NBC on Tuesday announced its new Sunday Night Football broadcast team, officially unveiling the replacements for play-by-play man Al Michaels and sideline reporter Michele Tafoya.
Longtime NBC sports broadcaster Mike Tirico will now join Cris Collinsworth in the dressing room for play-by-play, and Melissa Stark will provide coverage on the sidelines.
“‘Sunday Night Football’ is Destination Viewing and we’re thrilled to have Mike, Cris and Melissa call out the action and tell the stories football fans have come to expect from the #1 primetime TV show,” said Pete Bevacqua, NBC chairman Sports explanation.
Tirico’s CV is known. He’s been part of NBC’s NFL coverage since 2016, but he does so much more. In the past year alone, he has served as the primetime anchor for NBC’s coverage of the Olympics, hosted the Super Bowl pregame show, the Triple Crown of horse racing, the US Open of golf and the Indianapolis 500. Essentially, when you’re getting yourself Watching sports on NBC is really hard to avoid hearing his voice.
Stark has a history of being a part-time reporter, having done the job for ABC’s Monday Night Football in the early 2000s. She has been a presenter and reporter for NFL Network for over a decade, worked for NBC at three Olympics, and worked for NBC News on the Today Show and MSNBC for four years.
Since the Super Bowl in February, there has been much movement and turmoil in the football broadcasting world, and NBC has been no exception. Michaels’ contract with NBC expired, and when it wasn’t renewed, he signed with Amazon to announce the Thursday night football games. Tafoya left sports broadcasting entirely and is now pursuing a career in Minnesota politics.
But now the moving and shaking seems to have come to an end, at least for the time being. NFL broadcast teams are mostly in place and all they need are games to call. Tirico, Collinsworth and Stark will get their first chance as a trio at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on August 4th and play their first regular season game on September 8th.
Mike Tirico will take Al Michaels’ old seat at Sunday Night Football. (Photo by Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)