 14, 2016, the NFL announced that it had flexed the Chiefs-Broncos game into the Sunday night slot for Week 12, replacing the originally-scheduled New England Patriots-New York Jets game, which was moved to the 4:25 p.m. ET slot as the second game of the doubleheader on CBS. With the aforementioned Week 16 matchup between the Broncos and the Chiefs already being scheduled for Christmas night (December 25), that was the second time that NBC has shown both meetings of division rivals during a regular season.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: On December 4, 2016, the NFL announced that it had flexed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Dallas Cowboys game into the Sunday night slot for Week 15, replacing the originally-scheduled Pittsburgh Steelers-Cincinnati Bengals game, which was moved to the 1 p.m. ET slot as the early game on CBS. As a result, the Cowboys wound up playing on consecutive Sunday nights — on the road against the New York Giants in Week 14 (which they lost, 10-7) and then at home against the Buccaneers in Week 15 (which they won, 26-20), and as a result, the Cowboys wound up playing back-to-back-to-back games on NBC, beginning with their post-Thanksgiving Thursday Night Game against Minnesota, their scheduled Week 14 game against the Giants, as mentioned, and their Week 15 Game against Tampa Bay, which was also previously mentioned.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: On January 15, 2017, NBC was scheduled to carry an AFC divisional playoff game with the Chiefs at home against the Steelers in the afternoon; on January 13, the NFL announced that game would move to primetime on NBC the same day due to an ice storm affecting the Kansas City area which would cause perilous travel for fans if the game went on as regularly scheduled, and thus becoming an unexpected bonus "Sunday Night Football" broadcast in its regular timeslot. NBC filled the vacated afternoon timeslot with a NHL game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The 2017 NFL schedule was released on April 20. NBC's first telecast of the season featured the NFL Kickoff Game between Super Bowl LI champion New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In Week 7, a Sunday night game was scheduled between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots in a highly-anticipated rematch of Super Bowl LI thus making 2017 the second consecutive season in which a rematch of the previous year's Super Bowl was played during the regular season. This was completely coincidental, as inter-conference opponents only meet once every four years during the regular season. The Patriots won the rematch by a score of 23-7. The television broadcast was noted for its extensive use of the Skycam for game coverage after fog made it impossible to use other cameras.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: It also placed a Sunday night game (Pittsburgh Steelers at Detroit Lions) against a World Series game for the eighth straight year. Both the Lions and Steelers have MLB teams in their respective hometowns, but both struggled to get into the playoffs, especially the Pirates, who missed the playoffs for the second year in a row, and the Tigers, who haven't been to the playoffs since winning the AL Central in 2014.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In Week 16, due to the fact that Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday, the game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers aired on Saturday, December 23.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: For the second time since flex scheduling went into effect, no Sunday night games were flexed during the season—including (for the first time since NBC got the Sunday night package) Week 17.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: This was NBC's second year of producing "Thursday Night Football" with CBS and NFL Network. In addition to airing 5 Thursday night games, NBC along with NFL Network also aired the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Houston Texans on Christmas Day. NBC/NFL Network simulcasts started in Week 10 with the Seattle Seahawks taking on the Arizona Cardinals. The NBC Sports-produced Thursday night games on NFL Network began in Week 2, with the Texans battling the Cincinnati Bengals.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: Week 17 on December 31 had a full Sunday schedule of games, with the Sunday night game slot originally left blank as has been done the previous nine seasons. After all of the Week 16 Sunday games were played, the NFL determined that many of the teams with playoff implications would have been affected by the results of other football games, and moving a single game to the Sunday night slot impacted competitive balance (along with the possibility of that game having little to no effect on playoff positioning at all, in addition to negative impacts on rating as a result of the game ending close to the stroke of midnight for the New Year for the Eastern time zone). As a result, the NFL decided to instead set up a schedule for that year's Week 17 where all games would be played in the 1 p.m. ET and 4:25 p.m. ET time-slots between CBS and Fox (equivalent to soccer's English Premier League scheduling their last week's matches in the same manner), and no "Sunday Night Football" game would be played.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In addition, this season featured four Super Bowl rematches on "Sunday Night Football", as well as a fifth in the Super Bowl broadcast itself. First, in Week 3, the Oakland Raiders traveled to Washington to face the Washington Redskins, in a rematch of Super Bowl XVIII. Three weeks later, the New York Giants faced the Denver Broncos, in a rematch of Super Bowl XXI. Then, as previously mentioned, a week later, the Atlanta Falcons went to New England and faced the defending champions New England Patriots, in a rematch of Super Bowl LI. Then in Week 12, the Green Bay Packers faced the Pittsburgh Steelers in a rematch of Super Bowl XLV, in what was supposed to be a quarterback battle between Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger, that turned into a quarterback battle between Roethlisberger and Brett Hundley due to Rodgers suffering a broken collarbone in Week 6 that ruled him out for all but one game the rest of the season. And on NBC's broadcast of Super Bowl LII, the Philadelphia Eagles faced the New England Patriots in a rematch of Super Bowl XXXIX.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The 2018 NFL season schedule was released in April. NBC's first telecast of the season was on September 6, 2018 featured the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles defeating the Atlanta Falcons.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: For the ninth season in a row, the NFL placed a game against a World Series game, with the (New Orleans Saints at Minnesota Vikings), going up against the fifth (and final) game of the Fall Classic, between the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Boston Red Sox.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: This was also the first season since 2015, that "TNF" was not on NBC, as it moved to fellow NFL broadcaster Fox for the next five years. Despite the loss of "TNF", NBC still broadcasts the Kickoff Game and the Thanksgiving prime time games (both on a Thursday night) as they fall under the current NBC contract.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: This marked the seventh year in the Sunday night package that a prime time Thanksgiving game was shown on NBC which featured the Atlanta Falcons against the New Orleans Saints. However, the studio team of Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison called the game in place of Michaels and Collinsworth.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: Flexible scheduling rules went into effect Week 5. If a more compelling matchup arose as the season progressed, the previously scheduled Sunday night matchup could have been swapped with the more competitive game's time slot. This occurred several times during the season:


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In addition, "SNF" scheduled several rematches from last season's playoffs, including the Saints-Vikings game, the Steelers-Jaguars AFC Divisional game (which was eventually flexed out), and the Falcons-Eagles NFC Divisional game.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: "SNF" had a rules analyst for the first time in program history, as the network added former referee Terry McAulay, who retired after the 2017 season. McAulay has worked three Super Bowls in his tenure as an NFL referee. Also that same year, McAulay worked the Notre Dame Football games for NBC, with "FNIA" studio host, Mike Tirico.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The 2019 schedule was released on April 17. However, on March 25, the NFL announced that, in a break from tradition, the Kickoff Game would not be hosted by the reigning Super Bowl champions and would instead featured the Chicago Bears who hosted the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field on September 5, with the game aired on NBC as part of a number of matchups throughout the league's 100th season celebrating critical games and rivalries through the league's history. The New England Patriots instead hosted the first "SNF" game of the season against Pittsburgh Steelers during Week 1 on NBC.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: For the tenth season in a row the NFL placed a game against a World Series game with the Green Bay Packers against the Kansas City Chiefs, going up against the fifth game of the Fall Classic between the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: Thanksgiving featured a rematch of the previous season's primetime Thanksgiving game between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons. It was the eighth time that the Thanksgiving game was part of the "SNF" package shown on NBC.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: For the second consecutive season, the "FNIA" team of Tirico, Dungy and Harrison were assigned to work the Thanksgiving primetime game


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: Flexible scheduling rules went into effect in Week 5; the scheduled game reverted to the afternoon if a more compelling match-up arose as the season progressed. The previously scheduled Sunday Night game could be swapped with the more competitive game's time slot. This occurred several times during the season.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The 2020 schedule was released on May 7. The Kickoff game was on September 10, which featured the Super Bowl LIV Champion Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Houston Texans. The Thanksgiving Night game was supposed to feature the Baltimore Ravens versus the Pittsburgh Steelers; the ninth time that the Thanksgiving game would have been part of the "SNF" package shown on NBC. A COVID-19 outbreak on the Baltimore Ravens forced the postponement of the game to the following Sunday afternoon, which was then postponed to the following Tuesday night, and then finally to Wednesday afternoon. It was shown on NBC as scheduled, but KWQC-TV - the NBC affiliate for the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois - opted not to show the game. Before this occasion, the last Wednesday night game played in the NFL was also a special edition of primetime on NBC - the 2012 Kickoff game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants that was scheduled as such to avoid a conflict with Obama's renomination speech at that year's Democratic National Convention.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: Flexible scheduling rules went into effect in Week 5; the scheduled game reverted to the afternoon if a more compelling game arose. The scheduled "SNF" game could have been swapped with the more competitive game's time slot. The final game of the season, on Sunday, January 3, 2021, likewise was a flex game. The slot, left blank when the schedule came out, it was filled by the game between the Washington Football Team and the home team Philadelphia Eagles. A Washington win gave them the NFC East Division title.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: Mike Tirico substituted for Al Michaels on a select number of games this season, that started with the September 27 game between the Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints. Tirico was initially slated to call the Thanksgiving game this season, but was assigned instead to call the Week 12 "SNF" game between the Packers and the Chicago Bears with Tony Dungy and Kathryn Tappen. Tirico was eventually given the assignment to call the rescheduled Ravens–Steelers game with Collinsworth after it was postponed from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon. Tirico has also called NBC's two wild card playoff games in January.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The aforementioned Packers–Saints game took place while the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals (rescheduled from its normal late May–early June schedule) were ongoing; Dallas (Stars) and Tampa Bay (Lightning) also have NFL teams in the Cowboys and Buccaneers. As NBC was also the rightsholder to National Hockey League games in the U.S., the league was compelled to play Games 4 and 5 (September 25–26) of the finals on consecutive nights to avoid conflict with "SNF".


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: For the season, the customary talking head introduction of the offensive and defensive starters was scrapped due to production limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: For the first time in the history of "SNF", NBC aired games against an NBA Finals game in back-to-back weeks; this is usually a non-issue as the NBA Finals traditionally take place in June but were moved to the fall due to the NBA suspending their season. This occurred on October 4 with the Eagles playing the 49ers on the same day as Game 3, and on October 11, with the Vikings playing the Seahawks on the same day as Game 6 (the eventual last game of the series). Although Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Minnesota all have NBA teams, only the 76ers qualified for the playoffs, where they were eliminated in the first round. The Los Angeles Lakers, led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, defeated the Miami Heat in six games, claiming their 17th championship in franchise history, tying the Boston Celtics for the most in NBA history.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: In Week 7, the game between the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals was flexed into the Sunday night slot from 4:05 p.m., trading places with the scheduled matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Las Vegas Raiders. The shift was not performance-related, as both teams had winning records going into the game. After six Raiders were placed on the COVID-19 list, there were concerns that the game would not be played on Sunday and leave NBC without a broadcast. The Week 7 game marked the eleventh straight year an NFL game aired opposite the World Series.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The Week 15 contest between the Cleveland Browns and New York Giants was moved to Sunday night from a 1:00 p.m. ET kickoff, replacing the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. It was the first time in the history of "SNF" that Dallas was flexed out of primetime. Michaels' inability to clear NBC protocol for COVID-19 resulted in Tirico working the broadcast with Collinsworth, while Los Angeles Dodgers and Fox Sports broadcaster Joe Davis took Tirico's place on an NFL Network broadcast the previous day.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The 2021 schedule was released on May 12. The Kickoff game, an NBC staple since 2006, was held on September 9. The defending Super Bowl LV champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by Tom Brady, hosted the Dallas Cowboys, led by Dak Prescott, which resulted in a 31-29 win for Tampa Bay. For the 12th straight year, NBC aired a Sunday night game against a World Series game. This year's game featured Prescott and the Cowboys against Dalvin Cook and the Minnesota Vikings. Thanksgiving Night featured an interconference showdown between Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills against the New Orleans Saints.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: Flexible scheduling rules went into effect Week 5; the scheduled game reverted to the afternoon if a more compelling game arose as the season progressed. The scheduled Sunday Night game could be swapped with the more competitive game's time slot. The last game of the season Sunday January 9, 2022 likewise was a flex game. The slot was left blank when the schedule came out. It was filled by the Los Angeles Chargers and the Las Vegas Raiders.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: After a one-season hiatus due to COVID-19 production concerns, "SNF"s trademark "talking heads" introduction for each team's starters was reinstated.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: This season marked the year NBC broadcast Super Bowl LVI, the network's fifth Super Bowl under the "SNF" banner, and the 20th overall. Super Bowl LVI was also scheduled to be the first Super Bowl to be played during an ongoing Olympics event, the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The rights to the game were originally assigned to CBS, but on March 13, 2019, CBS agreed to trade it to NBC in exchange for Super Bowl LV. With NBC airing both the Olympics and the Super Bowl on the same weekend, the network announced that Mike Tirico would work both events. Tirico started by flying out to Beijing for the first few days of the Games, then flying back to Los Angeles to host primetime coverage and Super Bowl LVI from SoFi Stadium. Tirico then flew east to Stamford, Connecticut, where NBC Sports’ main headquarters are, to host the rest of the Olympics.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: As with the previous season, Tirico filled in for Al Michaels in select "SNF" games, including the Thanksgiving game. Maria Taylor, who joined NBC from ESPN/ABC, became the secondary studio host in games Tirico does play-by-play. In addition, Drew Brees was added as a second analyst, both in the studio and in-game. Kathryn Tappen, NBC's sideline reporter for Notre Dame Football games, filled in for Michele Tafoya on the sidelines during Weeks 12-14.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: On November 23, 2021, NFL announced a rivalry game between the 49ers and Seahawks was the only game flex out in favor of a Broncos and Chiefs game due to an injury to Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and after the Seahawks' loss against Steelers in overtime 23–20.


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: The talking heads introductions were not used in the Saturday AFC Wild Card Playoff game, but it was used in the Sunday Night AFC Wild Card and NFC Divisional Round. The music used was "The Way You Move".


title: NBC Sunday Night Football

text: Coincidentally, the first Super Bowl aired on NBC (in a simulcast with CBS), and this season's Super Bowl, were both played in Los Angeles, with Super Bowl I being played at the LA Coliseum, and Super Bowl LVI being played at SoFi Stadium. Super Bowl LVI was also the final game for Tafoya and Michaels.