After decades on HBO, Showtime, and most recently Paramount Plus, Inside the NFL is heading for broadcast TV.
The CW Network (WTF?) has announced that it has become the new home of the long-running weekly studio show covering the NFL.
The hosts and producers for the show will be unveiled at a later date, per the press release. The quote from the relevant NFL Films executive suggests that the show will go younger (and possibly cheaper).
“Generations of football fans have grown up watching Inside the NFL,” NFL Films senior executive Ross Ketover, Senior Executive, NFL Films. “It is a show we cherish at NFL Films and we are thrilled to bring it to a great new partner in The CW. This is a special opportunity to reimagine and reboot Inside the NFL for a wider audience and a new generation of fans. We can’t wait to get started.”
In the years before the Internet, Inside the NFL provided indispensable content for football fans, with thorough highlights and analysis of the prior week’s games. Now, anyone who wants to see the best plays from a given game can get them virtually in real time. Also, the prevalence of Sunday Ticket and the ability to watch completed games on demand supplants what once was the only way for fans to get a lengthy glimpse of games they didn’t see live.
So what will the reimagination and reboot look like? That will go a long way toward determining whether it works, and whether it survives.
The show debuts on The CW on Tuesday, September 5 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT.
