FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, September 11th, 2012
JIM SCHWARTZ AND THE LIONS TRAVEL TO SAN FRANCISCO TO TAKE ON JIM HARBAUGH AND THE 49ERS ON SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL IN A REMATCH OF THE “HANDSHAKE GAME”
NEW YORK – Sept. 11, 2012 – Jim Schwartz and the Lions (1-0) travel to San Francisco to take on Jim Harbaugh and the defending NFC West champion 49ers (1-0) in a rematch of the much talked about “Handshake Game” on Sunday Night Football. After the 49ers 25-19 comeback win over the Lions last year at Ford Field, Harbaugh incensed Schwartz with a firm handshake and backslap. As a result, the two head coaches had to be separated as they left the field. Coverage begins Sunday with Football Night in America at 7 p.m. ET.
Calling Lions-49ers is six-time Emmy Award-winner Al Michaels (play-by-play), in his 27th season as the voice of the NFL’s premier primetime package; 13-time Emmy Award-winner Cris Collinsworth, who has won the Emmy for outstanding event analyst in each of his three seasons in the Sunday Night Football booth; and sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, who, last year in her first season with SNF, won the inagural Emmy Award for Outstanding Sports Reporter.
Football Night in America is hosted by 23-time Emmy Award-winner Bob Costas, who will report from Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif. Costas will be joined on site by Michaels and Collinsworth for reaction to the afternoon games.
Dan Patrick co-hosts Football Night from NBC’s Studio 8G at 30 Rockefeller Plaza on Sunday night. Patrick is joined by Super Bowl-winning head coach Tony Dungy, two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison, Peter King of Sports Illustrated, and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk on NBC Sports Network and NBCSports.com. Carolyn Manno will report from Heinz Filed in Pittsburgh, Pa., on the Steelers-Jets game.
“San Francisco has the best young defense since Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens. Offense is the story for the Detroit Lions, with Mathew Stafford and Calvin Johnson. He (Johnson) is such an intimidating figure on the field for any defense he plays against. It makes it exciting for me to watch any time he is on the field.”
– Cris Collinsworth
PREVIEW VIDEOS:
Michaels and Collinsworth on Lions vs. 49ers
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/22825103/vp/48980288#48966061
Patrick, Dungy and Harrison on Lions vs. 49ers
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/22825103/vp/48965672#48965672
In addition to the weekly Sunday Night Football and Football Night in America broadcasts, NBC Sports Group’s NFL coverage also includes digital content and social media extensions that are available online, as well as NFL-related shoulder programming available on NBC Sports Network.
SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL EXTRA
SNF EXTRA: For the fifth consecutive season, the entire Sunday Night Football schedule is streamed live on NBCSports.com. The video stream will come directly from NBC’s broadcast of SNF, and will include additional camera angles and interactive features.
Sunday Night Football Extra employs a full HD-quality player, which includes a draggable picture-in-picture feature for any of the online-only cameras, plus full DVR functionality allowing the user to pause, scroll back-and-forth, and review plays in slo-motion.
SNF Extra includes expert analysis, including fantasy tips from Rotoworld fantasy experts as well as in-game chats and analysis from Mike Florio. Additionally SNF Extra employs online-only in-game analysis from the Sunday Night Football and Football Night in America teams.
SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL ALL-ACCESS. ALL SEASON LONG: For the third straight season, NBCSports.com is providing a destination for fans dedicated to behind-the-scenes content of Sunday Night Football. SNF All-Access includesexclusive photos of the Sunday Night Football production, look-ins on SNF production meetings, Michele Tafoya interviews with key NFL players and a weekly notebook and conversations with SNF talent.
Visit SNF All-Access at:http://snfallaccess.nbcsports.com/
“THE SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL”: This season NBC Sports will introduce “The Sunday Night Football”, a custom made football from Wilson, which will travel with the SNF crew all season long. Fans of SNF on Facebook and Twitter will be able to keep up with “The Sunday Night Football” on the SNF Facebook page, follow its path through each city and recommend where it should visit while in town. At the end of each SNF game, “The Sunday Night Football” will be signed by the player of the game. Photos, video and stories around “The Sunday Night Football” and its travels will live on Facebook, Twitter and SNFAllAccess.com all season long.
Week Player Game Date
Week 1 Peyton Manning Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos Sun. Sept. 9
SNF ON FACEBOOK: Facebook.com/SNFonNBC – The Sunday Night Football Facebook page provides links, photos and videos exclusive to behind-the-scenes at SNF every week. The page aggregates all SNF-related content found within the NBC Sports digital network, including NBCSports.com, SNF Extra, ProFootballTalk.com, and Rotoworld.com.
SNF ON TWITTER: twitter.com/SNFonNBC – For the first time ever, Michele Tafoya will be doing live video tweets from@SNFonNBC on the sideline exclusively for the SNF social media platforms, providing fans extended real-time content from Michele’s unique sideline perspective. Using tweets, twitpics and twitvids @SNFonNBC provides unique content with SNF talent, production crew and NFL players.
Each week @SNFonNBC will promote a guest player who will live tweet during the Sunday Night Football broadcast. On Sunday, September 16, @BarrySanders will be the guest player. The tweets from the guest player will automatically be pulled into the SNF Extra Player.
SNF ON INSTAGRAM: Going into its second season, Sunday Night Football gives the SNF fan a look at photos through the filters of Instagram. Fans get a look inside the production trucks, the locker rooms, on the field and around the city. Fans also have the opportunity to submit photos through Instagram using #SNF that will automatically be curated into a special Instagram tab on the Sunday Night Football Facebook page.
SNF ON GETGLUE: For the second season in a row, fans can check into each SNF game onGetGlue. Fans watching Sunday Night Football at home have the opportunity to win weekly SNF themed stickers and chances at real-world prizes by checking into SNF on GetGlue every Sunday night.
NFL TURNING POINT WEDNESDAY NIGHTS, 10 P.M. ET on NBC SPORTS NETWORK
The second season of Emmy-nominated NFL Turning Point, NBC Sports Network’s weekly NFL show co-produced by NFL Films, premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET. The episode features Peyton Manning’s dramatic performance in leading the Broncos to victory against the Steelers; Robert Griffin III’s stellar first-game in leading the Redskins to a win over the Saints; and compelling in-game audio from Michael Vick during the Eagles win against the Browns.
Hosted by Football Night In America’s Dan Patrick, the hour-long program will air throughout the entire NFL season, including the playoffs and Super Bowl.
Each week NFL Turning Point will be built around select NFL match-ups from the previous weekend, and will focus on the crucial “turning point” moments that ultimately defined the outcome of each game. The show will feature anatomy-of-a-play type segments and long form, Game-of-the-Week style narratives that include the pre-game and post-game access, sideline sounds, jaw-dropping cinematography and incredible storytelling that is synonymous with NFL Films.
PRO FOOTBALL TALK ON NBC SPORTS NETWORK WEEKNIGHTS, 5 P.M. ET
Mike Florio, who created the innovative, NFL-focused web destination ProFootballTalk.com, hosts the new NBC Sports Network television program Pro Football Talk. The one-hour show airs weeknights at 5 p.m. ET every Monday through Friday. Pro Football Talk is co-hosted by Erik Kuselias.
Pro Football Talk features concentrated NFL insight from Florio and other experts from around the league. Florio and Kuselias will regularly welcome a roster of NBC Sports football commentators, including Rodney Harrison, Hines Ward, Doug Flutie, Ross Tucker, Amani Toomer, and Peter King, among others. In addition to deep diving on the most topical NFL stories of the day, Pro Football Talk will also touch on injuries, fantasy football and officiating.
Click here for more details about Pro Football Talk: http://www.nbcumv.com/mediavillage/sports
“SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL” VIEWERSHIP NOTES
HIGHEST-RATED SNF GAME EVER: Sunday’s Steelers-Broncos game on NBC was the highest-rated Sunday Night Football game ever and tied the 2010 NFL Kickoff opener (Vikings-Saints) as the highest-rated regular-season NFL game ever on NBC.
The game drew a 16.5 national household rating and a 26 share, topping the 15.7/25 for last year’s Cowboys-Giants Week 17 finale by five percent. The household rating (16.5/26) and viewership (27.57) are up 8% and 7%, respectively, over last year’s first SNF game (Cowboys-Jets, 15.3/25 and 25.8 million).
HOMETOWN TEAMS: In Denver, the game received a 44.2 household rating and a 67 share, the best local rating for a SNF game in Denver, since 2003 (44.5/61 Oakland-Denver 9/22/03). In Pittsburgh, the game received a 51.5 household rating and a 70 share, which topped the rankings.
| HIGHEST RATED NFL REGULAR-SEASON PRIMETIME GAMES ON NBC | |
| T1. 16.5/26 | Steelers-Broncos, 9/9/12 (Sunday Night’s Game) |
| T1. 16.5/28 | Vikings-Saints, 9/9/10 (2010 Thursday Night Opener)* |
| 3. 16.0/26 | Saints-Packers, 9/8/11 (2011 Thursday Night Opener)* |
| 4. 15.7/25 | Cowboys-Giants, 1/1/12 (2011 SNF Week 17) |
| 5. 15.4/25 | Vikings-Packers, 10/24/10, (Favre Return to Lambeau II) |
| 6. 15.3/25 | Cowboys-Jets, 9/11/11 (2011 SNF Week 1) |
| 7. 15.2/24 | Eagles-Cowboys, 12/12/10 (2010 SNF Week 14) |
| 8. 15.1/25 | Giants-Cowboys, 9/20/09 (Dallas Cowboys Stadium Debut) |
| 9. 15.0/25 | Cowboys-Redskins, 9/12/10 (2010 SNF: Week 1) |
| 10. 14.9/23 | Giants-Cowboys, 12/11/11 (2011 SNF Week 14) |
*Thursday Night Games
BACK TO FOOTBALL: Wednesday’s Cowboys-Giants game (23.9 million) and Sunday Night’s Broncos-Steelers game (27.6 million) rank as the No. 1 and No. 2 primetime programs of the week among viewers, households and other key ratings categories.
SNF DOMINATED PRIMETIME: NBC won Sunday night by all key ratings measures. Among viewers NBC’s margin of victory was 79 percent, or 9.9 million persons in total viewers over the second place network (22.4 million vs. 12.5 million for Fox, which was boosted by an NFL overrun). In adults 18-49, NBC’s margin of victory over the No. 2 network was 71 percent (8.9 vs. 5.2 for Fox).
This was the highest rated Sunday primetime performance (excluding the Olympics) for any network in both viewers and Adults 18-49 since ABC’s coverage of the Academy Awards on February 26.
SNF NO. 1 PRIMETIME PROGRAM ON TELEVISION
For the 2011-2012 primetime television season (September 19-April 16), Sunday Night Football ranked as the most-watched (persons 2+) and highest-rated show, and the No. 1 program across the key demographics of Adults 18-49, 18-34, 25-54, as well as Men 18-49, 18-34 and 25-54, based on Nielsen live + same day data. Additionally, SNF was the No. 3 show among Women 18-34, and the No. 4 show among Women 18-49.
The critically acclaimed Football Night in America, which precedes Sunday Night Football, each week at 7 p.m. ET, was seen by an average of 8.9 million in 2011, its best season ever, and the most for a regularly-scheduled NFL studio show.
Sunday Night Football has won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Live Sports Series in each of the last four years.
2012 SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
NBC will broadcast 19 primetime NFL games during the 2012 season, highlighted by: the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants hosting their division rivals the Dallas Cowboys on NFL Kickoff 2012; storied rivalries such as Steelers-Ravens, Eagles-Cowboys, and Giants-Eagles; two games featuring Peyton Manning with his new team the Denver Broncos – hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers on the first SNF game of the season, and the New Orleans Saints in Week 8; and NBC’s first Thanksgiving night game, featuring New England Patriots at the New York Jets.
2012 SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Sun. Sept. 16 Week 2 Detroit Lions at San Francisco 49ers
Sun. Sept. 23 Week 3 New England Patriots at Baltimore Ravens
Sun. Sept. 30 Week 4 New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles
Sun. Oct. 7 Week 5 San Diego Chargers at New Orleans Saints
Sun. Oct. 14 Week 6 Green Bay Packers at Houston Texans
Sun. Oct. 21 Week 7 Pittsburgh Steelers at Cincinnati Bengals
Sun. Oct. 28 Week 8 New Orleans Saints at Denver Broncos
Sun. Nov. 4 Week 9 Dallas Cowboys at Atlanta Falcons
Sun. Nov. 11 Week 10 Houston Texans at Chicago Bears
Sun. Nov. 18 *Week 11 Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers
Thurs. Nov. 22 *Week 12 New England Patriots at New York Jets
Sun. Nov. 25 **Week 12 Green Bay Packers at New York Giants
Sun. Dec. 2 *Week 13 Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys
Sun. Dec. 9 *Week 14 Detroit Lions at Green Bay Packers
Sun. Dec. 16 *Week 15 San Francisco 49ers at New England Patriots
Sun. Dec. 23 *Week 16 San Diego Chargers at New York Jets
Sun. Dec. 30 *Week 17 TBA
*Flex Week
**Thanksgiving Night Game
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