The 272-game regular season culminates in Super Bowl LXI in Los Angeles, bringing sweeping changes to booths and studio desks alike.
NBC Sports and Sunday Night Football Lineups
NBC enters its 21st season broadcasting Sunday Night Football with Mike Tirico returning to the play-by-play role alongside analyst Cris Collinsworth. Melissa Stark continues reporting from the sideline, while Terry McAulay serves as rules analyst. The network’s 2026 slate covers 22 regular-season games and three playoff matchups, opening with an annual NFL Kickoff Game on Wednesday, Sept. 9, featuring a Super Bowl rematch between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots on NBC and Peacock.
The pregame show Football Night in America features Maria Taylor, Jason Garrett, Devin McCourty, Mike Florio, and new addition Mike Tomlin starting at 7 p.m. ET each Sunday.
FOX Sports Adds Tom Brady and Drew Brees
FOX returns Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady for Brady’s third season in the broadcast booth. The seven-time Super Bowl champion is scheduled to call his first career Patriots broadcast when the Green Bay Packers travel to Gillette Stadium on Nov. 8. With Drew Brees joining the full-time roster to replace Mark Sanchez—following Brees’s hiring during the 2025 season—FOX pairs the top two leaders in NFL career passing yards and passing touchdowns on its roster.
FOX’s broadcasting crews for 2026 include:
- Kevin Burkhardt (play-by-play), Tom Brady (analyst), Erin Andrews (sideline), Tom Rinaldi (sideline)
- Joe Davis (play-by-play), Greg Olsen (analyst), Pam Oliver (sideline)
- Adam Amin (play-by-play), Drew Brees (analyst), Kristina Pink (sideline)
- Kenny Albert (play-by-play), Jonathan Vilma (analyst), Megan Olivi (sideline)
- Kevin Kugler (play-by-play), Daryl Johnston (analyst), Allison Williams (sideline)
- Chris Myers (play-by-play), Mark Schlereth (analyst), Jen Hale (sideline)
Mike Pereira and Dean Blandino handle rules analyst duties for FOX.
CBS Sports Shakeup Features J.J. Watt
CBS restructured its lead broadcast pairings after Tony Romo was placed on leave “until further notice” following a July arrest on suspicion of operating a vehicle while under the influence. While Romo stated publicly on Sept. 1 that he plans to return “in time,” CBS elevated J.J. Watt to the network’s No. 1 team alongside play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz and sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson.
CBS features the following announcer teams for the 2026 season:
- Watt (analyst), Tracy Wolfson (sideline)
- Ian Eagle (play-by-play), Ross Tucker (analyst), Evan Washburn (sideline)
- Kevin Harlan (play-by-play), Trent Green (analyst), Melanie Collins (sideline)
- Ross (sideline)
- Tom McCarthy (play-by-play), Robert Turbin (analyst), Tiffany Blackmon (sideline)
Gene Steratore serves as the network’s rules analyst.
ESPN and ABC Broadcast Historic Super Bowl LXI
Disney prepares for a historic dual-network broadcast of Super Bowl LXI across ESPN and ABC, marking ESPN’s first-ever Super Bowl broadcast and ABC’s seventh overall appearance. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman enter their 25th season as a broadcast partnership, a milestone that culminates with their seventh shared Super Bowl call alongside sideline reporters Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge. Peyton Manning and Eli Manning also return to provide alternate analyst coverage.
