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Saints not slated to make a prime-time appearance NBC Sports president Rick Cordella put it best when summarizing what the NFL\u2019s scheduling department goes through each year.<\/p>\n \u201cI have five kids at home and you never satisfy them all. Just try and do your best, so I think it\u2019s a little bit of that,\u201d Cordella said Wednesday after he had a chance to look at the \u201cSunday Night Football<\/a>\u201d slate for the upcoming season. \u201cThey have really, really hard jobs. I have no doubt. We\u2019re all campaigning. We\u2019re all leveraging. We all pay a lot of money for these rights and we all want the same thing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n One would think the job has gotten somewhat easier the past couple of years as the league has come up with more broadcast windows, including making Christmas Day a permanent fixture.\n<\/p>\n The trade off, though, is that this is the third year under the league\u2019s broadcast deals that all of the games are up for bid for every network.<\/p>\n CBS remains the primary home of the AFC, with the NFC on Fox, but if there is a great NFC matchup during a week when CBS has the doubleheader, that game will end up on CBS. That is the case in Week 1 with Detroit visiting Green Bay in the 4:25 p.m. EDT spot.\n<\/p>\n Hans Schroeder, the NFL\u2019s executive vice president of media distribution, said this year\u2019s rotation of the NFC North facing the AFC North and NFC East created a lot of favorable matchups to divide among all the network\u2019s broadcast partners.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe love every schedule in May. Hopefully we love it in December, too,\u201d said Schroeder, who is in his second year leading the league\u2019s scheduling team. \u201cWe have a lot of great matchups, and the flexibility of those new TV deals that every game could go into any widow, I think that\u2019s the key and to marry that with a team that is relentless in their effort, I think led to a fun and really great schedule.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Down to the wire again\n<\/p>\n Even though the league announced the release date during the first round of the NFL Draft on April 24, the schedule wasn\u2019t totally finalized until Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n Because some of the games started to be announced on Monday during network upfront presentations to advertisers, those matchups were locked in on Sunday night.\n<\/p>\n The biggest final-minute decision with the early announced games came with the Fox Week 16 Saturday doubleheader on Dec. 20. The league knew it wanted Packers vs. Bears and Eagles vs. Commanders, but it didn\u2019t finalize the home teams until Sunday night.\n<\/p>\n Bills vs. Chiefs remains on CBS\n<\/p>\n If ever there was a year where the league could opt to move the Buffalo-Kansas City game from CBS to prime time, this was the one.\n<\/p>\n However, the Week 9 matchup will again be on CBS and is the only 4:25 p.m. game on Nov. 2. Going into this season, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen have faced each other nine times, including the playoffs. The first matchup in 2020 was on Fox with the rest being on CBS.\n<\/p>\n \u201cTo be documenting the story of these franchises and star quarterbacks, we\u2019re thrilled to keep telling it,\u201d CBS Sports<\/a> president and CEO David Berson said.\n<\/p>\n CBS also got what could be the most-watched game during the regular season with Kansas City visiting Dallas on Thanksgiving Day. The most-watched Thanksgiving game<\/a> was in 2022 when the New York Giants win over Dallas averaged 42.06 million on Fox.\n<\/p>\n The Chiefs and Bills are both slated to have nine games on CBS.\n<\/p>\n Hello again\n<\/p>\n It is rare that a Super Bowl rematch airs on the network that carried the game, but Fox gets Kansas City visiting Philadelphia on Week 2 in the 4:25 p.m. EDT window.\n<\/p>\n Getting the rematch satisfied a couple of requests that Fox made to the league. The network wants more variety in its late afternoon window, and it is also getting more quality matchups when the top AFC teams play on its network.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to be so reliant on the Dallas Cowboys. I think we hear complaints sometimes that fans feel like it gets a little bit monotonous that our 4:25 window is dominated by one team,\u201d said Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports<\/a> president, insight and analytics. \u201cWe\u2019re certainly still going to have our share of Dallas games, but we\u2019re going to have some Philly in there too. We\u2019re also going to have Buffalo, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Detroit, Washington. I think it is pretty different than what you\u2019re used to seeing on Fox, and I think it\u2019s actually going to be a little bit better.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Under the lights\n<\/p>\n NBC not only has the kickoff game between Dallas and Philadelphia on Sept. 4, it has the matchup between the last two NFL MVPs when Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens visit Allen and Buffalo on Sept. 7 on \u201cSunday Night Football.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nChiefs vs. Bills stays on CBS in Week 9 spotlight
\nFox to air Super Bowl rematch: Chiefs at Eagles in Week 2
\nNBC features Lamar Jackson<\/a> vs. Josh Allen on Sept. 7 SNF<\/p>\n