Mike Tirico

Mike Tirico is the voice of NBC Sports’ biggest events, handling play-by-play for Sunday Night Football and serving as the primetime host for NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Olympics. Tirico, who joined NBC Sports in July 2016, also hosts NBC Sports’ coverage of the Kentucky Derby, and golf’s U.S. Open and Open Championship, among other major events.

In Sept. 2024, Tirico began his third season as the play-by-play voice of NBC’s Sunday Night Football. In January 2024, he became the first TV announcer to call two NFL Playoff games in a single weekend (Super Wild Card weekend).

This past summer, Tirico received critical acclaim for his role as primetime and daytime host of the Paris Olympics, which registered daily audiences of more than 30 million viewers across NBC, Peacock and additional NBCU platforms.

During the Paris Olympics, Front Office Sports observed: “[Tirico] is one of the last of a breed. The sports TV world of the 1970s and 1980s was studded with versatile sportscasters who called multiple sports with aplomb…and always seemed to narrate the biggest sports moments. Not anymore.”

His excellence across multiple sports has been well-documented.

“(Tirico) sets a tone of relaxed omniscience — the feeling that, at every moment, you’re being told all you need to know, in an optimally elegant and succinct way,” The New York Times Magazine wrote in a Dec. 2023 feature on Sunday Night Football.

Wrote The Associated Press in January 2021: “Smooth, informational, funny and opinionated when needed, Tirico simply is the best no matter what sport he is announcing. The more Tirico the better.”

SNF averaged a Total Audience Delivery of 21.4 million viewers in 2023 (including 19.9 million viewers as measured by Nielsen), ranking as primetime’s #1 TV show in all key metrics for an unprecedented 13th consecutive year – adding to its record for the most successive years atop the charts (since 1950), based on official live plus same day data provided by Nielsen.

Tirico has called primetime NFL games for 19 consecutive seasons, including 10 years as the voice of ESPN’s Monday Night Football. In addition, 2024 marks his 29^th season as an NFL primetime studio host or play-by-play voice.

In May 2023, Tirico was honored for the second consecutive year with the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Sports Personality – Studio Host, following a stretch in which he anchored the Beijing Olympics in primetime, horse racing’s Triple Crown, golf’s U.S. Open, and the Indianapolis 500. Tirico was also nominated in the Outstanding Sports Personality – Play-by-Play category following his first season (2022) as the voice of Sunday Night Football.

In May 2022, Tirico earned the Sports Emmy in the studio host category after an unmatched year in which he anchored the Tokyo Olympics in primetime, the Super Bowl LVI Pregame Show, Football Night in America, horse racing’s Triple Crown, golf’s U.S. Open, and the Indianapolis 500.

In February 2022, Tirico completed an unprecedented hosting double, anchoring the NBC Olympics primetime show in Beijing (beginning Thurs., Feb. 3) and Los Angeles, while also hosting the Super Bowl LVI pregame show from SoFi Stadium on Sunday, Feb. 13, as NBCUniversal presented the two global events in an 18-day stretch.

The 2022 Beijing Olympics was Tirico’s third as NBC’s primetime Olympics host (Tokyo, Pyeongchang). He served as an NBC daytime host at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

In February 2019, Tirico was named host of NBC Sports’ inaugural coverage of the Indianapolis 500. Earlier in the same month, he called play-by-play for his first-ever NHL game, after previously hosting the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, 2019 NHL Winter Classic, and 2019 NHL All-Star Game.

In August 2018, Tirico was named studio host for Football Night in America, the most-watched studio show in sports, leading into Sunday Night Football, primetime television’s #1 show.

In May 2017, Tirico was named NBC’s play-by-play voice for Thursday Night Football, alongside analyst and current SNF partner Cris Collinsworth. NBC/NFL Network Thursday Night Football was primetime television’s #2 show in the 2016-17 TV season and the #3 show in the 2017-18 TV season.

Tirico was named the full-time lead play-by-play voice of NBC Sports’ Notre Dame Football coverage in August 2017. In the spring of 2017, Tirico debuted as the host of NBC’s Triple Crown horse racing – covering the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. He also served as NBC Sports’ host of the Indianapolis 500 from 2019-24.

Tirico made his NBC Sports Group debut in July 2016 as host of NBC Sports’ live coverage of The Open from Royal Troon in Scotland. Shortly thereafter, he made his Olympics debut as host for NBC’s daytime coverage of Rio 2016. Also that fall, Tirico served as host of The Ryder Cup and NBC’s primetime coverage of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

Tirico joined NBC after 25 years at ESPN/ABC (1991-2016), where he established himself as a preeminent broadcaster on properties and events including Monday Night Football, The Open, The Masters, NBA, college football, college basketball, FIFA World Cup, and tennis’ U.S. Open and Wimbledon. Tirico, the voice of ESPN’s Monday Night Football from 2006-2015, is one of four play-by-play announcers to work primetime NFL games for at least 10 seasons (Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Mike Patrick). He was named the 2010 Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (NSSA), an award voted on by his industry peers.

Tirico joined ESPN as a SportsCenter anchor in July 1991, later serving as host of Monday Night Countdown during the NFL season from that show’s 1993 launch to 2001. From 1993-1997, he anchored ESPN’s college football studio show. In December 1996, Tirico was named golf host for ABC Sports, and in 2002, began calling NBA games for ABC, ESPN, and ESPN Radio. In addition, he hosted SportsCenter coverage of the U.S. Open, The Masters and the Daytona 500, and anchored coverage of the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four, and NFL Draft for both television and radio.

Prior to joining ESPN, Tirico worked in Syracuse, N.Y. (1987-1991). He was sports director at WTVH-TV and served as play-by-play voice for Syracuse University basketball, football, lacrosse and volleyball.