| Monday Night Countdown | |
|---|---|
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| Also known as |
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| Genre | American football game telecasts |
| Starring | Scott Van Pelt Ryan Clark Jason Kelce Marcus Spears Adam Schefter Michelle Beisner-Buck Katie Feeney |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 33 |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Various NFL stadiums(game telecasts) ESPN Headquarters,Bristol, Connecticut(studio segments) ABC and ESPN Studio,7 Hudson Square,Manhattan,New York City(studio segments) |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 120 minutes |
| Production company | ESPN |
| Original release | |
| Network | ESPN |
| Release | September 6, 1993 (1993-09-06) – present |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | January 9, 2016 (2016-01-09) – present |
| Related | |
| Monday Night Football NFL on ABC NFL on ESPN | |
Monday Night Countdown (officiallyMonday Night Countdown presented byESPN Bet) is an Americanpregame television program that is broadcast onESPN andABC, preceding its coverage ofMonday Night Football. For the network's non-Monday broadcasts, the pregame show is simply titledNFL Countdown. When it debuted in 1993 asNFL Prime Monday andMonday Night Football was airing on ABC, the pregame show was one of the first cross-pollinations between ESPN and ABC Sports, each of which operated largely under separate management at the time. The show was renamedMonday Night Countdown in 1998 to match its sister showSunday NFL Countdown andMonday Night Football moved from ABC to ESPN in 2006. When ABC began airing selectedMonday Night Football games in 2016, the network's broadcasts were preceded by simulcasts ofMonday Night Countdown. The current sponsor is ESPN Bet, starting with the2024 season. Previous sponsors of the show includeUPS,Applebee's,Call of Duty,Courtyard by Marriott,Subway andPanera.
The show was initially hosted byMike Tirico along with analystsJoe Theismann,Craig James,Phil Simms andRon Jaworski.Mike Ditka also discussed certain topics andChris Mortensen brought news and rumors from around the league.John Clayton was also a regular guest on the show. Former presenters includeMike Tirico,Bill Parcells,Michael Irvin andSterling Sharpe. During the2005 season, it enjoyed its bestratings ever and was the highest-rated studio sports show oncable television. On occasion, the crew appeared on-site at the game, but for the most part, the show was aired from the studios inBristol, Connecticut.
In2006, the show began appearing at theMonday Night Football site live as the game moved toESPN fromABC.Stuart Scott moved to host ofNFL Primetime which precedesMonday Night Countdown andChris Berman moved fromNFL Primetime toMonday Night Countdown and was joined by returning analystsTom Jackson andMichael Irvin along with new analyst fromSunday NFL CountdownSteve Young.Ron Jaworski also contributed to the show along withChris Mortensen,Ed Werder andSal Paolantonio. Also in 2006,Monday Night Countdown introduced a new logo and new graphics as part of The Syndicate's new NFL package for ESPN. In the same fashion as all ESPN NFL studio shows,Monday Night Countdown adoptedABC's alternate football musical theme, though presented as a shuffle.
Beginning with the2007 NFL season, the show cutback its onsite presence by having its main anchor team at ESPN studios in Bristol, but still kept a set at the actual game site.
The Bristol team was Berman, Jackson, Mortensen,Mike Ditka,Keyshawn Johnson andCris Carter. The on-site team is Scott, Young andEmmitt Smith.
The Bristol team was Berman, Jackson, Mortensen, Ditka, Johnson and Carter. The on-site team was Scott, Young andMatt Millen (laterTrent Dilfer) in the third spot.
On September 17, 2012,Monday Night Countdown moved up to the 6:30 ET timeslot and expanded to 2 hours. As a result,SportsCenter Monday Kickoff had its runtime cut in half, from 60 minutes to 30 minutes only. Additionally,Monday Night Countdown debuted a new program logo that closely resembles that ofMonday Night Football and a new graphics scheme package matching that ofMonday Night Football. Also,Monday Night Countdown began using MNF's "Heavy Action" theme music as this program's own theme music.
Ray Lewis is added to the on-site team after his retirement from the NFL in 2012.
On December 23, 2013, the final scheduledMonday Night Football broadcast of that season, Chris Berman was atCandlestick Park inSan Francisco covering the49ers' final home game in that stadium, while Stuart Scott was at ESPN's Bristol studios. The 49ers defeated theAtlanta Falcons, 34–24, in theMNF season finale. That game was also the 36th and finalMonday Night Football game — and the last NFL game — ever played at Candlestick Park.
On September 8, 2014,Monday Night Countdown moved to a brand-new set inside Digital Center 2 of ESPN's Bristol studios, which shares the same set asSunday NFL Countdown andNFL Primetime. However, theMonday Night Football graphics package is still used, but the rundown graphic was changed to match the one used onSportsCenter. 1 week later (September 15, 2014),Monday Night Countdown moved up to the 6:00 p.m. ET timeslot, which resulted inSportsCenter Monday Kickoff not returning for the 2014 season and moving the 6:00 p.m. ET edition ofSportsCenter to ESPN2 on Mondays during the NFL season.
Suzy Kolber, who substituted for the then-ailing Stuart Scott during most of the 2014 season, took over Scott's role permanently as an on-site host. She was previously a sideline reporter forMonday Night Football from 2006 to 2010. Additionally,Monday Night Countdown debuted a new logo resembling its other NFL-themed studio-show properties, along with a new graphics package that is also used forMNF.
With the exception of Chris Berman (who remained in the Bristol studio), the entireMonday Night Countdown crew were moved to theMonday Night Football game site, joining on-site host Suzy Kolber. Meanwhile, Berman was joined in the Bristol studio each week by analysts who work or had previously worked at ESPN. However, Berman and theMonday Night Countdown crew did the show on November 21 fromEstadio Azteca inMexico City for the game between theOakland Raiders andHouston Texans and December 12 fromGillette Stadium inFoxborough, Massachusetts. This was also Berman's final season as a host for ESPN's NFL-themed studio shows.
Suzy Kolber was named host ofMonday Night Countdown on March 23, 2017. She replaced Chris Berman, who departed after 30 seasons of hosting NFL-themed studio shows, though he still appeared in occasional segments. In addition to her pregame duties, Kolber now hosts all halftime and post-game shows, normally from the game site; however, the October 9, 2017, November 27, 2017, and December 25, 2017, shows all originated from ESPN's Bristol studio. TheChristmas Day episode, which only ran for 45 minutes, did not have Woodson or Young;Rex Ryan did the show.
Woodson left ESPN forFox and Hasselbeck left Countdown to take over as a full-time co-analyst role forESPN's Thursday Night College Football games. Therefore, the lineup was Suzy Kolber, Adam Schefter, Randy Moss, Steve Young and Louis Riddick. The show got a new graphics package. The October 28 show originated from Bristol instead ofPittsburgh, probably because the show had been there earlier in the season.
Monday Night Countdown, along with most of ESPN's NFL-themed studio shows, moved to the network'sSouth Street Seaport studios in New York City for the 2020 season. With the exception of Louis Riddick, who switched roles with Booger McFarland and moved to theMonday Night Football broadcast booth (the latter of whom took over Riddick's previous role of studio analyst), the lineup remained the same from the previous season.
After being at the network's New York City facilities due to theCOVID-19 pandemic the previous year,Monday Night Countdown returned to the game site for the first time in two seasons. Kolber, McFarland, Moss and Young all returned from the previous season. The show originated from New York instead of Baltimore October 11 and Washington November 29. Young didn't do the show October 18;Alex Smith did the show for the first time.
Prior to the start of the season, Berry left forNBC Sunday Night Football and a fantasy football show onPeacock. Larry Fitzgerald and Robert Griffin III made their debuts. Randy Moss left to doSunday NFL Countdown only. Alex Smith made more appearances, but not every week. The October 31 and December 26, 2022, and January 2, 2023, shows originated from New York instead ofCleveland,Indianapolis andCincinnati, respectively. On those shows, Young was not at the former and in a remote location on the latter two. The January 2 show ran onESPN2 andABC (due to the Rose Bowl airing on ESPN) and ran for an hour and 15 minutes; Rex Ryan substituted for Griffin, who was calling theCotton Bowl that same day.
Kolber and Young became two of the several ESPN employees laid off in late June 2023. On August 21, 2023, three weeks before the first Monday Night game of the season, it was announced that veteranSportsCenter anchorScott Van Pelt would replace Kolber asMonday Night Countdown host. Fellow newcomersRyan Clark andMarcus Spears would also be joining the show, with Griffin and Schefter returning. Van Pelt would also host the postgame show and anchorSportsCenter with SVP from the site ofMonday Night Countdown.[1]
This season, ABC started to join ESPN in airing the pregame show at 7:30 p.m. ET, similar to how CBS, NBC and Fox used to do forThursday Night Football, instead of joining coverage at the traditional start time of the prime time slot at 8:00 p.m. ET.[2][3] This only affected those 8:15 p.m. ET games that ABC was originally scheduled to air at the start of the season (including when two games was airing on September 18, in which ESPN started the pregame at 5 p.m. ET and ABC exclusively resumed the pregame at 7:30 p.m. ET); when ABC announced in September that it would simulcast an additional 10 games due to the2023 Hollywood labor disputes, local affiliates kept the 7:30–8:00 p.m. ET slot on those dates.[2] On September 25 when ABC aired the 7:15 p.m. ET game as part of the ABC-ESPN doubleheader, the pregame show instead preceded the ESPN 8:15 p.m. ET game, while ABC airedSportsCenter after its game to fill the remaining prime time block until 11:00 p.m. ET. When the ABC-ESPN doubleheader games both kickoff at 8:15 p.m. ET on December 11, both networks will still begin to air the pregame show as usual at 6:00 and 7:30 p.m. ET, respectively and ESPN will air the postgame as usual.[2]
The show did not originate from either of the September 18 doubleheader game sites of Charlotte and Pittsburgh. The show did not originate from either of the September 25 doubleheader game sites ofTampa and Cincinnati. Then on October 9, Van Pelt was unable to host after losing his voice and was replaced byMNF play-by-play announcerJoe Buck (who had hostedFox NFL Sunday in 2006) for the first part of the pregame show and reporterMichelle Beisner-Buck during the last half-hour of the pregame show and the halftime show.[4] The show did not originate from the game site ofMinneapolis on October 23 and November 27 orEast Rutherford, New Jersey on November 6. The show didn't originate from the doubleheader sites of Miami and East Rutherford on December 11, as well.
Jason Kelce (who retired the previous season) joined ESPN and later replaced Robert Griffin III, the latter of whom was fired in August, along with formerSunday NFL Countdown hostSamantha Ponder. Both the September 23 episode aired from Bristol instead of the doubleheader sites of Buffalo and Cincinnati and the September 30 episode aired from Bristol instead of the doubleheader sites of Miami and Detroit aired at 5 p.m. Eastern Time instead of 6 p.m.
ABC reverted to beginning coverage at 8 p.m. ET on most weeks after airing several pregame shows before games the previous season, it will only air on the Saturday doubleheader week, before the December 16 split doubleheader and the Monday night wild card game.
This is a list of personalities that currently or formerly appeared onMonday Night Countdown.
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Owners:Walt Disney Company (80%);Hearst Communications (20%) | |||||||||||||||||||