Football Night in America
Football Night in America (FNIA), branded for sponsorship purposes as Football Night in America served by Applebee's, is an American pre-game show that is broadcast on NBC, preceding its broadcasts of Sunday night and postseason National Football League (NFL) games. The program debuted on September 10, 2006, when the network inaugurated its Sunday prime time game package. The 80-minute program airs live at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and is broadcast from Studio 1 at NBC Sports Headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. Prior to 2012, Football Night in America originally broadcast from the GE Building in New York City, first out of Studio 8G from 2006 to 2012 and in 2013, from Studio 8H, where Saturday Night Live is also taped.
Football Night in America
Football Night in America on NBC
United States
English
18
305
Studio 8G, Comcast Building, New York City, New York (2006–2012)
Studio 8H, Comcast Building, New York City, New York (2013)
NBC Sports Headquarters, Stamford, Connecticut (2014–present)
Various NFL Stadiums (2006–present)
80 minutes
September 10, 2006 –
present
The program's title closely resembles CBC Television's long-running Hockey Night in Canada franchise. In addition, NBC – along with ABC and Major League Baseball in a joint effort called "The Baseball Network" – had previously aired baseball games as the similarly titled Baseball Night in America from 1994 to 1995, a branding Fox has used for its Saturday evening games since 2012.
Theme music[edit]
Starting in 2018, NBC implemented an opening, similar to the opening that kicks off SNF. The song used is “Check it Out” by Oh the Larceny. The open features NFL players like: the Vikings’ Stefon Diggs and Anthony Barr, the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott, the Rams’ Todd Gurley and Jared Goff, the Falcons’ Julio Jones, and the Seahawks’ Russell Wilson. Some of the players’ actions during the open were taken from when NBC had a share of Thursday Night Football In 2016 and 2017. The theme was retained for 2019 with new players being added like Baker Mayfield of the Browns.
Thursday night games[edit]
Football Night in America was also used as the pre-game show for NBC-produced Thursday Night Football games in 2016 and 2017, though with a slightly varying format due to it being that week's first game, and America in the title substituted with the name of the host city/region of that night's game (A Vikings home game would have that edition of the pre-game titled Football Night in Minnesota, for instance).
Nielsen ratings[edit]
For the 2013 season (from September 23 to December 15, 2013), Football Night in America averaged 4.123 million viewers between 7:00 and 7:29 p.m. Eastern Time; 4.960 million between 7:30 and 7:58 p.m. Eastern and 11.677 million between 8:00 and 8:22 p.m. Eastern.[13]
The November 2, 2014, broadcast averaged 3.408 million viewers between 7:30 and 7:58 p.m. Eastern Time, and 10.124 million viewers between 7:59 to 8:22 p.m. Eastern.[14]