The trend of NFL pregame shows traveling on-site to marquee games is continuing this season.
On Thursday, Fox announced its flagship pregame show, Fox NFL Sunday, will emanate live from Kansas City next week before a Super Bowl rematch between the Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
Fox NFL Sunday will have a decidedly different feel this season. For the first time since 2002, the show will be without legendary NFL coach turned broadcaster Jimmy Johnson, who called it a career after last year’s Super Bowl on Fox. The network will not hire a direct replacement for Johnson, but between Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Michael Strahan, and Rob Gronkowski, there should be more than enough voices to go around.
Fox isn’t the only network deploying its pregame show to different locations throughout the season. CBS is kicking off Week 1 from Lambeau Field for the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers. The emergence of on-site pregame shows is a welcome sight for fans and gives the telecast a College GameDay-like atmosphere that works well on TV.
Of course, Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football and ESPN’s Monday Night Football pregame shows travel on-site every week. But those networks are fortunate to only have one game each week, whereas Fox and CBS have to juggle many.
Nevertheless, it’s great to see networks devoting resources to a traveling pregame coverage. And for a Super Bowl rematch, the decision seems like a no-brainer for Fox.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.