CBS's Thursday Night Football: An Ambitious Alliance With A Lot At Stake
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
All right, what is the only thing better than watching NFL football on television? Watching even more NFL football on television. More fans, like myself, will now have the chance to do just that on Thursday nights, like tonight. The season kicks off with the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks. The question is - is a TV network taking a risk using a primetime slot for football - a time usually stacked with highly rated sitcoms, dramas and reality programs? To ask this question, we turn to two resident experts - NPR TV critic Eric Deggans and NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman. Guys, and we should really point out that we should focus on your precise areas of expertise because, Tom, you don't know much about TV and, Eric, you don't know much about football, right?
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: Exactly right.
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: That is wise.
GREENE: I'm glad we have you both. Well, Tom, let me start with you. We've got NBC showing this game tonight, and then CBS takes over for a good number of Thursday nights into the season. Why's the NFL chasing an audience in the middle of the week?
GOLDMAN: Well, Thursday night is a big viewing night, as I believe Eric can confirm. And for the NFL, it brings in more viewers and fans who don't have cable. It's estimated that the NFL Network, which will be simulcasting these games with CBS - it's in about 70 million homes. Broadcast networks are broadcasted to be in about 115 million homes, and that's a lot more fans potentially for the NFL.
GREENE: And so we should say Thursday night games were on NFL Network last season, so you're saying this move to the networks - actually going to pick up more fans for the sport, for the league.
GOLDMAN: Yeah, it should, sure.
GREENE: Well, Eric, let me get the television perspective here. I mean, CBS - is it a wise move for them to air for football games and give up on the traditional sitcoms and dramas?
DEGGANS: Well, they're not giving up on the traditional sitcoms; they're just delaying them for the eight weeks that they're going air these eight games. And yes, it makes all kinds of sense. For NBC, the rival network, one reason why they were at the top of the ratings for viewers that advertisers love is because they have Sunday night football, which is the highest-rated program on television. And CBS has promised its advertisers ratings that will be just under the Sunday night football games, so they are excepting to be the number two highest-rated television with these Thursday night games.
They ponied up $275 million to get the rights to air these games, and they're going to have their broadcast stars not only to the CBS games, they're going to do the games that are on the NFL Network that will not be on CBS. That's how badly they wanted this package.
GREENE: So they're offering up their people to actually do the games they aren't even airing up on their network?
DEGGANS: Exactly. They only have the rights to the games for one season. And they want this partnership to extend, and Les Moonves, who's the president of CBS, has made a personal mission to forge partnership between CBS and NFL on Thursday nights.
GREENE: So they put up a ton of money to get the rights to this. They have to be expecting to make it up in advertising. I mean, if you're selling commercials during an NFL game, are you - if you're CBS - making a lot more on ads during shows like "Elementary" and "Two And A Half Men" that were airing in this slot last fall?
DEGGANS: Well, they're asking for a half million dollars per 30-second spot, and that is a really high number. We'll see if they get it from every advertiser, but yes, they are asking for a lot of money.
GREENE: Well, and, Tom, we should say when these games just aired on the NFL Network in past years, I mean, some of the matchups weren't that great. I mean, they were pretty cruddy. But CBS is really pushing for good matchups, marquee matchups from the NFL this year, right?
DEGGANS: Well, they are, but I will say that, you know, despite the matchups, there are drawbacks to any Thursday night game. I mean, it's a real short turnaround from the Sunday before. Players are banged up and hurting, and game plans really aren't as efficient or smooth or complex. Coaches sometimes feel like they have to rush a strategy because there's not enough time to teach or practice.
DEGGANS: Well, I've got to say as far as the TV industry is concerned, people are going to watch anyway because it's football.
GREENE: Well, if that's true, Eric, let me ask you this - I mean, do the other networks like NBC, ABC, if they know that, that people are going to watching CBS just for the fact that there's football on, do they start rethinking their lineups based on that?
DEGGANS: Oh, yeah, we've seen ABC and NBC both stack their Thursday schedule with female-skewing shows, assuming that all the guys will be watching football. So on ABC, they have Shonda Rines, their most successful showrunner with women, and they have her shows - "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal" and her new show "How To Get Away With Murder." And then on NBC, we see "The Biggest Loser," a romantic comedy called "A To Z" that's new, "Parenthood" - these are all shows that do well with women. They figure they're going to cater to the football widows who may be in another room watching TV while their husbands are watching football.
GREENE: That's NPR TV critic Eric Deggans and NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman. Thanks guys.
DEGGANS: Thanks for having me.
GOLDMAN: You're welcome.
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