ABC's Monday Night Football is ending....
Dallas88
Posts: 746 ✭
in Sports Talk
....I grew up with ABC, as most of us did on Mondays.....now ESPN takes it over beginning next year.
Thoughts? Does anyone care?
Edit - didn't see the post about this already until too late!
Thoughts? Does anyone care?
Edit - didn't see the post about this already until too late!
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Wed Dec 21, 5:57 AM ET
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - "Dandy" Don Meredith and Frank Gifford will return to ABC a final time Monday to bid farewell to "Monday Night Football" in its last game on the broadcast network.
Neither Meredith nor Gifford, who were part of a three-man broadcasting team with the late Howard Cosell, will appear live when the New York Jets play host to the New England Patriots at 9 p.m. ET Monday. They will appear in taped segments that will air at the opening of the game.
Gifford, the former New York Giants star who appeared on "Monday Night Football" from 1971-97, appeared in a retrospective on the show's 500th program. But Meredith -- part of the original on-air team with Cosell and Keith Jackson -- has continually declined to come out of retirement.
"Don Meredith hasn't been seen much" on TV since he left "Monday Night Football" at the end of the 1984 season, said Norby Williamson, executive vp studio and remote production at ESPN/ABC Sports.
It was Gifford, who remains friends with the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, who urged Meredith to appear one last time, said Fred Gaudelli, executive producer of "Monday Night Football." Meredith wasn't able to attend the game because of family commitments in New Mexico, but he agreed to tape a segment, Gaudelli said.
ABC won't present a stand-alone tribute to "MNF" before its last game after 36 years on the network. Instead, the broadcast will present favorite moments from its storied history.
"Within the game, there are going to be moments, we're going to have vignettes," Williamson said. The halftime show also will feature some noted "Are You Ready for Some Football?" moments from the past.
Williamson and ESPN/ABC Sports executive vp content John Skipper also spoke about the future of "MNF," which will move to ESPN beginning next season. Skipper said that the aggregate audience for "MNF" across ESPN's many platforms -- from the Sunday night "SportsCenter" to the "NFL Countdown" show as well as ESPN Radio and elsewhere -- will be larger than it is for this year.
"We don't think of it as a simple three-hour window rating to a three-hour window rating comparison," Skipper said. He said that ESPN's research has shown that 90% of the people who watch "MNF" now will be able to watch it next year on ESPN "without any changes to their television set."
There will be overall changes on ESPN, however. While the signature music will remain the same, ESPN will unveil during the Super Bowl a new on-air look for "MNF." And only Al Michaels will remain of the two-man booth; John Madden will move to NBC to become an analyst for "Sunday Night Football."
Skipper bristled at NBC's efforts to make the Sunday night game -- which now is the third of three windows on Sunday that start at 1 p.m. ET -- the premier game of the week.
"The last time I checked, we're still on the Roman calendar," Skipper said of Monday night, evidently unaware that the calendar went out of use more than 2,000 years ago.
"Monday night is the only night that still has the exclusive window. ... We think that will resonate more with fans," he said.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
<< <i>As long as Howard Cosell don't come back. >>
Are you kidding me?
Cosell was great! He had an opinion, and he wasn't afraid to share them. All these PC sportscasters nowadays are more worried about being friendly with the athletes and not pissing anyone off, when Cosell just didn't care.
I'm not sure that we have the brightest "sportscasters" now, nor have many of them actually studied how to present themselves and the event the'ye covering to an audience.
I also am in the minority of liking Cosell's work.
what a blast i had with that game.
doesn't ABC/Disney own ESPN?
In any event I used to watch faithfully when the big 3 of Cosell, Meridith and Gifford announced.
My sister in law's brother was an exc. producer of that show until his death 10 years ago.
Steve
Of course, that was before the advent of cable television, TIVO, and the myriad of technical advances - most of which still baffle me.
The hundreds of broadcast options now available to the diehard sports fan has long since obviated the uniqueness of MNF and the uniqueness I might add of Howard Cosell.
Will I miss MNF? Yes I will....but I've been missing what it used to be for years now.
The main sports I like are football and baseball, I don't need anyone to "tell it like it is" because I couldn't care less what "is" is. I enjoy the games as is and only want the announcers to keep me informed about what is going on. If the sport itself isn't good enough for you and you need the extra curricular commentary from some jack*ss announcer like Cosell who loved to hear himself talk, then that is your prerogative. For your information there were numerous people around the country who used to mute the volume on MNF broadcasts and would instead listen to the radio broadcast while watching the TV - all because of not wanting to listen to Howard Cosell.
2 maybe 3 great MNF games this year. What a joke.
JS
If football is the most popular spectator sport in America why are the Monday night ratings so poor? Did ABC make a conscious decision not to renew or was it the NFL's choice to go to ESPN?
And for everyone who hated Cosell, I am sure there were many more who loved him.
<< <i>If football is the most popular spectator sport in America why are the Monday night ratings so poor? Did ABC make a conscious decision not to renew or was it the NFL's choice to go to ESPN? >>
Proliferation of cable TV, satelite, and other sports packages have killed it. People can catch football games in spades now. MNF was from another era where there weren't as many opportunities to catch a Pro game for any particular team. It was only a matter of time. I mourn it's passing though. I grew up watching it myself and will really miss it not being there any more.
Nice that they gave Vinny T. the opportunity to pass for that record breaking touchdown on the very last MNF.
And for everyone who hated Cosell, I am sure there were many more who loved him. >>>
Howard was Howard and they'll probably never be another like him although guys like Jim Gray try to copy him. Gray is simply boring though whereby Howard did have charisma.
I never hated Cosell. But he tended to wear on people in an aggravating way possibly because he was seemingly on every broadcast for a number of years. He as many know did a lot of boxing broadcasts but he also did tons of trash sports stuff also. There was just too much Howard for years.
To give you a little taste of what it was like, imagine Chris Berman doing MNF, boxing when boxing was huge on weekend TV, trash sports, and everything else for a major network at a time when there was no cable TV or internet - and Berman I don't think is as irritating as Cosell was - LOL
ESPN gets ad revenue, and cable subscriptions...MNF, due to the nfl (and all sporting events) being everywhere, all the time just wasn't that big a deal anymore.
I can't see Joe Theismann being a long term option on MNF...he's god awful...anyone know how long he's under contract for?