NFL Week #4; Full CBS and Fox schedules and geographic coverage, ALL talent too for all telecasts

Halby’s mouthfuls:

• CBS has the twin-bill, Fox the singleton. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman do the Thursday nighter, a matchup of heritage, Philly and Green Bay. The first team is off Sunday.

• Jim Nantz and Tony Romo preside over Minnesota-Chicago, another NFC game awarded to the Tiffany’s at CBS.

• Ian Eagle, whom CBS is apparently high on, takes partner Dan Fouts with him to the New England-Buffalo game. That AFC telecast will reach 57% of America, more than any game that the network is distributing in the 1pm window

• Kevin Harlan also does MNF on Westwood One and will do yet another Super Bowl in February on network radio in February. Based on narratives and the empirical, Kevin should be higher on the CBS depth chart. 

• What’s with Sam Rosen? He hasn’t worked yet this year for Fox.

• Dick Stockton hasn’t taken a week off yet. I believe last season he did 14 games. Stockton is from the old versatile school, good at baseball, football and basketball. 

• If I was a betting man, I would wager a couple bucks on Al Michaels maintaining his sharpness into his 80s. Still doesn’t miss a trick. Don’t know though whether or not he wants to continue as NBC’s top broadcaster forever. He’ll be 75 in November. While Stockton isn’t what he was 30 years ago, who is?  Dick will be 77 in a couple months. God bless him, I hope he keeps going too. Sir Roger Bannister ran the first sub four-minute mile in 1954. Michaels can be the first to serve as a lead network play-by-play announcer into his 80s. As Roy Firestone told me recently, Al is today’s ultimate network sports announcer.

Jake Baskin has a thumbnail on CBS’ talented Spero Dedes below.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Philadelphia Eagles at Green Bay Packers, 8:20p FOX/NFLN/Amazon*

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on Fox and NFL Network

Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer, on Amazon Prime 

National Coverage

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Tennessee Titans at Atlanta Falcons 1:00p CBS

Spero Dedes, Adam Archuleta

The underrated duo will be seen in 11% of our land in all or part of 9 southern states

Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Ravens  1:00p CBS

Greg Gumbel, Trent Green

This announce team goes to 14% of America, mostly Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills 1:00p CBS

Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts

The two go to 57% of the country. They’ll own the middle swath of America plus New York, New Jersey and New England.  This telecast gets more play than any other CBS game in the 1pm window

Kansas City Chiefs at Detroit Lions 1:00p FOX

Kevin Burkhardt, Charles Davis

38% of America, through the sparsely populated heartland. It’s a mixed bag of markets, bigger ones like Detroit, Chicago and Denver plus smaller ones like Grand Junction, Colorado and North Platte, Nebraska

Carolina Panthers at Houston Texans 1:00p FOX

Kenny Albert, Ronde Barber

Just 10% of the U.S. gets this one. Some 10 Texas markets and about a dozen in the greater Carolinas

Oakland Raiders at Indianapolis Colts  1:00p CBS

Kevin Harlan, Rich Gannon

9% of American homes get these capable fellows in their homes. The duo and Jon Gruden’s smiley smirk, will be seen in Northern California, Nevada, Oregon, Indiana and some of Illinois, but not Chicago

Los Angeles Chargers at Miami Dolphins  1:00p CBS

Tom McCarthy, Jay Feely

This pair will be on in 9% of our great land. Southern California and South Florida are two well populated areas

Washington Redskins at New York Giants  1:00p FOX

Thom Brennaman, Chris Spielman

The Foxies pump this one out to 17% of the cradle of democracy, mostly in  New York, Connecticut and the Mid-Atlantic, densely populated areas

Seattle Seahawks at Arizona Cardinals  4:05p FOX

Dick Stockton, Mark Schlereth

8% of the U.S can catch this one, the biggest stretch being the Pacific Northwest and Arizona; about 18 markets in all.  Tulsa and Oklahoma City have been assigned this matchup. Makes sense. It’s Kyler Murray college country. 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Los Angeles Rams  4:05p FOX

Chris Myers, Daryl Johnston

This will be seen in 26% and some 27 markets of the U.S., including all of the Golden State and all of the Sunshine State except Jacksonville.(Tidbit: Jacksonville is the largest city in the continental U.S. with over 840 square miles.) Additionally, this gridiron battle will be on in Atlanta, Columbus, Indianapolis, Nashville, Baltimore, Boston and Buffalo

Meyers is solid but Johnston is the Kirk Herbstreit version of NFL announcers. He talks, pontificates and too often, all his yakking amounts to little heft. The former Cowboy becomes Director of Player Personnel for the Dallas franchise in the XFL. So unless, the XFL implodes, Fox will look for another analyst next season

Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears 4:25p CBS

Jim Nantz, Tony Romo

The big boys are here. BTW, Romo is trying to make the golf circuit cut. Another NFC game on CBS will be on in 88% of American markets. The other 12% of the U.S, about 35 markets, gets Jacksonville-Denver

Jacksonville Jaguars at Denver Broncos  4:25p CBS

Andrew Catalon, James Lofton

This game will be on in 12% of the country. It will be big in the Mountain time zone, Northern California and pockets here and there.

Dallas Cowboys at New Orleans Saints  8:20p NBC

Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth

National Coverage

Monday, September 30, 2019

Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers  8:15p ESPN

Joe Tessitore, Booger McFarland

National coverage

SPERO DEDES PROFILE:

Spero Dedes has the call for Titans-Falcons this week on CBS alongside former Rams safety Adam Archuleta. At 40 years of age, Dedes is one of the youngest announcers today with a regular NFL schedule, and he looks to be part of the network long-term calling both football and basketball.

Dedes worked his way up the ranks quickly. Immediately after graduating from the storied broadcasting program at Fordham, he landed a job as a radio announcer in the Arena Football League at the height of the league’s popularity. At 23, he became the fill-in television voice for the then-New Jersey Nets, working ten games during the 2002–03 season when Ian Eagle was unavailable.

Dedes moved across the country in 2005 at the age of 26 to become the radio announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers, then returned to his home market in 2011, taking the same job with the New York Knicks. Though he left that role in 2014 to focus on his national work, he has called NBA playoff games for Turner each year since his departure. Each year since 2010, he has called games in the NCAA Tournament.

Dedes worked his first NFL game for Fox at age 25, then added a couple more games on a fill-in basis for CBS the following year. After joining CBS full-time in 2009, he was assigned to their #8 NFL team for the 2010 season, occasionally filling in higher on the depth chart. He spent three seasons on the #7 team alongside Steve Beuerlein, before CBS gave him a full schedule in 2014 next to Solomon Wilcots. This is Dedes’ third year working on the #6 team with Archuleta.