Fred Gaudelli, NBC’s executive producer for football broadcasts, was named the 2023 winner of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced Wednesday.
In January, Gaudelli completed his 33rd season as the lead producer for an NFL primetime TV game. He also served as executive producer of the debut of Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football, a collaboration with NBC Sports.
With Gaudelli at the helm, Sunday Night Football has dominated the television ratings. In its first 16 seasons on NBC (2006-21), the program won 30 Sports Emmys and collected a record 11 as Outstanding Live Sports Series.
“The Hall of Fame presents this award annually in recognition of longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football, and no one has set a better example of exactly what this award represents than Fred Gaudelli,” Jim Porter, president of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said in a statement. “Millions of fans have tuned into Sunday Night Football week after week and year after year, and Fred continually took the broadcast to new heights.”
The Hall of Fame will honor Gaudelli during the 2023 Fame Enshrinement Week that includes the Enshrinees’ Gold Jacket Dinner in downtown Canton on Friday, Aug. 4, and the Class of 2023 Enshrinement on Saturday, Aug. 5, in Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.
“I’m beyond honored and overjoyed to be named this year’s recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award,” Gaudelli said. “Pete Rozelle blazed the trail that enabled the National Football League to become America’s No. 1 entertainment entity. For 33 years and counting, I’ve had the privilege of contributing to that legacy by producing primetime games for four networks: ESPN, ABC, NBC and Amazon Prime. Joining former award winners – not to mention colleagues and friends including John Madden, Al Michaels, Chris Berman, Dick Ebersol, Howard Katz and Andrea Kremer – makes this honor the greatest of my career.”
Gaudelli previously spent five seasons as producer of ABC’s Monday Night Football and produced ESPN’s Sunday night games from 1990 -2000.
He is credited with several innovations that improved the TV viewing experience, including the “first-and-10 technology” (the electronically produced line that shows the first down mark on the field) and the GoalPost Cam.
Gaudelli, a 24-time Emmy winner and producer of seven Super Bowls, entered the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in August 2020 for career-long excellence in the sports TV and media industry.
