Curated playlist
2000s American sports television series
- NFL on ESPNThe NFL let ESPN air its 1980 draft despite doubts anyone would watch. ESPN reached just 4 million homes then.
- NBA on ESPNESPN's first NBA deal in 1982 ended after only two seasons. Nearly two decades passed before the league returned.
- NBA on ABCABC first broadcast NBA games in 1965 for only $650,000 a year. Baseball's NBC deal was worth $16.5 million in 1969.
- NFL on FoxFox, then known for cartoons, took NFL football away from CBS. CBS had held the NFC for nearly four decades.
- NFL on CBSCBS interrupted an NFL playoff game to show Apollo 8 live on its way to the Moon. It got approximately 3,000 complaints.
- Thursday Night FootballThursday Night Football began in 2006 on a channel most viewers could not get.
- Monday Night FootballMillions of Americans first heard that John Lennon had been shot during a Monday Night Football game.
- NBC Sunday Night FootballNBC's Sunday Night Football topped American Idol as network TV's most-watched show in 2011-12.
- NFL on NBCNBC once cut away from a close football game to air the film Heidi.
- NFL on ABCThe NFL on ABC once carried news that had nothing to do with football. During a game between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots on the 8th of December 1980, announcer Howard Cosell told the audience that former Beatle John…