Bob Costas isn’t coming back to NBC to take anyone’s chair.
NBC Sports revealed last week that the 73-year-old Costas will return as the pregame host for Sunday Night Baseball, debuting March 26 with Opening Day coverage as the Los Angeles Dodgers raise their World Series banner against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Yes, he’s back. Yes, he’ll be prominent. And no, he will not be anywhere near the studio.
That was a point Costas wanted to clear up after noticing some outlets suggest his role would overlap with NBC’s studio analysts — including Clayton Kershaw, Joey Votto, and Anthony Rizzo — in Stamford, Connecticut. While he could still host a pregame alongside that group, Costas made clear that the plan is for him to never set foot in the studio unless he’s recording a voiceover.
“I’m not a studio host for baseball,” Costas clarified during a recent appearance on the Sports Media Watch Podcast. “I’ll never set foot in a studio unless it’s to record a voiceover. I will be at the site of every game I host. It will only be the Sunday night games.”
Instead, NBC has carved out something far more specific — and far more Costas.
“What will become clear, not just to people who follow it closely…but to the average person of the viewing audience,” Costas added, “it’ll be clear that this is a carefully, and I hope, thoughtfully and intelligently crafted, emeritus role that will not usurp anyone else’s role and will not involve anything that I’ll do that people would say, ‘Well, there’s 10 other people who could or would do that.”
But the bigger picture is the reunion itself. Nearly seven years after quietly departing NBC, Costas is returning to the network — and the sport he’s most closely associated with — in a role tailored to what he still does best. During a subsequent conference call, Costas said the agreement is for at least the “first year,” with flexibility beyond that.
“Beyond that, we’ll see what happens,” Costas said. “But I think I’ll be a contributor. As long as I’m upright and haven’t lost my fastball completely, I’ll be a contributor as long as I have something to contribute.”
Costas stepped away from play-by-play after calling the 2024 ALDS for TBS, believing the performance didn’t meet his own standards. What hasn’t slipped, however, is his effectiveness as a host and commentator. That instrument remains sharp. Which is why NBC made sure to distinguish his role from the network’s routine studio operation, whether that’s Ahmed Fareed, Connor Rogers, or anyone else manning the desk.
“Yeah, I won’t be the traffic cop, primarily,” he said. “Will it be some of that? There has to be. There has to be some over to you and over to you type thing. But there’s a carve out for me to do things where my contribution will make sense.”
Could that mean a postgame appearance? Or stepping in on the news or sports side if a moment calls for perspective? Probably, considering NBC often deployed Costas when the moment required not just a broadcaster, but a historian, too.