FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, November 15th, 2018
EMERIL LAGASSE & TROMBONE SHORTY BRING NEW ORLEANS-STYLE THANKSGIVING FLAVOR IN SPECIAL SHOW OPEN FOR NBC’S PRIMETIME NFL THANKSGIVING GAME
Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy & Rodney Harrison To Call Atlanta Falcons at New Orleans Saints in NBC Sunday Night Football “Thanksgiving Special”
Michele Tafoya To Report from Sidelines on Thanksgiving Night, Will Award Postgame Turkey Legs & Game Balls
Emeril Serves Up Special Thanksgiving Fare; Trombone Shorty Delivers a Brassed-Up Version of SNF Theme Song
NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App to Live Stream All NBC NFL Games to Desktops, Tablets, Connected TVs, & Mobile Devices
STAMFORD, Conn. – Nov. 15, 2018 – New Orleans-based master chef Emeril Lagasse and famed voodoo rocker Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews headline NBC Sports’ show open for the Sunday Night Football “Thanksgiving Special” as the Atlanta Falcons visit the New Orleans Saints. Coverage begins next Thursday night, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, with kickoff at 8:20 p.m. ET, from Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.
The Thanksgiving night show open will lead into a special holiday assignment for Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison, who shift from Football Night in America – the most-watched weekly studio show in sports for 13 years running – into the broadcast booth to call Falcons-Saints. Michele Tafoya will report from the sidelines in New Orleans, and will award the traditional postgame turkey legs and game balls.
Set at Emeril’s New Orleans, the special show open is highlighted by Emeril setting the table for Falcons-Saints by creating NFL-themed fare that could only be part of a Thanksgiving feast in the Big Easy. And as dinner is being prepared, Trombone Shorty gets into the act with his distinctive brand of New Orleans music capped by his own rendition of the Sunday Night Football theme song backed by New Breed Brass Band.
“What better place to celebrate Thanksgiving than in a city that perpetually revels in food, family, and football,” Emeril said. “We’re so happy to be a part of this Thanksgiving special and bring our traditions home to you. Who Dat?!”
“To me, food and music are the heartbeats of New Orleans,” Trombone Shorty said. “To experience one of the best chefs in the world live and up close while he is creating his unique dishes and to be the soundtrack to that was really incredible.”
About Emeril Lagasse
Chef Emeril Lagasse is the chef/proprietor of 11 restaurants in New Orleans, Las Vegas, Miramar Beach, FL and Bethlehem, PA. As a national TV personality, he has hosted more than 2,000 shows on the Food Network, and is a food correspondent for ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Most recently, Amazon launched an original series featuring Lagasse called Eat the World with Emeril Lagasse. The series received five daytime Emmy nominations and won Outstanding Culinary Program. The series was also a James Beard semifinalist in the category Outstanding Personality of Host. Lagasse has appeared as a guest judge on Bravo’s hit food series, “Top Chef,” was named a co-host of the “Rachael Ray Show,” and has appeared on the Cooking Channel with five seasons of “Emeril’s Florida.” He is the bestselling author of 19 cookbooks, the latest titled Essential Emeril: Favorite Recipes and Hard-Won Wisdom from My Life in the Kitchen. In 2002, Emeril and his wife Alden established the Emeril Lagasse Foundation to support children’s educational programs that inspire and mentor young people through the culinary arts, nutrition, healthy eating, and important life skills. To date, the Foundation has donated more than $10 million to community organizations in New Orleans, Las Vegas and on the Gulf Coast.
About Trombone Shorty
Part Jimi Hendrix, part James Brown, and all New Orleans, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews is a singular artist who puts his own spin on traditional American musical forms. Andrews is the bandleader and frontman of Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, a nine-piece hard-edged funk band that employs brass-band beats, rock dynamics and improvisation in a jazz tradition. NPR hailed him as “New Orleans’ brightest new star in a generation,” and New York Magazine says “Trombone Shorty takes in a century-plus worth of sounds—ragtime and jazz and gospel and soul and R&B and hip-hop—and attacks everything he plays with festive fervor.” His 2017 Blue Note debut Parking Lot Symphony contains multitudes of sound—from brass band blare and deep-groove funk to bluesy beauty and hip-hop swagger—and plenty of emotion all anchored by stellar playing and the idea that, even in the toughest of times, as Shorty says, “Music brings unity.”
—NBC SPORTS GROUP—
