Monday Night Football will be back on ABC weekly this season.
ABC plans to air a Monday night game every week of the 2023 season as a result of the Hollywood strikes that have limited the entertainment content available to TV networks, according to multiple reports. The Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild have been on strike for months, with no end in sight.
Monday Night Football debuted on ABC in 1970 and was an ABC staple through 2005. It moved to ABC’s corporate sibling ESPN in 2006.
This year the plan had initially been for a select few Monday night games to air simultaneously on ABC and ESPN, and for three Monday nights (including tonight) to have one game on ABC and a different game on ESPN. But now ABC will get Monday Night Football every night, all season.
This is not a long-term programming change but merely a one-season response to the writers’ and actors’ strikes. Next season, ESPN is again set to be the primary home of Monday Night Football, with ABC airing only a select few games.
