Behind the scenes of the most spectacular show on TV

On the possession that followed the Lions’ touchdown, the Chiefs stopped and punted with 5:07 left. “They have a chance to win the game now,” Collinsworth said. But it wasn’t to be. After one first down, the Lions fell short on their next three plays, and Campbell rolled the dice again, attempting a fourth-down pass that was batted away at the line of scrimmage. Tirico said, “The Lions hand the ball to the league MVP at the 45-yard line with 2:29 remaining.” The Chiefs had a chance to steal a win, needing perhaps twenty yards to get within field goal range.

And then the drama turned to farce as Mahomes’ receivers let him down and the penalties pushed the Chiefs back. An expired pass. A completion that is negated by a holding penalty. Another step, another fall. A near interception. A fourth-and-20 that became fourth-and-25 when Jawaan Taylor was flagged for a false start. In the control room, the sequence unfurled into a blizzard of quick cuts, Skycam close-ups and split-screens, as Hyland and Esocoff blurted orders with increasing urgency: “Give me down on Mahomes.” “From field to right tackle, 4K.” “5 left, 11 right! … Preview effects. Take effects.” For the professionals of the A-Unit, it was just an increased version of what they had been working on for hours. To an inexperienced lurker, the whole thing seemed like… a damn ballet, or some less graceful choreography, a dashing dance of astonishing precision.

The Chiefs went for it again on fourth and fifth. Mahomes took the snap, rolled to his left and launched a throw that curved over the line to gain and reached the fingertips of receiver Skyy Moore, who couldn’t grab it. Detroit got the ball back. NBC went to commercial with its “final act,” a slow-motion montage of jubilant Lions and somber Chiefs. Esocoff said, “Good job, guys,” and stood up and stretched for the first time since the start of the half. Just over two minutes later, Detroit converted a third-and-2 for a first down. Other than a catastrophic fumble, the Chiefs didn’t get the ball back. On the air, Tirico said: “The Detroit Lions do right there.” In the truck, Hyland’s statement was less circumspect. “The game is over,” he said.

A measure of the success of “Sunday Night Football” is how “Sunday Night Football”-esque the competing broadcasts look. If you tune into “Monday Night Football” or the big Sunday afternoon games on CBS and Fox, the rhythms and aesthetics of the broadcasts clearly owe something to “SNF.” For the ‘SNF’ team, Hyland says, the challenge is to “continue to differentiate our presentation from all the others.” He and Gaudelli had talked about this, he said later. “There really isn’t much separating the A-level shows. Everyone is trying to do the exact same show.” Competitors are certainly throwing money at the problem. In addition to the billions they pay the NFL for rights, the networks have spent enormous sums in recent years to re-sign top talent and lure glamorous new announcers. In May 2022, Fox Sports announced that it had appointed Tom Brady as lead analyst for its NFL broadcasts, in a deal that was reportedly the most lucrative in the history of television sports, reportedly worth $375 million for 10 years.

The broadcasters involved in this arms race are probably fighting the last war. The generations that came of age with social media may not attach the same mystique, or FOMO, to a live event playing out in real time. Why watch the entire game when you can see quick highlights in an app? In fan culture and sports media, a trend towards disaggregation and shrinkage can be observed. Fantasy football and prop betting view games through a splintered lens, valuing individual statistics and discrete in-game events over wins and losses. There are alternative broadcasts like ESPN’s “ManningCast” starring Peyton and Eli, which turns “Monday Night Football” into a high-profile meeting with the brothers, and the NFL Network’s “RedZone,” whose extensive coverage takes viewers through multiple games at the same time in split bids. screen sizes.