Starting tonight here in Washington, ESPN is out to make sure Mondays during football season are never the same.
We already know about the changes to “Monday Night Football.” But the showcase event is simply part of the most ambitious day in the history of live sports television.
Every Monday from a different city, ESPN will feature Super Bowl-like on site coverage. Live shows to be produced today here in D.C.: “Mike and Mike in the Morning” on ESPN Radio, “Cold Pizza,” “Around the Horn,” “Pardon The Interruption,” “NFL Primetime,” “Monday Night Countdown” and, of course, “Monday Night Football.”
Let’s take a look at what it will take to produce the ESPN Monday football experience: seven production trucks used each week (three for game telecast, four for studio shows); 15 digital recording devices for game action; 35 42″ plasma screens in the three MNF game telecast production trucks; 47 cameras used for MNF each week, including 33 game cameras and 14 for studio shows; 60 ESPN staffers working inside ESPN’s MNF trucks during game; 108 monitors on main wall of MNF production truck used by producer Jay Rothman and director Chip Dean; 400 credentialed ESPN personnel working on MNF each week.
It is an awesome task and with it will come results. Look for MNF to set a cable ratings record each week this season.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer.
