Chris Berman and Tom Jackson ran the best NFL pregame show for 19 years. ESPN NFL PrimeTime couldn’t be touched. Berman always kept things fun with his popular sayings like “nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills” or “he rumbling and stumbling and bumbling his way for the touchdown”. Berman and TJ produced a great product. Then ESPN got too cute and replaced Berman with Sam Ponder. TJ was out too. The product has never been the same and the ratings have tanked.
Well, ESPN is bringing the infamous crew back. Except there is a catch. NFL PrimeTime is coming back to ESPN. The problem is it is coming back to ESPN+ which is a paid subscription.
“Chris Berman and Tom Jackson, who teamed up to co-host ESPN’s NFL PrimeTime for 19 seasons, will reunite as the show returns, beginning Sunday, on ESPN+, it was announced Friday.
From 1987 to 2005, Berman and Jackson helped redefine NFL highlights with their back-and-forth banter, Berman’s signature player nicknames and delivery, and Jackson’s analysis. They will be joined on NFL PrimeTime by SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt and Monday Night Football play-by-play voice Joe Tessitore.
The 60-minute show will stream live on ESPN+ at 7:30 p.m. ET each Sunday during the 2019 season and will be updated with highlights from the Sunday night and Monday night games. The show will be available
on demand each week until late Wednesday night.”
I’m just going to come right out and say it. This is BULLSHIT! Here’s an idea for you ESPN since you can’t get anything right. How about you put NFL PrimeTime back on TV and put Ponder and her band of misfits on ESPN+. Berman generated higher ratings any. If there’s a lunatic that actually prefers the current format, they can find that on ESPN+. The rest of the normal people want Berman. That’s the ESPN I grew up with and the ESPN that gave them their original popularity.
Personally, I’ve given up on all of the pregame shows. I used to watch NFL PrimeTime until Berman got cut. FOX was a pretty well put together show. I couldn’t bear to watch it anymore once they lost Frank Caliendo. I don’t think there is a person on the planet I find more annoying than Rob Riggle. By this time next year, our site will have their own NFL Pregame show. Put that on the board.
