Under His Leadership, ‘Sunday Night Football’ Broadcasts Have Topped Primetime Ratings Chart For 12 Consecutive Seasons
CANTON, OHIO – In 2022, professional football accounted for 82 of the country’s 100 top-rated television shows. And no primetime program over any of the past 12 years – an unprecedented run in American broadcasting – has outdrawn NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.”
Today, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced that the person at the helm for NBC Sports’ football coverage during its 16 years of ratings dominance, Fred Gaudelli, has been chosen to receive its 2023 Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award.
“The Hall of Fame presents this award annually in recognition of longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football, and no one has set a better example of exactly what this award represents than Fred Gaudelli,” said Jim Porter, president of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “Millions of fans have tuned into ‘Sunday Night Football’ week after week and year after year, and Fred continually took the broadcast to new heights.”
Gaudelli will be honored during the 2023 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Week Powered by Johnson Controls that includes the Enshrinees’ Gold Jacket Dinner in downtown Canton on Friday, Aug. 4, and the Class of 2023 Enshrinement on Saturday, Aug. 5, in Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.
“I’m beyond honored and overjoyed to be named this year’s recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award,” Gaudelli said. “Pete Rozelle blazed the trail that enabled the National Football League to become America’s No. 1 entertainment entity. For 33 years and counting, I’ve had the privilege of contributing to that legacy by producing primetime games for four networks: ESPN, ABC, NBC & Amazon Prime. Joining former award winners – not to mention colleagues and friends including John Madden, Al Michaels, Chris Berman, Dick Ebersol, Howard Katz and Andrea Kremer – makes this honor the greatest of my career.”
Katz won the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award in 2022. Kremer, in 2018, became the second woman to win the award.
Gaudelli completed his 33rd season as the lead producer for an NFL primetime TV game last January. He served as executive producer of the debut of Amazon Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football,” a collaboration with NBC Sports.
Under Gaudelli’s guidance, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” became the most-honored live sports series in U.S. television history. In its first 16 seasons on NBC (2006-2021), the program won 30 Sports Emmys and collected a record 11 as Outstanding Live Sports Series.
Prior to joining “Sunday Night Football,” Gaudelli spent five seasons as producer of ABC’s “Monday Night Football.” Under his leadership, “Monday Night Football” and the production of Super Bowl XXXVII were nominated for nine Emmy Awards and won four, including Outstanding Live Sports Series in 2004. He produced ESPN’s Sunday night games from 1990 through 2000, winning Outstanding Live Sports Series for the 2000 season.
Gaudelli is credited with several innovations that improved the TV viewing experience. He introduced the “1st & Ten technology” (the electronically produced line that shows the first down mark on the field), the GoalPost Cam and the rotating clock/score box.
A 24-time Emmy winner and producer of seven Super Bowls, Gaudelli was elected to the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in August 2020 for career-long excellence in the sports TV and media industry.
A native of Harrison, N.Y., Gaudelli earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Long Island University/C.W. Post in 1982. He resides in Madison, Conn.
PAST WINNERS OF THE PETE ROZELLE RADIO-TELEVISION AWARD
2022 – Howard Katz
2021 – John Facenda
2020 – Joe Buck
2019 – Dick Ebersol
2018 – Andrea Kremer
2017 – David Hill
2016 – James Brown
2015 – Tom Jackson
2014 – Bob Trumpy
2013 – Al Michaels
2012 – Len Dawson
2011 – Jim Nantz
2010 – Chris Berman
2009 – Irv Cross
2008 – Dan Dierdorf
2007 – Don Meredith
2006 – Lesley Visser
2005 – Myron Cope
2004 – Van Miller
2003 – Don Criqui
2002 – John Madden
2001 – Roone Arledge
2000 – Ray Scott
1999 – Dick Enberg
1998 – Val Pinchbeck
1997 – Charlie Jones
1996 – Jack Buck
1995 – Frank Gifford
1994 – Pat Summerall
1993 – Curt Gowdy
1992 – Chris Schenkel
1991 – Ed Sabol
1990 – Lindsey Nelson
1989 – Bill McPhail
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Located in Canton, Ohio, the birthplace of the National Football League, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit institution with the Mission to Honor the Greatest of the Game, Preserve its History, Promote its Values, & Celebrate Excellence Together.
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Construction on Hall of Fame Village, a mixed-use development project, is under way in Canton to transform the Hall of Fame’s campus.