As NBC launches new basketball and baseball pregame shows, its decades-old “Football Night in America” could get a new look next season.
NBC is planning a “revamp” of its NFL pregame show that could include dropping the in-studio component and reducing its nine-person roster, according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. In particular, Marchand reported that NBC is expected to move on from Tony Dungy, who joined the pregame show in 2009.
“Football Night” currently features an in-studio crew comprised of host Maria Taylor, analysts Jason Garrett, Devin McCourty and Chris Simms, insider Mike Florio and fantasy sports analyst Matthew Berry, plus an on-site contingent of host Jac Collinsworth and analysts Dungy and Rodney Harrison.
Like Dungy, Harrison has been on the show since 2009.
The show has long had an unwieldy cast, even dating back to its earliest days. (At one point, it featured Bob Costas, Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann as hosts, Cris Collinsworth and Jerome Bettis as analysts and Tiki Barber and Peter King as contributors.)
The network has taken a different approach with its new NBA pregame shows (“NBA Showtime” and “Basketball Night in America”), which typically feature a cast of four — five including Costas’ opening segments on the Sunday editions — with Taylor alongside Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady and Carmelo Anthony. Its soon-to-launch baseball pregame would seem to follow the same model, featuring Costas, host Ahmed Fareed and three top analysts (Joey Votto, Clayton Kershaw and Anthony Rizzo).
Beyond the slimmer casts, the NBA and baseball shows also differ by featuring more contemporary personnel. Other than McGrady, who last played in 2013, each of the analysts played at some point this decade. By comparison, only one member of the “Football Night” crew — McCourty — played more recently than 2009.
Earlier this month, NBC featured two active players — Cam Heyward and Fred Warner — as guest analysts on its Super Bowl pregame show, plus Aaron Donald, who played as recently as 2023.