NBC announced Tuesday that Mike Tirico will replace Al Michaels as the play-by-play voice of the network’s Sunday night NFL broadcasts. The move hardly was surprising — Tirico has been pointed toward the high-profile Sunday night NFL job since leaving ESPN for NBC in 2016, and already has called 21 NFL games for the latter — but it completed a dizzying offseason merry-go-round among NFL broadcast booths, with nearly all the major players changing networks and time slots.
Here’s a look at how your weekly NFL viewing schedule will look and sound when the new season kicks off in September.
2021 announcers (Fox): Joe Buck and Troy Aikman
2022 announcers (Amazon Prime): Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit
Amazon will pay the NFL around $1 billion for the rights to stream Thursday night games for the foreseeable future and reportedly will pay Michaels and Herbstreit at least $10 million each per year to lend their well-known voices to the broadcasts.
Michaels has been the lead announcer for NBC’s Sunday night games since 2006 and called his final game for the network at the Super Bowl earlier this year (it was his 11th Super Bowl). Before that, he was the play-by-play announcer on ABC’s “Monday Night Football” broadcasts for 20 seasons, starting in 1986.
Herbstreit will continue to call college football games for ESPN along with his new NFL duties (though he also has provided analysis for several NFL games at ESPN).
2021 lead announcers: Buck and Aikman
2022 lead announcers: Kevin Burkhardt and analyst TBD
With Buck and Aikman off to NBC (see below), Fox reportedly will replace the former in its No. 1 booth with Burkhardt, who has been calling NFL games for the network since 2013. His broadcast partner has not yet been identified, though former NFL tight end Greg Olsen — Burkhardt’s booth-mate in 2021 — is seen as a top candidate.
Buck had nothing but good things to say about his former co-worker, who will be in the spotlight when Fox airs next season’s Super Bowl:
After 20 years of calling the @nflonfox I can’t tell you how excited I am for @kevinburkhardt to take over. He’s terrific on the air and a wonderful person. I could NOT be more excited for him and @foxsports. Go kill it Kevin! Glad to be your friend and out of your way! Well done
— Joe Buck (@Buck) March 28, 2022
2021 lead announcers: Jim Nantz and Tony Romo
2022 lead announcers: Nantz and Romo
The one source of stability among NFL broadcast booths has been at CBS, where Nantz and Romo will continue a partnership that began in 2017. The two are under contract at CBS for the foreseeable future.
2021 announcers: Michaels and Cris Collinsworth
2022 announcers: Tirico and Collinsworth
NBC announced Tirico’s ascension on Tuesday, a move long anticipated, with Collinsworth remaining in the same analyst spot he’s held for the past 13 seasons.
With Michele Tafoya’s retirement, Melissa Stark will be NBC’s new Sunday night sideline reporter, a job she held on ABC’s “Monday Night Football” from 2000 to 2002.
2021 announcers: Steve Levy, Brian Griese, Louis Riddick
2022 announcers: Buck and Aikman
Levy, Griese and Riddick didn’t leave much of a mark, lasting only two seasons and watching the Manning brothers siphon off viewers to their simulcast show on ESPN2/ESPN Plus in 2021. Enter Buck and Aikman, whom ESPN lured away from Fox by making them the NFL’s highest-paid broadcast pair.
