The game on March 11 between theUtah Jazz and theOklahoma City Thunder which was scrapped whenRudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 was to have been shown onAT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain,Fox Sports Oklahoma, andNBA League Pass. Minutes later, the NBA announced thatthe season would be put on hold, but that the rest of the night's games would be played as scheduled.ESPN was covering theDenver Nuggets-Dallas Mavericks game; upon hearing the news, ESPN courtside reporterRachel Nichols interviewed, and got reaction from, Mavericks ownerMark Cuban. That was the first of two scheduled games on ESPN that night. The second was to beNew Orleans Pelicans versus theSacramento Kings; however, that game was postponed when it was discovered that one of the referees scheduled to work the game had a similar assignment on a game earlier in the week in which the Jazz was one of the teams playing. ESPN responded by adding an edition ofSportsCenter recapping the night's events.
Once all events were scrapped, ESPN extendedSportsCenter to an all-day live program, whileESPN2 aired some of that show as well as some simulcast content fromESPN Radio.ESPNU andFox Sports 1 re-aired basketball games from earlier in the season,NBCSN elevated its coverage of theMecum Auto Auctions show inKissimmee, Florida from an exclusive stream, andBig Ten Network andSEC Network extended their studio programming.
On March 15, CBS affiliates programmed the hour which had been set aside for the announcement of the men's basketball tournament field, after the network had shown the2019 Big Ten title game. FOX also returned airtime to its local stations after theFolds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was postponed. Meanwhile, ABC re-aired Game 6 of the2008 NBA Finals, NBC the final round of the 2019 PLAYERS, and ESPN had another marathon of30 for 30. NBCSN, which was to show the IndyCarGrand Prix of St. Petersburg, instead re-aired the2019 Indianapolis 500.[1] FS1 reran the previous week'sXFL andMLS matches.
There were only three live sporting events on major U.S. networks that weekend. FS1 had two of them: thePBA World Series of Bowling and anAustralian Football League game. As mentioned, the other was the UFC Fight Night card on ESPN.
Previously to the pandemic, the last extended shutdown of most major U.S. sports was in response to theSeptember 11 attacks; however, in that case, those leagues in season returned within two weeks. As it would take far longer for sports organizations to return this time, networks and channels on all levels had to scramble to find, or create, alternative programming.[2] These eventual plans fell into four basic categories:
ESPN also aired theAmerican Cornhole League on weekend afternoons, although some of that coverage may have been planned before the pandemic.
ESPN showed the entry drafts of theWNBA on April 17 and theNFL from April 23 through April 25. Both drafts were virtual, with ESPN's studio being the hub of each telecast. NFL Network canceled its usual separate feed and instead aired ESPN's; NFLN draft hostRich Eisen instead hosted a "Draft-a-thon" that aired on NFL.com and various social media channels.
The PGA Tour also returned before either the NBA, NHL, or MLB, as theCharles Schwab Challenge took place from June 11 to June 14; the tournament was shown on Golf Channel and CBS.
NBC and Golf Channel continued to re-air PGA Tour events from the previous year to replace postponed events. On May 2, when theKentucky Derby was supposed to take place, NBC aired a virtual race with the 13 horses that had won theTriple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing as of that time. "Bets" were placed on each horse, with proceeds going to charities providing COVID-19 pandemic relief.Secretariat was the winner. On that date - as well as the pre-scheduled dates of thePreakness Stakes andBelmont Stakes - the same races from 2015 (the yearAmerican Pharoah won) were re-shown. NBC also re-aired past NHL games in some afternoon time slots in place of the previously scheduled live games.[7]
Fox Sports started a new series calledGreatest Games/Greatest Races with re-airs of MLB and NFL[18] games, as well as NASCAR races. FOX offered these on asyndicated basis to its affiliates, which could choose to air all, some, or none of them. These also aired on FS1. By mid-April, it also had a "game of the week" format: College football on Monday,WWE shows on Tuesday, "Wednesday Night Showdown" (virtual short-trackauto racing) on Wednesdays, and NFL games on Thursdays. Fridays after horse racing, FS1 aired re-runs ofThis Week in Baseball, sports movies, andTexas hold 'empoker. Starting in June, reruns of the 1989roller derby seriesRollerGames joined the lineup on weekends.
NBCSN launched weeklong marathons of past games and other programs in primetime. Those includedSunday Night Football re-airs,[19] pastSuper Bowls,[20]Stanley Cup playoff games,[21][22]the Summer Olympics,[23][24] auto racing from NASCAR and IndyCar,[25] "From the Vault" (a variety of sports),[26][27] and even episodes ofSaturday Night Live hosted by athletes.[28] In addition, NBCSN aired "Hockey Happy Hour" from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.Eastern time each Monday through Thursday, with game re-airs, long-form interviews, and special programming from NHL.com.[29] On Saturdays, NBCSN aired edited game replays and interstitial programs from thePremier League.[30] In May and June, coverage of the2020 French Open (which would eventually be held in the fall) was replaced by past championship matches,[31] while later in June, coverage of the2020 Tour de France (which would eventually be held in August and September) was supplanted by "The Ultimate Tour," re-airs of past stages.[32]
MLB Network rebroadcast dozens of games under the titleAll-Time Games and also launched a new programMLB Network Game of the Week. It also incorporated some films, such asField of Dreams,Bull Durham, andThe Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!. On March 26, MLB Network joined with FS1, MLB.com and social platforms for a daylong event called "MLB Opening Day at Home."[33]
NBA TV aired both traditional rebroadcasts and other versions with virtual panel discussions and enhanced information on-screen (the latter inspired byPop Up Video).
NHL Network re-aired itsRaising the Cup series (Stanley Cup-clinching games) as well as other past NHL contests.
CBS Sports Network also re-aired old NCAA tournament games in place of rebroadcasts from 2020.[34] In April, it re-aired a number of NFL games that had originally aired on CBS Sports.[35]
Local sports radio stations carried more long-form interviews and even added non-sports and pop culture content to fill air time usually devoted to live broadcasts.[citation needed]
Every major sports organization usedesports in some way during this period when real competition was suspended. In addition, some existing esports platforms received elevated coverage.
The most popular single esports event was theeNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, which took place on simulated versions of tracks on which NASCAR had planned to compete prior to postponement. The April 5 race, set atTexas Motor Speedway, drew an audience of 1.339 million on FS1 and many FOX affiliates, making it the most-watched video-game competition show in U.S. television history. It broke the record of 903,000 set two weeks earlier for the race set atHomestead–Miami Speedway.[41] The series earned a renewal for a second season in 2021 and is credited by some for an increased interest in NASCAR, as evidenced by increased in-person attendance and TV audiences for races run since NASCAR resumed.
NBC, the other partner in carrying NASCAR Cup Series races, also teamed up with iRacing; this was a four-race series that took place between April 6 and April 9.[42]
Elsewhere in motorsports:
Formula 1 ran a series called "And We Race On" using the tracks from their postponed races, most notably theMonaco Grand Prix; races were shown on its worldwide broadcast partners including ESPN.[citation needed]
IndyCar conducted theINDYCAR iRacing Challenge, which was a six-race miniseries; some of the tracks they raced at were on the current schedule, while others were not. All races streamed on IndyCar.com and social media channels, while the last five races also aired on NBCSN.[43]
NBCSN andAMA Supercross came together to organize a virtual motorcycle race set atAngel Stadium of Anaheim, which held several races earlier in the season before the pandemic but would be left off the 2021 schedule.[citation needed]
On Saturdays, ESPN aired The Race All-Star Series, on whichsports cars competed in simulated races at tracks around the world.[44]
On Wednesday nights, FS1 simulated races usingsprint cars and those that were used in the defunctInternational Race of Champions; the races used the iRacing platform.Mario Andretti was a guest commentator on one of the episodes.
The NHL staged a tournament with 32, two-person teams, one for each club in the league (including theSeattle Kraken, which had not only yet to play a game at this point, but had not even announced its nickname). The platform wasEA Sports'NHL 20. NBCSN had occasional broadcasts as part of "Hockey Happy Hour," while the entire tourney streamed on NHL.com.[citation needed]
The Madden NFL franchise received elevated coverage on ESPN of its invitational and tournament of champions, and added a celebrity tournament that aired on FS1.[citation needed]
TheNBA2K League season, which normally is an exclusive stream onTwitch and sometimes onESPN3, aired on Friday nights on ESPN2 in the late spring. Before that, 16 NBA players competed on the NBA 2K game in a single-elimination bracket format, with ESPN and ESPN2 televising.[46] Another elevated telecast was theLeague of Legends Spring Split Playoffs, which landed on ESPN2.[47]
MLS held a tournament with 16, two-person teams; each team consisted of an MLS player and a professional video gamer representing a different side in the league. FS1 showed this event on Sunday nights, when actual MLS games would normally air.[48] The Premier League also staged an esports tournament, with players from all 20 clubs participating in a single-elimination format; the final was shown on NBCSN in the U.S. after preliminary rounds were streamed on NBCSports.com.[49]
ESPN persuaded the producers ofThe Last Dance, a documentary covering the1997–98 Chicago Bulls season, to expedite post-production so the show could debut on April 19 in place ofSunday Night Baseball. The 10-part series averaged 6.71 million viewers, making it the most-watched non-sports program in ESPN history. Discussion about the documentary trailed only NFL off-season news among topics discussed onsports radio in the days after the docuseries ended. ESPN also re-aired episodes of30 for 30 andESPN Films throughout the shutdown, including many weekends on ABC.
AfterThe Last Dance, ESPN aired two new episodes of30 for 30 - "Lance" (about cyclistLance Armstrong) and "Like Water" (about martial artist and actorBruce Lee) on later Sunday nights.
On June 15, ESPN aired a two-hour series of interviews with commissioners of major professional sports leagues for aSportsCenter special hosted byMike Greenberg.[53]
Other outlets produced features to fill content holes until resumption of play.
ESPN ran a 64-player bracketed tournament to determine the best individual player in college basketball history; a fan vote would determine the winner of each matchup. The player announcement took place on March 19 and the final "match" took place on March 31.[54]
ESPN revived its "The Ocho"stunt of offbeat sporting events twice during the shutdown. The first time was on March 22, airing on ESPN2,[55] and the second time was on May 2, airing on ESPN.[56] (The name originated in the filmDodgeball: A True Underdog Story; the associated stunt normally airs on or about August 8 (8/8, "ocho" inSpanish.))
Also on ESPN was an eight-player, single-elimination tournament using the playground basketball gameH-O-R-S-E.Mark Jones was the play-by-play announcer.[57]
NHL.com had a number of series, includingHat Trick Trivia,Skates and Plates, andWho Wore It Best?. These also aired on NBCSN and NHL Network.[58]
MLB.com organized two virtual tournaments honoring the history of MLB; both were called "Dream Bracket." In the first, all-star teams were selected for all 30 franchises and were joined by teams representing stars of theNegro leagues and players aged 25 and under to complete a 32-team bracket. In the second, 64 intact teams - all of which had played from the1946 to the2019 seasons, except for some Negro league teams - were selected. In both cases, games were simulated using the Out of the Park 21 program and all rounds were best-of-7 series. The Yankees defeated theCincinnati Reds in the final of the first tournament, while the1986 New York Mets defeated the2001 Seattle Mariners in the final of the second tournament.[59][60]
The following chart shows what studio programming were affected, what - if anything - replaced it, and when the shows returned. Even upon resumption, all of part of production was done remotely through at least summer in most cases.
ATH was a segment onSportsCenter from April 13 to May 8 and a 20-minute show from May 11 to July 10.PTI was a segment onSportsCenter from March 30 to July 10.HQ andJalen & Jacoby were 20-minute shows from May 8 to July 10.[61]
This program, a simulcast withiHeart Radio was moved from Fox Sports in Los Angeles to iHeart inBurbank, California and was available only on radio. Fox amended the plan afterTom Brady unexpectedly signed with theTampa Bay Buccaneers as afree agent on March 17. At that point, the simulcast was restored as iHeart rigged a TV camera in the Burbank facility. The show returned to L.A. on May 27.
Undisputed with Skip and Shannon
March 16
March 23
There had been nighttime editions from March 18 to March 20 before the return to its usual daytime slot.
These shows were added to the NBCSN schedule.Lunch Talk Live began on April 6 and ran through June 12.Flex began on April 13 and ended sometime in June.
This audio simulcast from iHeart was also added to the schedule and removed after the July 10 episode as thePremier League resumed play; however, it came back to NBCSN, only to sign off again on October 2. On October 5, the video feed was moved toPeacock, joiningThe Dan Patrick Show; both had been onAudience prior to that channel signing off.
This program aired live at 6 p.m.Eastern time on March 16 and 17, then Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays until theMLB season began.
MLB Central
N/A
July 20
These shows were on hiatus during spring training, but were to have resumed on March 26. During the break, they were available only on MLB.com and the organization's social media platforms.
This program aired live at 7 p.m.Eastern time on March 16 and 17, then Tuesdays and Thursdays until teams reported to "hub cities" for the2020 Stanley Cup playoffs.
NHL Now
March 16
mid-July
This show was available only on NHL.com and on the league's social media platforms.
This program remained on the air, but the main studio inCulver City, California shut down, with anchors at either a backstage set or the newsroom. At some undetermined point, even those were closed and episodes done remotely.
These programs resumed with remote production; the studios inOrlando, Florida remained closed.[63]
Morning Drive
Tennis Channel kept its studio open for the entire hiatus of major tours, except for one week in April.Tennis Channel Live had news updates and hosted the All-Star Fantasy Tournament, a virtual competition in which the results were determined byfan vote and supplemented by archival footage.[64]
This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(April 2022)
Some new content was added by sports networks in response to theGeorge Floyd protests that began at the end of May:
On June 1, ESPN re-aired a panel discussion from 2016 on how sports organizations and athletes should deal withpolice brutality.
OnJuneteenth (June 19), MLBN and NHLN aired separate editions ofMLB Tonight andNHL Tonight, each called "A Conversation." Both shows had Black hosts and panelists discussing racial issues.
Members of the sports media had to abide by the same health and safety protocols that governed athletes and officials in the sports they covered. They were banned from entering teamlocker rooms (a rule that continued into most sports as of April 2022), and access to other areas of their training and practice facilities were severely limited, thereby affecting their broadcast preparations. In addition, sports leagues and organizations limited the number of media, including announcers and production personnel, allowed at each site.
Production for these telecasts were modified due to the pandemic protocols. Technical crews used more cameras in different locations than usual, while large-scalevideo walls were installed in locations close to the field of play to replace actual crowds. (The most elaborate and perhaps the best example of the video setup wasWWE ThunderDome, which was in three locations in Florida from August 2020 to July 2021.) On-site audio was also enhanced, mostly with artificial crowd noise. Fox Sports also experimented with "crowds" usingcomputer-generated imagery at some MLB games and had planned further use for the NFL and college football, but those plans would later be aborted. In addition, multiple sites were used for production, rather than the single on-site location that prevailed before the pandemic. Examples:
MLB chose to keep home-and-road schedules with no bubbles until the postseason. In those cases, only one broadcast feed was available; if a game was shown byFOX/FS1 orESPN, it was the host feed; otherwise, it was maintained by the home team. Only the home announcers were on-site; everyone else was remote, including all FOX/FS1 or ESPN announcers. During theWild Card Series,TBS sentRich Waltz andJimmy Rollins toTropicana Field inSt. Petersburg, Florida for the series between theToronto Blue Jays and theTampa Bay Rays, while all seven of the series shown on ESPN were still called remotely. For remaining postseason rounds, held in modified bubbles (Los Angeles andSan Diego in California, andArlington andHouston in Texas), all commentators and reporters were on-site.
All event commentary at the2022 Winter Olympics inBeijing was conducted off-site in Stamford due to strict protocols imposed by thegovernment of China; only some reporters and studio hosts were on-site. NBC also altered an earlier plan to have Tirico travel from Beijing to NBC's coverage ofSuper Bowl LVI inInglewood, California and back; instead, after theLos Angeles Rams defeated theCincinnati Bengals, Tirico hosted the rest of the Games in primetime from the NBC Sports studio.[66]
Due to a conflict between the new date of theU.S. Open golf tournament and the NFL season, theUnited States Golf Association asked Fox Sports to move coverage of the event to FS1. When Fox refused, the USGA invalidated the contract that was supposed to expire in 2026 and replaced it with a new, eight-year deal withNBC Sports that took effect immediately.
While NBCSN closed on December 31, 2021 in the wake of revenue losses from the postponed2020 Summer Olympics and other lost or rescheduled events, NBC Sports did not directly cite the pandemic as the cause. NBC Sports later announced thatthe U.S. version of the Olympic Channel would shut down on September 30, 2022.[68]
ESPN laid off 300 employees and decided to leave 200 other positions vacant.[69]
In the fall of 2021, NESN moved the weekday blocks of Bruins and Red Sox games to NESN+; Bruins games re-aired in early afternoon and Red Sox games in late afternoon.
Networks and stations had to continue to scramble for replacement programming during frequent postponements and cancellations throughout the pandemic, with a peak coming during the spread of theOmicron variant. Alternate games aired wherever possible; if not, it was reverted to the late spring/early summer 2020 pattern. ESPNU replaced many of the lost time slots with re-airs of episodes ofCollege Football 150, which premiered on ESPN during the 150th anniversary season of college football in2019.
Some situations involving the NFL were handled differently. In the2020 season,a game between theBaltimore Ravens and thePittsburgh Steelers was postponed three times and was finally played on December 2; when it occurred,KWQC-TV, the local NBC affiliate in theQuad Cities, chose not to show the game. Six days later, the Steelers played a rescheduled game against theWashington Football Team;FOX did not show the game on all affiliates despite that game being played on Monday afternoon unopposed. In contrast, when games between theWashington Football Team and thePhiladelphia Eagles and theSeattle Seahawks and theLos Angeles Rams were postponed from December 19 to December 21 in the2021 season, FOX - which showed both games - presented the telecasts on a split-regional basis on all its stations. Also, in October 2020, the telecast of a game between theDenver Broncos and theNew England Patriots was moved fromCBS to ESPN and back, as the game was rescheduled twice. (ESPN had planned to sendChris Fowler,Kirk Herbstreit, andLaura Rutledge toGillette Stadium when the game was to have been shown on that channel.)
The2021 Pro Bowl was played in a virtual format using theMadden NFL 21 video game, as the actual game was canceled. Teams were composed of current NFL players and celebrities, and the simulation was shown on NFL Network. Before the simulation, ABC and ESPN simulcast a two-hour special recognizing the players that were chosen as the best in theAFC andNFC that season.
During the2021–22 Major League Baseball lockout, MLB Network reverted to a schedule similar to that earlier in the pandemic by showing vintage games during the day and movies at night; that was because images of active players could not be used.
On April 4, 2022, FS1 replayed Game 6 of the1977 World Series in whichReggie Jackson hit a postseason record-tying three home runs; a live MLB game had been scheduled but was not played due to a delay in the start of the season resulting from the lockout.
Some NFL games experienced announcer changes due to positive COVID-19 tests.CBS lead analystTony Romo contributed to the network's telecasts of Week 17 of the 2020 regular season and that season's wild card game between theChicago Bears andNew Orleans Saints from his home, while during the 2021 season, Fox announcerKevin Burkhardt and ESPN sideline reporterLisa Salters missed games.
During the spring of 2022, ESPN had to alter its announcer assignments for several major league sports when a number of them tested positive for COVID-19. Among those who had to miss games wereMike Breen andJeff Van Gundy (NBA),Sean McDonough (NHL), andKarl Ravech (MLB). In September,Bob Costas missed one telecast each onMLB Network andTBS after a positive test.
In 2023,Minnesota Twins play-by-play announcerDick Bremer went into isolation after testing positive for COVID-19; as a result, he did not call the home opening game for the first time since 1983.[70] On August 9 and 10,hall of fame pitcher andMASN commentatorJim Palmer missed theHouston Astros–Baltimore Orioles games after contracting the virus. Two other MASN announcers missed the same games, but whether or not they were held out due tocontact tracing, scheduled time off, or in solidarity to the suspended colleagueKevin Brown is not known.
During a new surge of COVID-19 cases, ESPN game analystDavid Cone missed theSunday Night Baseball game between theBoston Red Sox andNew York Yankees on July 7, 2024. Cone made a guest appearance by telephone, but connection issues forced him off the air early in the game.
Some of the programs introduced by NHL.com during the pause were made available for rebroadcast on the NHL'sfree ad-supported streaming television channel, which debuted on NHL.com andThe Roku Channel in December 2022. In addition, a documentary set during the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs,Inside the Bubble, was added to the program lineup.
Fox Sports' "Greatest Games" and "Greatest Races" series are available on-demand onTubi. In addition, a new edition of "Greatest Games" was shown on FS1 on January 27, 2023, two days before the2022NFC Championship Game between theSan Francisco 49ers and thePhiladelphia Eagles. It was a college football game betweenIowa State andOklahoma in which the Sooners won 42-41; the respective starting quarterbacks,Brock Purdy andJalen Hurts, would also square off in the NFC title game playing for, respectively, the 49ers and Eagles.
Fox Sports revived the use of artificial crowd noise on June 17, 2023, when the audio portion failed during its telecast of theLos Angeles Angels versus theKansas City Royals. It was in place whenSamad Taylor had awalk-off double for the 10-9 win for the Royals.
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