NBC Moving Costas To Game Site For Sunday Night Football

In a press conference today, NBC said that they will be sending Bob Costas to the game site each Sunday, and he will do the pregame show with Cris Collinsworth and Al Michaels. Following the trio discussing the bigger stories of the day, along with Tiki Barber on the sidelines and locker rooms, they will then throw it to Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann (along with Dungy, Harrison and Peter King). Via NBC PR....

Costas, the most honored studio host of all time with 19 Emmy Awards, will host the show from a set at the "Sunday Night Football" game site. He will be joined by the new SNF broadcast team of Al Michaels, a six-time Emmy Award-winner whom the Associated Press has called "TV's best play-by-play announcer," and Cris Collinsworth, the most honored studio analyst in sports television history, winning the award in nine of the 12 years of its existence and winning two additional Emmys for game analyst. Collinsworth moves from the studio to the broadcast booth alongside Michaels to replace the recently-retired John Madden.

"At our best we aspire to give the viewer the best seat in the house -- not the hype around the event, but the story of the event itself," said Ebersol. "Bob has proven time and again that he is unmatched in his ability to appropriately set the scene and tell the story of an event. Having the two premier broadcasters of their generation in Bob and Al on site and appearing together alongside Cris, the best analyst in the business, adds an immediacy that makes 'Sunday Night Football' an even bigger event."

Costas said: "Hosting from the site of the game, being in the stadium surrounded by the fans and the energy and atmosphere of the event, creates an urgency and a sense of place that can't be duplicated in the studio. And of course, this allows me to keep working with Cris, while at the same time building on the special chemistry I developed with Al Michaels in BASEketball."

I've always been critical of NBC's decisions when it comes to "Football Night in America", but this year they seem to be close to getting it right. In fact, you could argue that they only really need Costas, Collinsworth and Michaels, manning the highlights.

(Also to note: As I mentioned before, Andrea Kremer is no longer on the sidelines)