NFL on CBS

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The NFL on CBS
The NFL on CBS logo used since 2006.
Genre	Sports
Creator(s)	CBS Sports
Starring	The NFL Today crew The NFL on CBS game commentators
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	N/A
Production
Running time	180 minutes or until game ends
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	1956-January 23, 1994 September 6, 1998 – present

The NFL on CBS is the brand name of the CBS television network's coverage of the National Football League's American Football Conference games, produced by CBS Sports.

Contents 1 Market coverage 2 History 2.1 1960s 2.1.1 Monday night games on CBS 2.2 1970s 2.2.1 The NFL Today debuts 2.3 1980s 2.4 1990s 2.4.1 CBS loses the NFL to FOX (1994-1997) 2.4.2 The NFL returns 2.5 2000s 2.5.1 HDTV coverage 3 Local preseason television coverage 4 Television policies 5 Contract history 6 Music 7 Important games 7.1 See also 8 Current commentator pairings (as of 2006) 8.1 Alphabetical list of past and present commentators 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Market coverage

See also: List of CBS affiliates

As with FOX's coverage, the network's stations are divided into different groups based on the most popular or closest team to that market or, if that doesn't apply, based on the allure of a particular game. Each football game is rated as an "A", "B", or "C" game, with "A" games likely being televised nationally and "C" games only in the two teams' home television markets. Significantly more behind-the-scenes resources are dedicated to "A" game coverage.

[edit] History

CBS' coverage began in the 1956 NFL season, before the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger. Prior to 1968, CBS had an assigned crew for each NFL team. Thus, CBS became the first network to broadcast some NFL regular season games to selected television markets across the nation. From 1970 until the end of the 1993 season, when FOX won CBS' contract, CBS aired the NFL's National Football Conference games. Since 1975, game coverage has been preceded by pre-game show The NFL Today.

[edit] 1960s

In 1962, the NFL followed the American Football League's (AFL) suit with its own revenue sharing plan after CBS agreed to telecast all regular season games for an annual fee of $4.65 million. CBS also acquired the rights to the championship games for 1964 and 1965 for $1.8 million per game, on April 17, 1964. On September 17, 1961, CBS Sports broadcasted the first remote 15-minute pre-game show, the first of its kind on network sports television. Pro Football Kickoff originated from NFL stadiums around the country with a comprehensive look at all the day's games.

In 1964, CBS experimented with a half & half format for their announcers. The first half would be called by the home teams' commentators while the second half would be done by the visitors' commentators.

On November 25, 1965 (Thanksgiving Day), CBS featured the first-ever color broadcast of an NFL game.

On December 29, 1965, CBS acquired the rights to the NFL regular season games in 1966 and 1967, with an option for 1968, for $18.8 (in sharp contrast to the $14.1 million per year in 1964) million per year.

On February 14, 1966, the rights to the 1966 and 1967 NFL Championship Games (the Ice Bowl) were sold to CBS for $2 million per game.

The first ever AFL-NFL World Championship Game was played on January 15, 1967. Because CBS held the rights to nationally televise NFL games and NBC had the rights to broadcast AFL games, it was decided to have both of them cover that first game. Ray Scott, Jack Whitaker, Frank Gifford and Pat Summerall called the game for CBS. 39.9 million viewers would watch Bart Starr's MVP performance. The next three AFL-NFL World Championship Games, later renamed the Super Bowl, were then divided by the two networks: CBS televised Super Bowls II and IV while NBC covered III.

[edit] Monday night games on CBS

Main article: Monday Night Games Pre-1970

During the early 1960s, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle envisioned the possibility of playing at least one game weekly during prime time for a greater TV audience. An early bid in 1964 to play on Friday nights was soundly defeated, with critics charging that such telecasts would damage the attendance at high school games. Undaunted, Rozelle decided to experiment with the concept of playing on Monday night, scheduling the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions for a game on September 28, 1964. While the game was not televised, it drew a sellout crowd of 59,203 to Tiger Stadium, the largest crowd ever to watch a professional football game in Detroit up to that point.

Two years later, Rozelle would build on this success as the NFL began a four-year experiment of playing on Monday night, scheduling one game in prime time on CBS during the 1966 and 1967 seasons, and two contests during each of the next two years. NBC followed suit in 1968 and 1969 with games involving AFL teams.

During subsequent negotiations on a television contract that would begin in 1970, Rozelle concentrated on signing a weekly Monday night deal with one of the three major networks. After sensing reluctance from both NBC and CBS in disturbing their regular programming schedules, Rozelle spoke with ABC.

Despite the network's status as the lowest-rated network, ABC was also reluctant to enter the risky venture. Only after Rozelle used the threat of signing with the independent Hughes Sports Network, an entity bankrolled by reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, did ABC sign a contract for the scheduled games. Speculation was that had Rozelle signed with Hughes, many ABC affiliates would have pre-empted the network's Monday lineup in favor of the games, severely damaging potential ratings.

[edit] 1970s

See also: AFL-NFL Merger

When the AFL and the NFL officially merged in 1970, the combined league divided its teams into the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). It was then decided (officially announced on January 26, 1970) that CBS would televise all NFC teams (including playoff games) while NBC all AFC teams. For interconference games, CBS would broadcast them if the visiting team was from the NFC and NBC would carry them when the visitors were from the AFC. The two networks also divided up the Super Bowl on a yearly rotation.

On January 16, 1972, the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Miami Dolphins 24-3 in Super Bowl VI in New Orleans. The CBS telecast was viewed in an estimated 27,450,000 homes, the top-rated one-day telecast ever at the time.

During the October 13, 1973, New Orleans Saints-Cincinnati Bengals game, the broadcasting duo of play-by-play announcer Don Criqui and color commentator Irv Cross was supplemented by the contributions of the first woman ever on an NFL telecast, Jane Chastain. While providing limited commentary, Chastain was used on an irregular basis over the rest of the season.

CBS' 1976 telecast of Super Bowl X between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys was viewed by an estimated 80 million people, the largest television audience in history at the time.

On October 12, 1976, Commissioner Pete Rozelle negotiated contracts with the three television networks to televise all NFL regular-season and postseason games, plus selected preseason games, for four years beginning with the 1978 season. ABC was awarded yearly rights to 16 Monday night games, four prime time games, the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl, and the Hall of Fame Games. CBS received the rights to all NFC regular season and postseason games (except those in the ABC package) and to Super Bowls XIV and XVI. NBC received the rights to all AFC regular season and postseason games (except those in the ABC package) and to Super Bowls XIII and XV. Industry sources considered it the largest single television package ever negotiated.

On January 15, 1978, the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII in front of the largest audience ever to watch a sporting event. CBS scored a 47.2/67 national household rating/share, the highest-rated Super Bowl to date.

[edit] The NFL Today debuts

Main article: The NFL Today

In 1975, The NFL Today debuted with journalist Brent Musburger and former NFL player Irv Cross, and with former Miss America Phyllis George as one of the reporters. Jimmy Snyder, nicknamed The Greek, joined in 1976. Snyder was dismissed by CBS Sports at the end of the 1987 season, one day after making comments about racial differences among NFL players on Martin Luther King Day in 1988. Phyllis George was replaced by Miss Ohio USA 1970 Jayne Kennedy from the 1978 to the 1979 NFL season. George would return in 1980 and stay on through the 1983 season. It should be noted that in 1983, Phyllis George went on maternity leave from The NFL Today. She was replaced by Charlsie Cantey. 1979 was the first year the Sports Emmy Awards were awarded to sportscasts, among them was The NFL Today.

[edit] 1980s

In 1980, CBS, with a record bid of $12 million, won the national radio rights to 26 NFL regular season games, including Monday Night Football, and all 10 postseason games for the 1980-1983 seasons.

Television ratings in 1980 were the second-best in NFL history, trailing only the combined ratings of the 1976 season. All three networks posted gains, and NBC's 15.0 rating was its best ever. CBS and ABC had their best ratings since 1977, with 15.3 and 20.8 ratings, respectively. CBS Radio reported a record audience of 7 million for Monday night and special games.

In 1981, ABC and CBS set all-time rating highs. ABC finished with a 21.7 rating and CBS with a 17.5 rating. NBC was down slightly to 13.9.

Going into the 1981 NFL season, CBS Sports executives decided that John Madden was going to be their star NFL color commentator. But they had trouble figuring out who was going to be his play-by-play partner. So in September (for the first four games of the season), they paired Vin Scully with Madden while Pat Summerall was busy covering the U.S. Open tournament for CBS. For the next four games of the season in October, they paired Summerall with Madden while Scully called Major League Baseball's National League Championship Series and World Series for CBS Radio. After the eighth week of the NFL season, CBS Sports executives decided that the laconic, baritone-voiced Summerall's style was more in tuned with the lively, verbose Madden than the elegant, poetic Scully. As a consolation prize, CBS Sports gave Scully the "B" team assignment and the right to call the NFC Championship Game on CBS Television with Hank Stram. Meanwhile, Pat Summerall called that game on CBS Radio with Jack Buck while John Madden prepared to do the Super Bowl with Summerall in Pontiac, Michigan. Vin Scully, reportedly wasn't happy about the demotion as well as in his eyes, having his intelligence be insulted (at least, according to CBS Sports producer Terry O'Neil in the book The Game Behind the Game). As a result, Scully bolted to NBC (where he started a memorable seven year run as their lead Major League Baseball announcer) as soon as his contract with CBS was up.

On January 24, 1982, CBS Sports broadcasted the highest rated (49.1/73) Super Bowl of all time as the San Francisco 49ers, led by quarterback Joe Montana, defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 26-21. Summerall and Madden called their first Super Bowl together as they go on to be one of the most popular NFL announce teams ever. During the Super Bowl XVI telecast, the telestrator made its major network debut. CBS introduced it as the "CBS Chalkboard" during their sports coverage. Madden utilized the device effectively to diagram football plays on the viewers' television screens. The telestrator is generally credited with popularizing the use of telestration during sports commentary.

In 1982, the NFL signed a five year contract with the three television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) to televise all NFL regular season and postseason games starting with the 1982 season. During the 1982 season, the NFL allowed CBS to rebroadcast Super Bowl XVI during the first Sunday of strike. CBS also rebroadcast their most recent Super Bowl (XXI) telecast for the 1987 strike.

In April 1985, shortly after calling a NCAA Regional Final and just before he was supposed to work the 15th hole at the Masters, play-by-play announcer Frank Glieber died of a heart attack. Tom Brookshier, who previously served as Summerall's color commentator prior to Madden, replaced Glieber in the NFL on CBS broadcast booth. For the 1985 season, the NFL showed a ratings increase on all three networks for the season, gaining 4 percent on NBC, 10 on CBS, and 16 on ABC.

At the NFL's annual meeting in Maui, Hawaii on March 15, 1987, Commissioner Pete Rozelle and Broadcast Committee Chairman Art Modell announced new three year TV contracts with ABC, CBS, and NBC for the 1987-1989 seasons.

Beginning in 1987, CBS started broadcasting NFL games in stereo. On December 8, 1987, Cathy Barreto became the first woman to direct an NFL game at the network television level. (Minnesota Vikings vs. Detroit Lions)

On April 18, 1989, the NFL and CBS Radio jointly announced agreement extending CBS' radio rights to an annual 40 game package through the 1994 season.

On Thanksgiving 1989, John Madden awarded the first "Turkey Leg Award," for the game's most valuable player. Reggie White of the Philadelphia Eagles was the first recipient. The gesture was seen mostly as a humorous gimmick relating to Madden's famous multi-legged turkeys served on Thanksgiving. Since then, however, the award has gained subtle noteriety, and currently, each year an MVP has been chosen for both the CBS and FOX games. When CBS returned to the NFL in 1998, they introduced their own award, the "All-Iron Award."

[edit] 1990s

On March 12, 1990, at the NFL's annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, new four year TV agreements were ratified for the 1990-1993 seasons. The networks involved were ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, and TNT. The contracts totaled $3.6 billion, the largest in TV history.

On September 9, 1990, The NFL Today kicked off with an all-new talent lineup comprised of Greg Gumbel, Terry Bradshaw, Pat O'Brien, and Lesley Visser. Gumbel and Bradshaw replaced Brent Musburger, who was fired by CBS on April Fools Day 1990, and Irv Cross, who was demoted to the position of game analyst.

During the 1991 season, Pat Summerall was hospitalised after vomiting on a plane during a flight after a game, and was out for a considerable amount of time. While Verne Lundquist replaced Summerall on games with Madden, Jack Buck (who was at CBS during the time as the network's lead Major League Baseball announcer) was added as a regular NFL broadcaster to fill-in.

At Super Bowl XXVI (January 26, 1992), Lesley Visser became the first female sportscaster to preside over the Vince Lombardi Trophy presentation ceremony. CBS' telecast of Super Bowl XXVI by the way, was seen by more than 123 million people nationally, second only to the 127 million who viewed Super Bowl XX. The 1990 television contract (which was in effect) gave CBS Super Bowl XXVI instead of Super Bowl XXVII, which was in their rotation. The NFL swapped the CBS and NBC years in an effort to give CBS enough lead-in programming for the upcoming 1992 Winter Olympics two weeks later.

In September 1993, The NFL Today celebrated its 19th season as a 30-minute pre-game show. It and held the distinction of being the highest-rated program in its time slot for 18 years, longer than any other program on television.

[edit] CBS loses the NFL to FOX (1994-1997)

See also: NFL on FOX

CBS did not broadcast any NFL games during the seasons from 1994 to 1997, but won AFC rights, taking over from NBC, in the 1998 season.

On December 18, 1993, CBS (which had been home to NFL games for 38 years) lost their rights to the then fledging Fox Network. FOX offered a then-record $1.58 billion to the NFL over four years for the rights, significantly more than the $290 million per year CBS was willing to pay. FOX was only seven years old and had no sports division, but it began building its own coverage by hiring many former CBS personalities such as Pat Summerall, John Madden, James Brown, Terry Bradshaw, Dick Stockton, and Matt Millen.

FOX's NFL rights ownership made the network a major player in American television by giving it many new viewers (and affiliates) and a platform to advertise its other shows. In the meantime, CBS lost several affiliates, and ratings for its other programming languished.

CBS apparently underestimated the value of its rights with respect to its advertising revenues and to its promotionial opportunities for other network programming. The vast resources of FOX founder Rupert Murdoch allowed that network to grow quickly, primarily to the detriment of CBS. Also, CBS Sports suffered from the fact that in light of their money bleeding, $1 billion deal with Major League Baseball (1990-1993), they suddenly entered a cost cutting mode.

In spring 1994, FOX's parent News Corporation struck an alliance with New World Communications, by now a key ownership group with several VHF CBS affiliates in NFC markets, and wary of a CBS without football. Nearly all of New World's stations converted en masse to FOX beginning that fall. To this day, CBS admits that they have never recovered from the loss of affiliates, having never recovered from damage in Atlanta, Detroit, and Milwaukee, where they were dropped to lower-powered affiliates unable to be received in some markets. (Because of satellite television, the NFL Sunday Ticket in local markets, and rules of the time, satellite subscribers were required to use antennas to pick up local affiliates. The loss of suburbs devastated them.)^{[citation needed]}

CBS televised its last game as the rights holder of the National Football Conference (formerly NFL) package on January 23, 1994 when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, 38-21.

See also: 1994 NFL season, 1995 NFL season, 1996 NFL season, and 1997 NFL season

[edit] The NFL returns

In November 1996, Sean McManus was named President of CBS Sports. McManus would then lead CBS' efforts in reacquiring broadcast rights to the NFL. On January 12, 1998, CBS agreed to air American Football Conference games, paying $4 billion over eight years ($500 million per season).

After acquiring the new package, CBS Sports then named former NFL Today host Greg Gumbel (who after CBS lost the NFL to FOX, worked at NBC Sports from 1994 to 1998), as their lead play-by-play announcer. Phil Simms (who at the time, was at NBC forming the lead announcing team with himself, Dick Enberg and Paul Maguire) was hired as the lead color commentator. On September 6, 1998, after 1,687 days since the last broadcast of The NFL Today, host Jim Nantz welcomed back viewers to CBS for its coverage of the National Football League.

Given the challenge of making its coverage of the American Football Conference different from that of NBC, CBS passed over longtime NBC veterans Charlie Jones and Bob Trumpy in favor of newcomers such as Ian Eagle and Steve Tasker. According to CBS Sports executive producer Terry Ewert,

“

We wanted to forge our own way and go in a different direction. We wanted to make decisions on a new way of looking at things.

”

In one stark difference from NBC, CBS used a constant score and clock for its NFL games, a la the FoxBox. CBS' contribution was dubbed the Eye Box.

On November 8, 1998, the first NFL game to be broadcast in HDTV was televised on CBS. That game took place at Giants Stadium between the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills. It was also the first time two Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks started against each other in the NFL (Vinny Testaverde for the Jets and Doug Flutie for the Bills).

[edit] 2000s

On January 28, 2001, CBS Sports, Core Digital, and Princeton Video Image introduce state-of-the-art, three dimensional replay technology called "EyeVision" for its coverage of Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa. In CBS Sports' first Super Bowl broadcast since 1992, it draws 131.2 million viewers for the Baltimore Ravens win over the New York Giants. Super Bowl XXXV was thus the most watched television program of the year. Play-by-play announcer Greg Gumbel became the first African-American announcer to call a major sports championship. He was joined in the broadcast booth with color commentator Phil Simms.

The NFL playoffs, 2001-02 marked the first time that the league scheduled prime time playoff games for the first two rounds in an attempt to attract more television viewers. Saturday wild card and divisional playoff games were moved from 12:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. North American Eastern Standard Time (EST) to 4:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., respectively. Thus, the league abandoned its practice of scheduling colder, northern playoff games for daylight hours only; any stadium, regardless of evening January temperatures, could host prime time playoff games.

CBS' February 1, 2004 telecast of Super Bowl XXXVIII between the New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers was witnessed by 144.4 million viewers, making it the most watched program in U.S. television history.

In 2004, Jim Nantz and Greg Gumbel swapped roles. Nantz took Gumbel's place as the lead play-by-play announcer while Gumbel took Nantz's spot as the host of The NFL Today.

The next group of broadcast contracts, which began with the 2006-2007 season, resulted in a sizeable increase in total rights fees. Both FOX and CBS have renewed their Sunday afternoon broadcast packages through 2011, in both cases with modest increases.

On February 6, 2006, CBS Sports announced the hiring of James Brown, who moved from studio host of FOX NFL Sunday to the host of the The NFL Today. Greg Gumbel moved back to play-by-play, teaming with Dan Dierdorf.

In a bold move, CBS decided to not use sideline reports for the 2006 season. CBS did state that they would use Lesley Visser, Sam Ryan, Solomon Wilcots and Steve Tasker to report from the sidelines and around the stadium for Super Bowl XLI.

In 2006, CBS' coverage of the AFC Championship Game earned a 28.1 rating, which topped the debut of American Idol on FOX. It's Super Bowl XLI broadcast drew the third largest television audience in history, finishing only behind the M*A*S*H finale in 1983 and Super Bowl XXX (Dallas and Pittsburgh) from 1996. Super Bowl XLI was second most watched Super Bowl of all-time, averaging 93.1 million viewers.^[1]

[edit] HDTV coverage

As of 2006, CBS is airing only three of its NFL games in high-definition each week, the same number of games it has aired for the past few seasons. The other networks with rights to broadcast NFL games, FOX, NBC, and ESPN, broadcast all of their games in high definition. Some fans have accused the network of being "cheap."^[2]

CBS Sports Executive Vice President Tony Petitti claims the network will probably air all of its NFL games in high definition by 2008 or 2009. When asked about the move, Petitti commented that CBS was focused on building a new studio for The NFL Today pre-game show. However, another CBS executive had previously indicated^[3] that, because CBS was an "early adopter" with its first HD game in 1998, it is already "at capacity" and would have to replace newly-bought equipment in its network center with even more expensive equipment.

CBS states that it has put emphasis on its national coverage of college football's SEC. Some of these games are done in HD, theoretically reducing the number of HD trucks CBS can use for the NFL.

[edit] Local preseason television coverage

Since the NFL returned to the network in 1998, a number of CBS stations have been televising preseason football games, mostly including the network's graphics and production that viewers would normally see during regular season broadcasts.

A number of NFL teams and their broadcasting departments have teamed up with CBS Sports to produce games, and those teams include (as of 2006) the San Diego Chargers (originating stations KCBS-TV Los Angeles and KFMB-TV San Diego), Oakland Raiders (CBS-owned independent station KCAL-TV Los Angeles, but beamed to KTVU/KICU San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose), New York Jets (WCBS-TV New York), and Green Bay Packers (WFRV-TV Green Bay and co-flagship WTMJ-TV Milwaukee, a NBC affiliate).

However, there are some that used a few, but not all, elements of the NFL on CBS production presentations, and they are mostly in-house productions between the teams and their individual flagship station. Those include the Pittsburgh Steelers (KDKA-TV), Miami Dolphins (WFOR), San Francisco 49ers (KPIX), Dallas Cowboys (KTVT), Cincinnati Bengals (WKRC-TV), Denver Broncos (KCNC), Kansas City Chiefs (KCTV), and Jacksonville Jaguars (WTEV).

[edit] Television policies

For the past few decades, the NFL has always let CBS be the "singleheader" network during the week it televises the Men's U.S. Open Tennis final at 4:05 p.m. ET around the country (CBS has said that it cannot justify putting the Men's U.S. Open Final on Sunday night in terms of ratings; the women's final, broadcast on a Saturday night, often outrates the men's final by a considerable margin, except when at least one American plays in the men's final).

[edit] Contract history

Since 1982

Period	AFC Package	NFC Package	Monday Night Football	Sunday Night Football	Total Amount
1982-86	NBC	CBS	ABC	None	$420 million/yr
1987-89	NBC	CBS	ABC	ESPN (2nd half)	$473 million/yr
1990-93	NBC	CBS	ABC	TNT (1st half) ESPN (2nd half)	$900 million/yr
1994-97	NBC	FOX ($395 million/yr)	ABC	TNT (1st half) ESPN (2nd half)	$1.1 billion/yr
1998-2005	CBS ($500 million/yr)	FOX ($550 million/yr)	ABC ($550 million/yr)	ESPN ($600 million/yr)	$2.2 billion/yr
2006-2011*	CBS ($622.5 million/yr)	FOX ($712.5 million/yr)	ESPN ($1.1 billion/yr)	NBC ($650 million/yr)	$3.1 billion/yr

• NBC's contract runs through 2012, and ESPN's contract runs through 2014

[edit] Music

During the early 1960s (around 1962), CBS used a marching band-like composition called Confidence as their theme.

By 1975, CBS had several themes (technically, CBS had different opening songs and graphics per crew) to opening their broadcasts. They ranged from David Shire's Manhattan Skyline from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack to Fly, Robin, Fly by the Silver Convention.

From roughly, 1977-1979, CBS used the disco-style version of John Williams' main theme from Star Wars.

See also: Star Wars Title Theme and Star Wars music

Starting in 1980, CBS frequently used the beginning guitar riff of Heart's Crazy on You when they went to commercial.

In 1981, CBS changed the game opening music and kept it through the 1985 season. The 1981-1985 NFL on CBS theme was an peppy, fanfare-styled theme. The patriotic-like opening graphic showed the Stars and Stripes morphing into the words "National Football League."

Beginning in 1986, CBS adpated a theme that has affectionately been referred to as the Pots and Pans (because of the background notes often resembled the banging of pots and pans) theme. This particular theme was an intense, kinetic, synthesizer-laced theme. In 1989, the Pots and Pans theme was revamped to give it a more smooth, electronic style.

For CBS' coverage of Super Bowl XXIV at the end of the 1989 season, they introduced a brand new theme. The theme was a considerably more traditional and standard (but still peppy and bombastic), theme than the one of the past four seasons.

For CBS' coverage of Super Bowl XXVI at the end of the 1991 season, CBS once again introduced a brand new theme. The new theme was an epic-fueled, intensely bombastic, yet still jazzy (and slightly guitar-laced) and strikingly catchy compostition. CBS would continue using this particular theme until the end of the 1993 season (when they lost the NFC television package to FOX). However, CBS Radio Sports would continue using this particular theme music leading up to CBS' return to the NFL in 1998.

When CBS returned to televising the NFL in 1998, they brought back the 1992-1993 theme, albeit modified it to make it sound slightly slower and have a more synthesizer type of sound.

For the 1999 and 2000-2002 seasons respectively, CBS tweaked the now familiar theme music. The 1999 version had heavier sounding notes while the theme used for the 2000-2002 seasons was a more brisk and light-hearted sounding composition.

The song used since the beginning of the 2003 season was composed by Los Angeles electronic music group E.S. Posthumus and is called Posthumus Zone. For the 2005 season, a rap inspired remix of Posthumus Zone was frequently used.

[edit] Important games

Recent important games covered by CBS include Super Bowl XXXVIII on February 1, 2004, and Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007.

[edit] See also

• List of AFC Championship Game broadcasters
• List of NFC Championship Game broadcasters
• List of NFL Championship Game broadcasters
• List of Super Bowl broadcasters

[edit] Current commentator pairings (as of 2006)

Listed in descending order of prominence, in the format play-by-play / color commentary:

1. Jim Nantz / Phil Simms (producer Lance Barrow, director Michael Arnold)
2. Greg Gumbel / Dan Dierdorf
3. Dick Enberg / Randy Cross
4. Kevin Harlan / Rich Gannon
5. Gus Johnson / Steve Tasker
6. Ian Eagle or Bill Macatee / Solomon Wilcots
7. Don Criqui / Steve Beuerlein
8. Bill Macatee or Craig Bolerjack / Rich Baldinger

See also: NFL on CBS commentator pairings

Note: Steve Tasker and Solomon Wilcots served as sideline reporters for the AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl XLI.

[edit] Alphabetical list of past and present commentators

Main article: List of NFL on CBS announcers

[edit] See also

• Monday Night Football
• The NFL on FOX
• The NFL on NBC
• AOL TopSpeed Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show

[edit] References