Fox Sports will be launching a pregame show for its newly acquired Thursday Night NFL franchise that will air on the Fox broadcast network and NFL Network starting at 7:30 p.m. ET.
The show, which cuts into affiliates fringe time period, will be hosted by Michael Strahan and feature analysts Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long and will air live from New York City.
Under a five-year deal Fox is paying $660 million annually to air 11 Thursday night games. Fox outbid CBS and NBC, which split the package last year and said they lost money on the package, even though they paid less than what Fox will be paying.
Fox is making football and sports in general a key part of its programming and advertising sales strategy and will be looking to boost the prominence of Thursday Night Football, which has struggled with weak matchups and games that were poorly played in part because players don’t have time to heal up Sunday games.
Programming for Thursday Night Football, Presented by Bud Light will begin at 6 p.m. ET with TNF Gameday on NFL Network. That show will be leading into the pregame show.
“Securing this trio of hall-of-famers to lead our inaugural Thursday Night Football Pregame was paramount in continuing the NFL’s goal of establishing this night as appointment viewing,” said Eric Shanks, president and Executive Producer FOX Sports. “Terry, Howie and Michael, along with our partners at NFL Network, will set the weekly tone with expert analysis and special guests for a dynamic lead-in to each Thursday Night matchup.”
The new Thursday Night Football Pregame Show will be produced by executive VP, production, Bill Richards, who also oversees Fox NFL Kickoff and Fox NFL Sunday.
