What would happen if CBS gave up “60 Minutes” and the show was picked up by NBC? They might keep Anderson Cooper but then build a new show around him. Would it work? Would the viewers follow the show from CBS to NBC?
Well, that is exactly what happened last year when “Inside the NFL,” a program that for 31 years was football’s signature weekly highlights and discussion show moved from HBO to Showtime.
Now the program with the tagline “The show the pros watch” was placed in the hands of CBS Sports producer Pete Radovich — a 10-time Emmy Award winner. All he had to do was live up to the 31 years of history created by “Inside the NFL.”
I spoke to Radovich about the challenge and his first year with the show.
What was the toughest part of your job?
Radovich » We started with James Brown, one of the best hosts in sports, Phil Simms, Cris Collinsworth (the only holdover from the HBO show) and Warren Sapp as our analysts. Like any new show we needed to develop chemistry between the talent. That might have been the easiest thing to do. There are no egos on this show, there were times when Phil [Simms] would say, “You don’t need me in this segment, give it to Warren [Sapp].” Cris [Collinsworth] would say, “You know I like the way this segment is put together but what if we added this.” We had good interaction and impute from the entire team.
What about the NFL Films element to the show?
Radovich » They were awesome and their highlights are what made the show famous in the first place, from show one 32 years ago. We do the show at the NFL Films studios outside Philadelphia and I will tell you that one of the highlights of my career was when a production assistant told me that [NFL Films President] Steve Sabol wanted to meet me. He is such a wonderful gentleman and historian of the game he and his team have helped make our show a success.
What did you enjoy most about the show?
Radovich » These guys love to talk football. They would talk for hours about the game and we often have guys like Ron Jaworski and Charley Casserly — both who spend a great deal of time at NFL Films — sitting around with our guys talking about the game. That means we have CBS’ top analyst in Phil Simms, NBC’s top analyst in Collinsworth and ESPN’s top analyst in Jaws all sitting around talking football. It is tough to break them up and make sure we start the show.
A few weeks ago, Radovich and his team scored the Emmy as the best weekly studio show, so there was a happy ending to year one on its new channel.
The tradition lives on.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on washingtonexaminer.com.
