| NFL Network Exclusive Game Series | |
|---|---|
 The current NFL Network logo for its exclusive package of games as of the 2022 season. | |
| Also known as |
|
| Genre | NFL football telecasts |
| Presented by | List ofNFL Network Exclusive Game Series broadcasters |
| Opening theme | NFL GameDay theme |
| Ending theme | Same as open |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 4 per season |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Various NFL stadiums |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 180 minutes or until game ends (inc. adverts) |
| Production company | |
| Original release | |
| Network | NFL Network |
| Release | December 16, 2006 (2006-12-16) – present |
| Related | |
NFL Network Exclusive Game Series (formerly calledNFL Network Special) is the branding currently used for broadcasts ofNational Football League (NFL) games aired byNFL Network. Prior to the2022 NFL season, the NFL Network Special branding was only used onThursday Night Football(TNF) games not played on Thursdays (from 2022 on it is used for all games); as of 2022, this arrangement has included at least oneNFL London Game played in a Sunday morning (U.S. time) window, and one or more late-season games on Saturdays.
After having briefly usedSaturday Night Football to brand the games (alongside the overall blanket titleRun to the Playoffs), from 2008 through 2016 the games were branded as "special editions" ofThursday Night Football or a variant thereof (such asThursday Night Football: Saturday Edition,Thursday Night Special, and laterNFL Network Special). The brandingNFL Christmas Special has also been used for Christmas Day games in theTNF package, some of which having fallen into this segment of the package).
In the 2022 season,Thursday Night Football moved exclusively toAmazon Prime Video. NFL Network will still carry a package of exclusive games, consisting mainly of international games and late-season Saturday games, with theThursday Night Football-centric branding having been dropped and replaced by individual brands for each game (such asSaturday Showdown for the late-season tripleheader).
As with all league games carried by a cable network or streaming provider, each game issyndicated to a local broadcast station (or two stations in some cases) in the markets of the two teams, per NFL broadcast rules. In some cases, it may also be available onParamount+ with Showtime (for simulcasts onCBS) orPeacock Premium Plus (for simulcasts onNBC), as these streaming services have local broadcast stations.
NFL Network debutedThursday Night Football on November 23,2006, with theKansas City Chiefs handing the visitingDenver Broncos a 19–10Thanksgiving defeat. As part of this package, three games aired on Saturday nights, which were accordingly branded asSaturday Night Football (not to be confused withESPN/ABC's college football telecasts of the same name, which ESPN holds a trademark in relation to),[1] with the package as a whole being promoted as theRun to the Playoffs. This format carried over to the2007 season. Saturday games can only occur in the final weeks of the season, as theSports Broadcasting Act of 1961, requiresblackouts of professional football games—held on Friday evenings or Saturdays from mid-September through mid-December—on television stations within 75 miles (121 km) of the venue of a college or high school football game.[2][3][4][5]
Starting in2008, NFL Network eliminated all but one of the Saturday night games and started their Thursday night package three weeks earlier. In thefollowing season, all references toSaturday Night Football were dropped, with the entire package now being branded asThursday Night Football, and non-Thursday games being referred to as a "special edition" ofThursday Night Football.
Beginning in2014, theThursday Night Football package was sub-licensed to one or more of the NFL's broadcast partners, who produced all games on behalf of NFL Network, and could simulcast selected games in the package on broadcast television.[6][7] These, by extension, included the non-Thursday games of the package, which were in turn produced byCBS (with some later produced byNBC beginning in2016).[8] These games are intended to satisfy NFL Network's carriage agreements, which require that a quota of exclusive games be broadcast by the channel each season, while still allowing some of the games to be simulcast on network television as well.[2][4]
In 2014, CBS used the brandingThursday Night Football: Saturday Edition for these games—a branding scheme that was especially considered amisnomer when used for a game aired on a Saturday afternoon.[9][10][11][12] By 2016, the games had begun to carry the on-air brandingThursday Night Special (albeit with some fleeting references toThursday Night Football orTNF still present in on-air graphics),[10] withChristmas Day games assigned to theThursday Night Football package accordingly using the brandingNFL Christmas Special.[13]
By the 2017 season, the brandingNFL Network Special was adopted for non-ThursdayTNF games exclusive to NFL Network. The games continued to have similar productions to games aired under theThursday Night Football title, but with their on-air graphics only containing NFL Network branding (rather than being co-branded with the logos of both NFL Network and the host broadcaster).
Beginning in 2018, mostNFL Network Special games becameFox productions as part of its new rights toThursday Night Football. An exception was anNFL London Game on October 10, 2021, which was instead produced by CBS.
Amazon Prime Video holds rights toThursday Night Football beginning in the2022 NFL season. There will still be a package of exclusive games on NFL Network, generally consisting ofinternational games airing at 9:30 a.m. ET, and late-season Saturday games.[14] NFL Network now markets the broadcasts as its "exclusive game series",[15] branding the late-season Saturday games with distinct titles such asSaturday Showdown (Late Season Saturday games),[16] and theHoliday Classic (Christmas Eve/Day games). Production of the games was taken back in-house, and a new graphics package by Two Fresh Creative replaced theThursday Night Football-centric branding used prior.[17][18]
InWeek 16 of 2023, NFL Network added a Sunday night game onChristmas Eve in lieu of usual broadcaster NBC (which aired an afternoon game that Saturday before on December 23), due to NBC producing aPeacock-exclusive game later that same day.
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