A new era of football on Thursday nights will have familiar voices on the call.
Longtime NFL play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and and veteran ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit will be the new broadcast team of Thursday Night Football, Prime Video announced Wednesday.
Michaels joins TNF after a spending the past 16 years with NBC, serving as the lead broadcaster of Sunday Night Football with longtime partner Cris Collinsworth. The duo also called TNF games in partnership with NFL Network. The 78-year-old, whose legendary sports broadcasting career includes 11 Super Bowls, was also in the booth for Monday Night Football on ABC from 1986 to 2005.
Herbstreit has been the lead college football analyst at ESPN since arriving at the network in 1996. The former Ohio State quarterback is well-known for his long-standing presence as an analyst on ABC’s Saturday Night Football and ESPN’s College GameDay.
The hiring of an experienced duo in Michaels and Herbstreit aims to show Prime Video’s commitment to providing the same kind of viewing experience NFL fans have been accustomed to on network television.
The 2022 season marks the first year in which TNF will be exclusive to Prime Video, which will be the first streaming service to air a season-long licensed national broadcast package from the NFL. The 11-year pact includes 15 regular-season games and one preseason game per season, with Prime Video also delivering new pregame, halftime, and postgame shows as well as interactive features like X-Ray and Next Gen Stats.