Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football opener for the 2026 NFL season will also open a new stadium.
Amazon announced at its upfront presentation on Monday night that the Week 2 game on Sept. 17 between the Detroit Lions and Buffalo Bills will be televised on Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football.
Along with being an excellent NFL matchup featuring two Super Bowl LXI contenders, there will be much more intrigue for this game, because it will be the first-ever game at the Bills’ new Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, NY.
Charissa Thompson, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Andrew Whitworth delivered the news at the Amazon upfront presentation in New York City. They will be joined by Richard Sherman and Tony Gonzalez for the TNF on Prime pregame and postgame shows that travel to a new destination each week. The combination of Bills Mafia and opening a new Bills stadium should make for an electric atmosphere around the Prime Video set in Orchard Park on Sept. 17.
As Fitzpatrick noted during the upfront presentation, the last game between the Bills and Lions featured Josh Allen and Buffalo winning a wild 48-42 shootout in Detroit on Dec. 15, 2024.
Play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and color commentator Kirk Herbstreit will return in the booth to call Thursday Night Football games for Prime Video in 2026.
The 2026 NFL season will begin with the defending champion Seattle Seahawks hosting an unknown opponent on Wednesday, Sept. 9, in a game that will be televised on NBC. That will be followed by the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers meeting for the first-ever NFL game from Australia on Thursday, Sept. 11 at 8:35 p.m. ET, with Netflix airing that game.
Details of the 2026 NFL schedule continue to trickle out, and the full schedule will be released on Thursday, May 14.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.
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