Tuesday, February 7, 2006

James Brown Goes Back To CBS

                   

In a very interesting move....James Brown, the host of Fox's NFL Sunday since 1994, will go back to CBS where he was for 10 years.  Brown lives in Washington, DC....and the CBS commute to New York [where the pregame is broadcast] is much better than the commute to Fox's show in Los Angeles.  There is no word on who JB's replacement will be....but there are rumors that Terry Bradshaw will actually be the "host" of the show and Fox possibly bringing Deion Sanders into the mix.  There are also rumors that Chris Myers may get the host job. 

This is a huge shot in the pregame wars. 

Brown will replace Greg Gumbel as the host of CBS's NFL Today. Gumbel will go back to play-by-play duties [which I think he's much better at] with Dan Dierdorf as the #2 team in CBS's coverage. 

The domino effect is that Dick Enberg will be demoted on CBS' football telecasts.  Enberg worked with Dierdorf the past couple of years...but will move down the ladder to make room for Gumbel.  Reportedly, Enberg isn't too cool with this. 

This comes on the heels of the whole Sunday-Monday nights transition between ABC/ESPN and NBC.  John Madden is already moving to NBC's Sunday night coverage next year....and it is unclear if Al Michaels will join him.  Michaels had signed up to stay at ABC/ESPN but may be trying to wiggle out of it.  If so, it opens up the Monday night play-by-play gig at ESPN.  The rumor is that Tony Korheiser may take that spot....or Mike Tirico. 

Bonnie Bernstein is leaving CBS to be the sideline reporter at NBC. 

 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a sad day. By replacing Enberg with Gumble, CBS has broken up the most comedically bad broadcast team in football.

Anonymous said...

WOW!!! now I have to switch to CBS's pre-game show. It seems to me that Fox will be losing out this year. Hopefully this is not over money because I would have given JB whatever it takes to stay on top. Great move JB and for what it's worth every military person will turn in with you.

O. Teague