Pat McAfee, A.J. Hawk join call for Prime Video to increase ‘Thursday Night Football’ crowd noise

For years, viewers have complained that Amazon Prime Video’s production of Thursday Night Football peculiarly drowns out the sound of the fans in the stadium.

Those complaints took on new life during Week 2 as the Lambeau Field faithful roared along with their Green Bay Packers during a big conference win. This time, even Pat McAfee and A.J. Hawk addressed the issue on The Pat McAfee Show.

“Amazon, for some reason, the crowd mics aren’t super loud,” Hawk said. “We don’t get to fully feel what Lambeau felt like last night, but it still looked awesome, at least.”

McAfee noted the negative comments across social media during the first Thursday Night Football of the season and agreed that it makes for a worse broadcast. The host also referenced the previous issues with the crowd noise since Amazon took over TNF in 2022.

“First game of the year for Amazon, so I think they’re trying to figure it out. But I think this has been a thing with them a lot,” McAfee said. “I think it has been a lot of, stadium sounds much quieter on Amazon than anyone else. And I hope they understand that loud crowd is good for a game and sport and television.”

Later, Hawk noted that, beyond creating an energy on-air and giving fans a feel for the roar pre-snap, it also helps viewers understand what a quarterback is hearing.

On X, many others have issued the same complaint on Thursday and over the years, from Sports Illustrated media writer Jimmy Traina to Fox Sports producer Jake Jolivette.

Summing up the situation, McAfee found a familiar target: The suits. The host mockingly explained that a “super-genius” with a focus group was likely the cause of the problem.

“It seemed like they had it muffled. But some super-genius … has it figured out, said, ‘Well, we had a focus group say that they wanted to hear Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit,'” McAfee said. “Someone probably has a stance on that, because it does feel like an Amazon thing.”