ESPN said it will close out its coverage of the National Football League’s regular season with the premiere of Monday Night Football: Doubleheader Saturday on Jan. 8.
The games will be simulcast on ABC and streamed on ESPN Plus.
The new doubleheader was one of the results of the new rights deal The Walt Disney Co. signed with the NFL in March. It will be part of the league’s Week 18 — a longer season in which each team plays 17 games, up from 16 previously.
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The teams to play in the doubleheader will be announced after Week 17 is played, but ESPN said both matchups will have playoff implications.
ESPN will also be televising a playoff game during the league’s Super Wild Card weekend. That game will have a mega-cast format, including a Maningcast featuring Peyton and Eli Manning,
Announcers Steve Levy, Brian Griese, Louis Riddick, Lisa Salters and John Parry will call one game. That group will be concluding their second regular season on Monday Night Football. They will also call ESPN’s Super Wild Card game.
ESPN’s top college football announcing team, Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit, will call the other game. The pair previously worked an NFL game last September when the Steelers played the Giants. Laura Rutledge, host of NFL LIve, will be the on-field reporter for that game.
ABC and ESPN Plus will also be simulcasting ESPN’s MNF game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears on Dec. 20. ■
