Veteran sportscaster Mike Tirico officially joins NBC's top-rated Sunday Night Football team when he sits next to analyst Cris Collinsworth for the 2022 NFL Hall of Fame game at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4.
Tirico, the former ESPN Monday Night Football announcer who has occasionally filled in for Al Michaels after joining NBC in 2016, takes over the main play-by-play seat next to Collinsworth this season. Michaels left NBC in March to do Thursday night football for Amazon Prime with ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit.
Melissa Stark, former ABC Monday Night Football sideline reporter (2000-02), replaces Michele Tafoya, who retired from NBC Sports after the Feb. 13 Super Bowl telecast with Michaels and Collinsworth.
Tirico came to NBC in 2016 after 25 years at ESPN. For NBC he has hosted prime-time Olympics telecasts plus Football Night in America, Super Bowl pregame shows, horse racing’s Triple Crown, golf’s U.S. Open and the Indianapolis 500. NBC says he's "one of only four play-by-play announcers to work the primetime NFL package for at least 10 seasons (ESPN Monday Night Football, 2006-15)."
NBC's new trio will call the game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Las Vegas Raiders from Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. with NBC and Peacock carrying Football Night in America with Maria Taylor, Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison, Jason Garrett, Chris Simms, Mike Florio and Jac Collinsworth, Cris's son.
Cris Collinsworth, a Fort Thomas resident, starts his 14th season as NBC's Sunday Night Football analyst since John Madden retired after the 2008 season. The former Bengals receiver started doing NFL games for NBC 1990 while hosting WLW-AM's nightly SportsTalk, after Bob Trumpy left the radio station to work full-time for NBC Sports. He has done NFL games for NBC, Fox and the NFL Network, and studio shows for HBO, NBC and Fox.
Stark, a reporter and host for the NFL Network since 2011, has covered three Olympics for NBC Sports (2004, 2006 and 2008). She also spent four years (2003-07) with NBC News as a Today show national correspondent and news anchor and MSNBC anchor.
NBC's pregame Football Night show from Canton will be the debut for host Maria Taylor and analyst Jason Garrett.
Sunday Night Football will kick off the season, as usual, with a Thursday night prime-time game, the Buffalo Bills at Los Angeles Rams on Sept. 8, followed by the first Sunday night regular season telecast, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Dallas Cowboys, on Sept. 11.
The AFC champion Bengals are scheduled to play two division road games on Sunday Night Football: at the Baltimore Ravens on Oct. 9 and at the Pittsburgh Steelers on Nov. 20.
"Flex" weeks start Oct. 9 which will allow NBC to change games to broadcast a better match-up.
For the second consecutive season, Peacock will live stream all NBC Sunday Night Football games, including the playoffs, and Football Night, according to the NBC Sports release. The exclusive Peacock Sunday Night Football Final returns in 2022 with expanded postgame coverage following the game each week, NBC Sports says.
The Sunday Night Football schedule:
Thursday Sept. 8: Buffalo Bills at Los Angeles Rams.
Sept. 11: Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Dallas Cowboys.
Sept. 18: Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers.
Sept. 25: San Francisco 49ers at Denver Broncos.
Oct. 2: Kansas City Chiefs at Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Oct. 9: Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens.
Oct. 16: Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles.
Oct. 23: Pittsburgh Steelers at Miami Dolphins.
Oct. 30: Green Bay Packers at Buffalo Bills.
Nov. 6: Tennessee Titans at Kansas City Chiefs.
Nov. 13: Los Angeles Chargers at San Francisco 49ers.
Nov. 20: Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers.
Thanksgiving Nov. 24: New England Patriots at Minnesota Vikings.
Sun. Nov. 27: Green Bay Packers at Philadelphia Eagles.
Sun. Dec. 4: Indianapolis Colts at Dallas Cowboys.
Sun. Dec. 11: Kansas City Chiefs at Denver Broncos.
Sun. Dec. 18: New England Patriots at Las Vegas Raiders.
Sun. Dec. 25: Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Arizona Cardinals.
Sun. Jan. 1: Los Angeles Rams at Los Angeles Chargers.
Sun. Jan. 8: To be announced.
