Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

NFL Kickoff 2020: In 50th-Anniversary Season, Monday Night Football Has a Fresh Look in Front of, Behind the Camera

15/09/2020

NFL Kickoff 2020: In 50th-Anniversary Season, Monday Night Football Has a Fresh Look in Front of, Behind the Camera With a new producer, ESPN adjusts to a COVID-friendly onsite presence By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Monday, September 14, 2020 - 3:05 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

It's a milestone year for one of sports television's most iconic properties. Monday Night Football enters its 50th-anniversary season when it premieres tonight with an opening-week doubleheader (Pittsburgh Steelers-New York Giants, 7 p.m. ET and Tennessee Titans-Denver Broncos, 10 p.m., both on ESPN). However, while ESPN will honor the legacy of MNF, 2020 is undoubtedly the beginning of a new era for one of the longest-running series in TV.

Much will be made of the entirely new broadcast booth - play-by-play man Steve Levy and analysts Brian Griese and Louis Riddick - but the production truck's front bench also features a new face: Phil Dean takes the helm as producer for the first time, joining second-year director Jimmy Platt.

ESPN director Jimmy Platt calls the shots during a dress rehearsal for Monday Night Football earlier this month. The MNF crew hosted this dress rehearsal on the ESPN main campus in Bristol, CT.

These new faces in the truck may have missed the benefit of a handful of practice reps in the preseason, ESPN EVP, Event and Studio Production, Stephanie Druly says, I think it's really interesting to get a fresh set of eyes. Those two guys are super-talented. They're also like the two nicest people in the world and will build this team camaraderie very quickly. I know they've already started to do that. I think it's going to take real reps, though; it's just the reality. It's like playing the game: until you hit the field, you don't know. But everybody has been set up to succeed in really challenging circumstances.

Dean is no stranger to big-time broadcasts. He's a veteran of the industry of nearly 30 years and has been one of ESPN's top producers since 1999, when he was elevated to the college-football circuit. He has produced an annual national semifinal game each season since the inception of the College Football Playoffs in 2014 and has produced numerous ESPN Saturday Primetime college football games.

Earlier this month, the new MNF crew did get together to participate in a dress rehearsal on the ESPN campus in Bristol, CT, allowing the on-air talent and above-the-line and below-the-line crew to begin to create some of that all important chemistry.

Inside the Monday Night Football dress rehearsal . @espnSteveLevy @briangriese @LRiddickESPN @ESPNNFL pic.twitter.com/bVD9sNJGA5

Derek Volner (@DerekVolner) September 9, 2020

The onsite presence, though scaled back for safety reasons, is still substantial. Druly estimates that about 130 people will be onsite each week, compared with about 225 last year.

Some key positions in the truck- perhaps most notably, graphics -will be run from Bristol. This year's MNF product features the second year of a comprehensive graphics redesign that garnered the network praise this summer. The project helped ESPN sweep the Sports Emmys graphics awards, claiming trophies in Outstanding Live Graphic Design and Outstanding Post-Produced Graphic Design.

SVG ON DEMAND: ESPN's Spike Szykowny on the Arduous Process of Redeveloping Monday Night Football s Graphics

The new MNF on-air team will be onsite each week but will be in a spread-out, socially distant booth. In addition, positions like Levy's spotter will be working with him remotely over a video call.

There are things that you can't replicate in a conference room or in an audio booth, Druly explains. Those things we're going to have to feel out as we go, but we're prepared for it. I'm really proud of what our team has done to prepare for the curveballs that distancing has thrown at us.

She adds that ESPN is working with the league to integrate enhanced crowd audio (which will be pumped into empty stadiums by the in-venue video crews) and the virtual-fan elements seen on many of the other NFL broadcasts through Week 1. ESPN also aggressively used that virtual-fan integration during the remote NFL Draft in April.

We're going to learn as we go, says Druly, but I know we're really, really well-positioned right now.

Stay tuned to SVG for more in-depth coverage of ESPN's Monday Night Football operations in the coming weeks.
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/09/14/nfl-kickoff-2020-in-its-50th-an...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

15/05/2026

Join Calrec at MPTS 2026

Join Calrec at MPTS 2026 | May 13-14 | Stand A40 | Olympia, London We're looking forward to meeting up with customers and partners at this year's Media ...

15/05/2026

CTV's Data Gap Holding Back Bigger Ad Budgets, New Gracenote Research Finds

86% of media planners would move more linear TV budget to CTV if they had show-level targeting and reporting - and 65% would also shift dollars from programmati...

15/05/2026

Scripps Completes Station Swaps with Gray Media

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/05/2026

Clear-Com Takes Communications Further at InfoComm 2026

Clear-Com will showcase new communications solutions and major platform updates at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7005), June 17-19, in the North and Central Halls of t...

15/05/2026

Rise AV Launches Second Year of UK Elevate Programme Foll...

Following an outstanding inaugural year in 2025, Rise AV is proud to announce the return of its flagship leadership initiative, Elevate. The programme continues...

15/05/2026

Berklee Announces Lineup for Inaugural AI Music Summit

Berklee Announces Lineup for Inaugural AI Music Summit The three-day event puts musicians at the center of the future of music creation, ethics, and the indus...

15/05/2026

Lightware Highlights Scalable USB-C and AV-over-IP Innova...

Lightware returns to InfoComm 2026 with a focused showcase of scalable USB-C connectivity, next-generation AV-over-IP solutions, and technologies that help over...

15/05/2026

IAB Releases Campaign Data Standards 1.0 for Public Comment

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/05/2026

ARRI Expands Management Board

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/05/2026

Gray Media Names Joanie Vasiliadis SVP of Transformation

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/05/2026

Study: Data and Measurement Problems Reduce CTV Ad Budgets

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/05/2026

Upfronts: WBD Expands Advanced Ad Capabilities and AI Ad Tech

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/05/2026

VLAST Powers PLAVEs Asia Tour Encore with AJA Gear

Delivering a live, arena-scale production of a massively popular band is no small feat. Between expansive in-arena LED walls and a global live stream fed to onl...

15/05/2026

Sun Broadcast Futureproofs Dayalbaghs Multimedia Van with...

Connection is the heartbeat of any strong community, and with live streaming becoming more accessible in the modern era, it's much easier for faith-based or...

15/05/2026

Disguise and Creative Technology Power Eurovision for the...

Powered by GX 3 media servers, optimised IP-VFC workflows and on-site engineering expertise, the production delivers high-performance visuals for one of the wor...

15/05/2026

Why Trusted Measurement Matters More Than Ever in Retail Media

Against that backdrop, IAB UK has added retail media to its Gold Standard. Jan Pitt, Commercial Director at ABC, spoke with Liv McCullagh, Retail Media Lead at ...

15/05/2026

RT's statement on Derek Mooney's Earnings for the Years 2020-2023

Further to RT 's statement released yesterday and in the interest of full transparency, with the full permission of Derek Mooney, we are now publishing the ...

14/05/2026

Sweetwater and Airstream Unveil Mobile Dolby Atmos Recording Studio

Sweetwater and Airstream have announced a custom-built Dolby Atmos mobile recording studio inside an Airstream trailer, set to tour music festivals, schools, tr...

14/05/2026

American Association of Professional Baseball Expands Broadcast Distribution for 2026 Season

The American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB) has announced a new par...

14/05/2026

ESPN to Establish Week-Long Super Bowl LXI Broadcast Center on Santa Monica Beach

ESPN has announced plans to transform Santa Monica Beach into a broadcast hub du...

14/05/2026

Amagi Announces Major Upgrade to CLOUDPORT Cloud Broadcast Platform

Amagi has announced a significant update to Amagi CLOUDPORT, its cloud-based broadcast playout platform. The update includes 250-plus features shipped in FY25-2...

14/05/2026

Clear-Com to Showcase New Products and Platform Updates at InfoComm 2026

Clear-Com will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7005, June 17-19, Las Vegas Convention Center), introducing a new product that builds on Arcadia Central Station...

14/05/2026

Ikegami to Exhibit at BroadcastAsia 2026 with Two New Viewfinder Premieres

Ikegami will exhibit at BroadcastAsia 2026 (Stand 5D3-1, Singapore Expo, May 20-22), introducing two new viewfinders alongside its existing camera, control, and...

14/05/2026

dB Broadcast Delivers IP-Based OB Trucks for Cloudbass Featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Cameras

Grass Valley has announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside ...

14/05/2026

NAGRAVISION and WPBSA Launch Play Snooker Digital Platform

NAGRAVISION, a Kudelski Group company, has announced a partnership with the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) to launch Play Snooker,...

14/05/2026

Belden To Acquire RUCKUS Networks for Approximately $1.85 Billion

Belden Inc. has announced a definitive agreement to acquire RUCKUS Networks from Vistance Networks for approximately $1.85 billion. The transaction has been app...

14/05/2026

NVIDIA Releases Content Localization Blueprint for AI-Assisted Dubbing and Speech Translation

NVIDIA has released the Content Localization Blueprint, a modular reference arch...

14/05/2026

Disney+ To Stream Banana Bowl Championship Live This October

Disney has announced that Disney will be the exclusive U.S. streaming home of the Banana Bowl, the Banana Ball league season championship, streaming live this ...

14/05/2026

Arkona and Manifold To Exhibit on Magna Systems Stand at BroadcastAsia 2026

Arkona technologies and technology partner manifold will demonstrate their production solutions on the Magna Systems and Engineering stand (Booth 5D1-1) at Broa...

14/05/2026

Haivision Webinar: New Broadcast Contribution Products Featuring Minor League Baseball Case Study

Haivision will host a webinar on Thursday, May 21 at 10 a.m. ET / 4 p.m. CET cov...

14/05/2026

The CW Network and ESPN Announce ACC Sublicense Agreement Through 2030-31 Season

The CW Network and ESPN have announced a sublicense broadcast agreement for The CW to televise ACC football and men's and women's college basketball gam...

14/05/2026

Detroit Pistons Ink Local Media Rights Deal With Scripps Sports

The agreement marks Scripps Sports' first NBA local rights deal...

14/05/2026

Report: Broadcasting Among Hardest-Hit Industries as AI Reshapes the Workforce

A new report from education-technology company Wiingy testing post-ChatGPT predictions against three years of real-world data has identified broadcasting as one...

14/05/2026

Madonna, Shakira, and BTS to Headline First-Ever FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show

Global Citizen and FIFA have announced that Madonna, Shakira, and BTS will headl...

14/05/2026

Sundance Institute Names 2026 Episodic Lab Fellows

LOS ANGELES, CA, May 14, 2026 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the cohort selected for the 2026 Episodic Lab program, taking place at Dunaway ...

14/05/2026

Spotify Expands Music Access for Young Listeners, Extending Managed Accounts to Free Tier

At Spotify, we're focused on making every listening experience feel intentio...

14/05/2026

Spotify Brings Nashville's Songwriting Community Together for Mental Health Summit

Spotify recently welcomed songwriters, artists, executives, and music students t...

14/05/2026

Sonuscore update Lux Orchestral Strings

New articulations, ostinatos, Motion Scoring Articulation Sets & more Sonuscore's flagship cinematic string library has just been treated to a significa...

14/05/2026

Pr Recording & Residence

World-class studio opens on T rkiye's Aegean coast P r Recording & Residence have announced their official opening, introducing a new world-class reside...

14/05/2026

Nugen Audio update DialogCheck

Now supports channel layouts up to 9.1.6 Nugen Audio have just released an update for their AI-powered dialogue intelligibility and compliance tool. Set to ...

14/05/2026

UVI release Orchestral Suite 2

New recordings & one-key chord tool UVI have just announced the release of Orchestral Suite 2, a ground-up redesign of their all-in-one symphonic orchestra ...

14/05/2026

Rob Papen launch eXplorer 11

Two new arrivals & expanded factory content Rob Papen's all-encompassing plug-in and virtual instrument collection has just been treated to another upda...

14/05/2026

FSK Audio release QRonicle

Embed QR codes into DAW sessions FSK Audio's latest plug-in doesn't process audio, but serves as an organisational tool that allows QR codes to be e...

14/05/2026

SBS Board appoints Jane Palfreyman Managing Director

SBS Board appoints Jane Palfreyman Managing Director 13 May, 2026 Media releases The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Board of Directors is pleased to an...

14/05/2026

Transforming bold ideas into market-ready productions: Digital Originals returns

Transforming bold ideas into market-ready productions: Digital Originals returns 14 May, 2026 Media releases SBS, NITV and Screen Australia have announced ...

14/05/2026

Australia Uncovered Returns to SBS with Bold New Season Featuring John Safran on Free Speech and Powerful Stories of Justice and Survival

Australia Uncovered Returns to SBS with Bold New Season Featuring John Safran on...