TONIGHT: Al Michaels matches Pat Summerall's record with his 737th
@NFL
telecast in our records. Summerall had held the mantle since taking it from Curt Gowdy in 1982.
@NFL345
@PrimeVideo
@NBCSportsPR
MORE:
SUNDAY:
The Bears-Bills game (
@NFLonFOX
) will be
@LauraOkmin
's 164th network NFL telecast, which passes Armen Keteyian for
#3
among sideline reporters.
It also means that the top three sideline reporters -- Pam Oliver, Michele Tafoya and Okmin -- are all active.
Seahawks-Broncos earlier this afternoon was Dick Stockton's 600th NFL telecast as the play-by-play announcer. Only Al Michaels, who will get to 642 in a few minutes, has more.
TODAY: Manchester United played Liverpool this morning.
NBC's
@arlowhite
called his 600th national soccer game among the listings we have (EPL, MLS, USMNT, USWNT). That's the most of anyone in those fields.
@LeeDixon2
called his 300th EPL game for NBC, the third-most on record.
One of the 1:00 NFL games today is the 14,000th professional football game that we have record of being televised in this country.
To put this another way, Pat Summerall (who called 736 of those) has broadcast more than 5% of the pro football games that have ever aired.
ALSO LAST NIGHT: Dave Pasch (
@DavePasch
) called his 300th national NBA telecast. He's the 26th person to do that, but the seventh to reach that mark on PBP.
And, I hope, the only one to do that during a season in which his partner tried to coat him in peanut butter.
In the four soccer lists that we track, Wednesday will be
@ArloWhite
's 500th game for a U.S. national audience.
EPL - 428
MLS - 52
USWNT - 15
USMNT - 5
That's the most of anyone, although JP Dellacamera's total of 366 is almost certainly incomplete.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON:
@KennyAlbert
became the fifth play-by-play announcer to call 1,100 games of play-by-play on a national network among the four major pro sports.
He trails:
Dick Stockton 1439
Marv Albert 1437
Kevin Harlan 1193
Gary Thorne 1186
Jim Hughson, who announced his retirement today, shows up more in our announcer listings (4 major U.S. pro sports plus NHL in Canada) than anyone except Bob Cole, Marv Albert, Dick Stockton and Pierre McGuire.
.
@LenKasper
: "See some lightning off in the distance."
@DeshaiesQuotes
: "Time to go all Natural here. Not au naturel, but like the movie. The Natural."
Tonight marks the 950th American network NHL telecast with Mike Emrick at the play-by-play helm. 682 of those have come with
@NHLonNBCSports
since 2005.
On Monday, his lead over second-place Gary Thorne will reach two full 82-game seasons.
With the New Year, NBCSN (formerly Versus) will cease operations. Much of the networkβs sports properties - Premier League, Olympics, NASCAR, IndyCar, Horse Racing, Golf, the Tour de France, Atlantic 10 Basketball and more - will shift to USA Network beginning 1/1/22.
Pat Summerall's Bills games:
*9/27/70 vs. Rams (with Ray Scott)
*11/26/78 vs. NYG (Tom Brookshier)
*1/26/92 vs. WSH (John Madden)
*9/22/96 vs. DAL (Madden)
Joe Buck's Bills games:
*11/20/94 vs. GB (Tim Green)
*10/19/20 vs. KC (Troy Aikman)
SUNDAY: The Buccaneers-Panthers game on
@NFLonFOX
will be
@KennyAlbert
's 400th network NFL telecast.
Over that span, he's seen every NFL team at least three times, led by Washington (61 games) and the New York Giants (59).
SUNDAY:
@LauraOkmin
will become the fourth-most-frequent NFL sideline reporter on record (trailing Oliver, Tafoya and Keteyian) when she covers the Falcons-Steelers game for Fox.
Louisville and Charleston/Huntington are the two markets that get both this and the Tasker game.
WEDNESDAY: The Maple Leafs-Jets game on
@NHLonNBCSports
will be the 1000th national game Mike Emrick has called across the four major sports. He's the 15th person to that mark.
TONIGHT: Joe
@Buck
calls his 60th NFL postseason game on TV, matching Dick Enberg for
#3
among PBP announcers.
@TroyAikman
calls his 61st such game, tying Enberg and Al Michaels for
#4
among all announcers.
This is their 60th playoff game together, 9 short of Summerall/Madden.
TONIGHT: Dave Pasch calls his 350th national telecast of an NBA game. He's the sixth PBP announcer to reach that mark (Albert, Breen, Harlan, Stockton, Neal).
π
@Warriors
at
@DallasMavs
πΊ
@ESPNNBA
@ESPNPR
π’ 7:30 PM EST
ποΈ
@DavePasch
π¨βπ« Jeff Van Gundy
π€
@CassidyHubbarth
It is 12:01 a.m. in Hawaii. That means it's officially an NFL Thursday in all 50 states.
(Still not Thursday on Midway Island, and kickoff won't be until 10:20 a.m. Friday in Guam, but ... work with me here.)
TONIGHT: Hubie Brown becomes the second person (first color commentator) to reach 1,000 confirmed national NBA telecasts.
π
@TrailBlazers
at
@Raptors
πΊ
@ESPNNBA
@ESPNPR
π 8 PM
ποΈ
@MarkJonesESPN
π¨βπ« Brown
π€ Israel Gutierrez
SUNDAY 10/3: The Giants-Saints game marked the 1,200th time that
@KennyAlbert
has handled PBP on a national telecast of the four major U.S. sports. Only Marv Albert, Dick Stockton and Kevin Harlan have more.
Buck is 54 games from passing Jon Miller for the most national telecasts in MLB history as a play-by-play announcer.
That would put him on pace to pass Miller around the 2021 All-Star Game. (He's averaged 19 games per season since this TV deal began in 2015.)
(That Pacers-Sixers game is also the 993rd confirmed NBA telecast for Hubie Brown, which ties Bill Clement for the most network telecasts of a single sport by a color commentator in U.S. TV history.)
The last televised pro sporting event before COVID-19 was March 11 at 11:27 p.m. EDT (the end of Jets-Oilers in the NHL).
So on Saturday, May 9, at 6:46 p.m., this hiatus will surpass the 1981 MLB strike and become the longest period without televised pro sports. (2/2)
Tonight's Jazz-Blazers game on
@ESPN
is the 250th national NBA telecast for
@DavePasch
; that's the eighth-most of any play-by-play announcer.
(It's Dave, right?)
With Sunday's Chiefs-Steelers game, Dan Fouts will become the 29th person in NFL history to call 300 games on TV.
He's the 14th person who was primarily an analyst to reach that point, but that 300 includes sideline duties at two Pro Bowls ("only" 298 games as analyst).
As of 12:09 p.m. EDT, the Division I college football season is underway, but there's only one game involving a ranked team this weekend.
Fox is showing neither college football nor MLB today, opting instead for horse racing and MLS.
TONIGHT: Al Michaels calls his 716th national NFL telecast, the second-most in our records trailing Pat Summerall's 737.
This was going to be the game where Michaels passed Dick Stockton for
#2
, but that then happened in a historical update to our 1971 listings on Feb. 1.
It's Baseball Night In America, unless you live in one of seven markets (mostly around Indianapolis and Chicago) where it is Preseason Football Night In America.
This will be the first 1:15 p.m. kickoff for a televised NFL game since New Orleans-Washington and New York-Pittsburgh both did that on Dec. 14, 1969.
There were 75 1:15 kickoffs between 1967-69.
TODAY: Kevin Harlan's 490th national NFL telecast as the play-by-play announcer tied Dick Enberg for
#6
in our records.
(I don't have radio records, before someone asks.)
ποΈ
@NFLonCBS
@CBSSportsGang
ποΈ Harlan
π¨βπ«
@TrentGreen10
π€
@Melanie_Collins
NFL broadcasting trivia you didn't know you needed:
Weeks 1-2 of this season will be the first time Jim Nantz has called Texans and Jaguars games in consecutive weeks.
Weeks 2-3 will be the first time he's called Jags and Bills games in consecutive weeks in the regular season.
Thursday Night Football tonight is Joe
@Buck
's 333rd NFL game and
@TroyAikman
's 352nd.
It's the first time either of them have done a game:
1) Between two AFC teams;
2) That wasn't on Fox.
(h/t
@MannyM1313
, who asked about the first of those two things.)
A breakdown of Emrick's 1000 games...
421 NBCSN/OLN/VS.
264 NBC (263 as PBP)
105 SportsChannel (76 as PBP)
81 Fox
75 ESPN
35 ABC
7 NFL games on CBS
6 TSN/TSN2 (picking up Devils feeds)
2 CNBC
2 USA
1 NHL Network
1 ESPN2
IN RESPONSE TO LAST NIGHT'S NATIONALLY TELEVISED QUESTION:
Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy have called 514
@ESPNNBA
games together. That's the most of any PBP/color pair in our records.
Next is Breen/Mark Jackson at 405 games.
This game will break a streak of 26 straight
@USMNT
games with either Stu Holden or Taylor Twellman as analyst (3/27/18, Tony Meola).
@TaylorTwellman
had handled ESPN's last 22 USMNT telecasts (Kasey Keller, 6/5/15).
@AdrianHealey
gets his 11th cap,
@BrianDunseth
his 5th,
Ooh. Found while looking for something else...
Tonight is Al Michaels's 61st NFL playoff telecast. That breaks a tie with Dick Enberg for
#2
among PBP men, behind Pat Summerall (82).
Hello, Canada, and hockey fans across the United States and Newfoundland.
A mole in the dasher boards has helped fill in tonight's crews for Hockey Night in Canada.
EARLIER TONIGHT: Jim Hughson called his 1250th national telecast in our records (including NHL and MLB).
He's the fifth person to get there in the four major pro sports (Cole, Stockton, M.Albert, Irvin) and the fourth PBP announcer.
Pierre McGuire (1238) will join them soon.
That rounds out tonight's schedule, then.
(Wischusen, incidentally, has gone from Seattle to the Citrus Bowl to LA in the last three days and is also scheduled to be in Columbus on Thursday.)
Statistic no one asked for...
Tonight appears to be the 53rd time someone has hit three home runs in a game on a national MLB telecast.
Seven of those were on Sunday Night Baseball.
Yes, we're talking about the four major pro sports -- the clock started 13 hours or so later if you're talking about college hoops, for example.
(If the first things back are NASCAR, soccer, golf, tennis, etc., I will be WATCHING, but they're outside the scope of our records.)
TONIGHT: Pierre McGuire called his 1,261st national telecast in our records (4 major pro sports), passing Jim Hughson for the fourth-most overall.
(Bruins-Flyers with
@WaltonCaps
on
@NBCSN
).
Not on the original list of things to tweet, but happened...
Bruce Arians: First NFL TV commentator to call a tie in his debut since Steve Davis, who was on the sidelines for the Eagles-Ravens tie in 1997.
(First analyst to do that in the regular-season OT era [1974].)
Today's schedule and announcers, to the extent that we know it.
(The Indianapolis 500 doesn't actually start until 2:30, but TV/radio both sign on at 1.)
There's also a four-hour ESPN2 tennis window from "Cincinnati", but I don't usually list early rounds of non-majors.
Tonight is Michaels' 716th national NFL telecast, all on PBP; Cris Collinsworth's 426th telecast and 425th as the analyst; Michele Tafoya's 327th telecast and Kathryn Tappen's 10th, all on the sideline.
Albert's U.S. PBP totals include:
1116 NBA telecasts
297 NFL telecasts
34 NHL telecasts
5 MLB telecasts
Bob Cole is ahead of him in Canada and Dick Stockton also passes him if you include non-PBP roles, but Albert started his Knicks career in the Kennedy administration.