| Notre Dame Football on NBC | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Also known as | Notre Dame Football on NBCSN Notre Dame Football on Peacock |
| Genre | College football telecasts |
| Directed by | Charlie Dammeyer (primetime) |
| Presented by | Dan Hicks Jason Garrett Zora Stephenson Reggie Smith Ahmed Fareed Jordan Cornette Joshua Perry Matt Cassel Michael Robinson Chris Simms Nicole Auerbach John Fanta Noah Eagle Todd Blackledge Kathryn Tappen Terry McAulay |
| Theme music composer | John Colby |
| Opening theme | “Here Comes Saturday Night” byFall Out Boy(primetime games only) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 35 |
| Production | |
| Producer | Matthew Marvin (primetime) |
| Production locations | Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame,Indiana,U.S.(Regular season) Various NCAA stadiums (Shamrock Series) NBC Sports Headquarters,Stamford, Connecticut (Pregame and halftime) |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 210 minutes or until game ends(inc. adverts) |
| Production companies | National Collegiate Athletic Association NBC Sports |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC NBCSN USA Network CNBC Peacock Telemundo,TeleXitos andUniverso (Spanish audio/broadcast) |
| Release | September 7, 1991 (1991-09-07) – present |
| Related | |
| College Football on NBC Sports | |
Notre Dame Football on NBC is an American presentation ofcollege football games involving theNotre DameFighting Irish that are produced byNBC Sports, the sports division of theNBC television network in the United States. NBC Sports has broadcast all regular season Notre Dame home games since September 7,1991.[1]
Since NBC began airing Notre Dame home football games 34 years ago, NBC's deal[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] with the university has ensured that all of its home games are on national broadcast television, a unique configuration among American sports. Most of the games are televised in the afternoon, usually starting at 3:30 p.m.ET. The rest are televised in primetime, usually starting at 7:30 p.m. ET.South Bend NBC affiliateWNDU-TV also produces and airs its own pregame show,Countdown to Kickoff, which airs prior to every home game broadcast on NBC.
Since2011, at least two games per season are played inprime-time, often played at neutral venues for the purposes of recruiting and financial benefits for playing at those sites, a high-profile matchup involving a major opponent, or to schedule around conflicts with other NBC Sports or NBC News programming. Since 2021, one game per season has aired on NBC's over-the-top streaming servicePeacock. Previously, these games aired on anNBCUniversal-owned cable channel, such asUSA Network.
The first Notre Dame football telecast occurred on November 19, 1949, when WTVN-TV (nowWSYX) inColumbus, Ohio broadcast[10]Notre Dame's game against theIowa Hawkeyes.
Notre Dame soon had an exclusive television deal with theDuMont Television Network starting in1950.[11] What attracted Notre Dame to DuMont despite receiving higher bids[12] from ABC andNBC, was DuMont's willingness to air educational programs on behalf of Notre Dame along with the football broadcast. This triggered concern from NCAA members that television would hurt attendance. But Notre Dame argued[13] that the contract with DuMont actually increased interest in their football program and the university.
On October 1, 1950,WSB-TV inAtlanta,Georgia broadcast[14] Notre Dame's game against theNorth Carolina Tar Heels fromSouth Bend, Indiana via acoaxial cable.WBKB-TV in nearbyChicago aired[15] Notre Dame's home games live with the aid of amicrowave relay system that was fashioned byWilliam C. "Bill" Eddy, Bill Kusack, and Arch Brolly.
Through the next three years, Notre Dame's games were mostly edited andsyndicated for airing on Saturday nights. The telecasts were typically condensed to a one-hour program anchored byLindsey Nelson.
Notre Dame would next land a television deal withABC in1953. It was ABC who would air the"Game of the Century"[16] betweenNotre Dame and theMichigan State Spartans on November 19, 1966. The game was not shown live on national TV. The agreement between the NCAA andABC in effect at the time limited each team to one national television appearance and two regional television appearances each season. Notre Dame had used their national TV slot in the season opening game againstPurdue. ABC executives did not even want to show the game anywhere but the regional area, but pressure from theWest Coast and theSouth (to the tune of 50,000 letters) made ABC air the game ontape delay.
In 1976,Notre Dame was one of 67 schools to form theCollege Football Association (CFA) and pool their television rights.[17] However, by the second half of the 1980s,[18] Notre Dame became one of the most valuable and recognizable teams on national television and was unhappy with deals signed by the CFA[19] that emphasized regional games.[20][17]
In 1986,Notre Dame joined eightindependent schools in theEast coast in a secondary rights deal withJefferson-Pilot Communications.[21] In the event thatCBS orESPN passed on airing that week's Notre Dame game, then Jefferson-Pilot'sindependent stations could broadcast it throughout the country. CBS[22][23] most notably broadcast the famous"Catholics vs. Convicts" game[24] against theMiami Hurricanes in 1988.
In February 1990, Notre Dame broke away from the CFA and signed a five-year broadcasting contract with NBC beginning in the 1991 season, worth $38 million. The deal surprised the college football world and left many of the other CFA members unhappy with Notre Dame.[25][20] Notre Dame got half of the $7.6 million that NBC paid for the rights each year of the deal and its opponent received the other half.[26] The last regular season Notre Dame home game to be televised on a network outside of NBC was on November 17, 1990, when the Irish played their final home game of 1990 againstPenn State, in a game that was broadcast byESPN (withRon Franklin,Gary Danielson, andNeil Lomax on the call).[a]
The network's 1993 broadcast of theGame of the Century betweenFlorida State Seminoles andNotre Dame (ranked as the #1 and #2 college football teams at the time) is still the most-watched regular season college football game since NBC began carrying the Fighting Irish's games.[28]
The famous 2005 "Bush Push" game between Notre Dame and USC in Indiana on NBC was the most watched college football game across all networks in nine years.
In 2009, Notre Dame began to play one home game each year at a neutral site outside of the university'sNotre Dame, Indiana campus for recruitment and exposure purposes, which are broadcast nationally on NBC as part of the television deal with 7:30 p.m.Eastern start times under the banner of theShamrock Series. This was initiated with a late October 2009 game againstWashington State at theAlamodome inSan Antonio. A November 2010 matchup againstArmy atYankee Stadium, which NBC also televised, was also a Notre Dame home game, despiteWest Point's proximity to theTri-State area. Notre Dame battledMiami atSoldier Field in 2012 and metArizona State atCowboys Stadium inArlington, Texas in 2013. A year later Notre Dame playedPurdue atLucas Oil Stadium, and in 2015 Notre Dame played againstBoston College atFenway Park. As of 2022, the Irish have never lost under the Shamrock Series banner.
Ratings for NBC's Notre Dame game telecasts slumped to historic lows during the 2011 season, coinciding with average performances of the team on the football field over the past several years. However, the resurgence in the program under Brian Kelly in 2012 resulted in the network's highest game viewership since 2005.[28]
In 2011, sister channel Versus (laterNBCSN, now defunct) began airing rebroadcasts of past Notre Dame games, including those aired on NBC over the years. Previously via NBC's rights deal, sister cable networkUniversal HD aired same-week reruns of Notre Dame home games untilNBCUniversal's January 2011 merger withComcast. The deal also been expanded to cover some games of the university'shockey team. Furthermore, when numerous weather delays forced a Notre Dame football game against the University of South Florida to go past the alotted time period, NBC never rejoined the game, opting instead to air a movie. Versus picked up the conclusion of the game.[29]
On April 9, 2013, NBC Sports renewed its broadcasting contract with Notre Dame for ten years through the 2025 season.[30] Double the length of prior contract extension deals, the agreement allowed NBC Sports the rights to a minimum of seven home games to be broadcast per season, withNBC Sports Network also acquiring rights to select games beginning in 2016. While most games traditionally were held at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturdays, some games were held during primetime.[31] Revenue from the deal, worth around $15M annually, continued to aid non-athlete student financial assistance.[32]
On November 21, 2015, NBCSN broadcast its first live Notre Dame game, a neutral site night game againstBoston College held atBoston'sFenway Park as part of the Shamrock Series.[33]
On September 8, 2016, NBC announced that all Notre Dame home games during the 2016 season would be broadcast in4Kultra-high-definition television exclusively onDirecTV.[34]
On September 30, 2017, NBCSN broadcast its second live Notre Dame game, againstMiami (OH).
For Notre Dame's November 23, 2019,senior day gameagainst Boston College, the school's broadcasting armFighting Irish Media produced an alternate broadcast for NBCSN known as the "Notre Dame Fan Feed", which carried the team radio broadcast withPaul Burmeister andRyan Harris, segments featuring a studio panel hosted byAhmed Fareed, Jessica Smetana,Darius Walker, andDaelin Hayes, and on-field reports by Tony Simeone that highlighted Notre Dame traditions and fans.[35]
Notre Dame's September 19, 2020, game againstSouth Florida was moved toUSA Network due to conflicts with the2020 U.S. Open on NBC. With NBC's usual production unit working the U.S. Open, the broadcast was produced using the university's in-house Notre Dame Studios and Fighting Irish Media unit (in combination with NBC talent, and staff working from NBC Sports'Stamford, Connecticut studios), marking the first time it had worked a regular season Fighting Irish football game on NBC.[36]
Notre Dame'sdouble-overtime win againstClemson on November 7, 2020 was NBC's most-watched Notre Dame game since 2005, averaging just over 10 million viewers. This was despite part of the game being pre-empted to USA Network due to coverage of a primetime address byJoe Biden, winner of the2020 United States presidential election.[37]
On August 4, 2021, NBC announced that the team's2021 home opener againstToledo would be exclusive to paid subscribers of NBCUniversal's streaming servicePeacock, the first Notre Dame home game not to air on terrestrial television since1990 vs.Air Force.[38][39]
For Notre Dame's September 23, 2023, primetime game againstOhio State, NBC experimented with having itsBig Ten Saturday Night broadcast team ofNoah Eagle,Todd Blackledge, andKathryn Tappen call the game, rather than its usual Notre Dame broadcast team ofJac Collinsworth,Jason Garrett, and Zora Stephenson (who were instead assigned to an afternoon Big Ten game).[40][41]
On November 18, 2023, NBC renewed its rights to the Fighting Irish through 2029, worth approximately $50 million a year.[42] NBC will continue to carry most Notre Dame home games, with one game per-season being exclusive to Peacock. Notre Dame Studios will also produce a documentary series following the team for Peacock.[43]
On December 20, 2024, Notre Dame played its first home game not aired by NBC since 1990 for the first round of the2024 College Football Playoff vs theIndiana Hoosiers, as all College Football Playoff games are aired by eitherESPN orABC or simulcast on both networks.[44]