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NFL Halftime Report: McManus Still All In For "TNF" Despite Games Moving To NFL Net

Despite the move of “Thursday Night Football’ exclusively to NFL Network for this week’s Saints-Panthers game, CBS Sports Chair Sean McManus does not plan on holding anything back. The first seven “TNF” games aired on CBS and were simulcast on NFL Net, but the remaining Thursday games will be broadcast solely on the league-owned network. CBS will produce each of the remaining contests, and McManus said the commitment to “TNF” from his network will remain the same. “We said to the NFL when we were pitching them on CBS getting the rights to the package that the last game of the season … would have the same level of equipment, the same level of commitment and same look as our opening game,” McManus said. That commitment includes the likes of CBS’ lead broadcast team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, as well as CBS Coordinating Producer Lance Barrow, continuing to work the Thursday games. McManus also makes a point to attend each game and hopes to continue to do so through the end of the season. NFL Network Senior VP/Programming & Production Mark Quenzel said, “CBS deserves a lot of credit. They’re doing all these games and still maintaining quality and quantity of what they do on Sundays. They’ve done everything they said they were going to do.”

QUALITY CONTROL: McManus arrived at Bank of America Stadium for Thursday night's game around 4:00pm ET, well before the 8:25pm kickoff, and mingled with Nantz and NFL Senior VP/Broadcasting & Media Operations COO Howard Katz. McManus made the rounds on the field before Saints-Panthers, but as a longtime producer himself, he usually stays inside CBS’ production truck during the game to oversee the broadcast. He said of the “TNF” season up to this point, “I’m proudest of the quality of the presentation, both the pregame and game. We don’t have control over the television ratings or how close the games are, but we do have control over what the production looks like. It’s been everything we hoped it would be and everything we promised the NFL it would be.” Heading into the second half of the season on NFL Net, Quenzel said the idea is to continue to make Thursday a destination viewing night for football. Quenzel: “Everything we do has that kind of as an overarching goal. … Hopefully in a few years it becomes as synonymous as the NFL is on Sunday night and Monday night.” McManus added, “The cooperation and the coordination with the NFL Network has been first rate. They’ve been really good partners and have contributed a lot.”

THE ENGLISH PATIENCE: Fox finished with a 5.5 rating and 8.5 million viewers for Sunday’s Lions-Falcons early morning game in London, and McManus said CBS could be interested in playing in the exclusive 9:30am window in the future. “We’d like to try it on CBS if the NFL thinks it makes sense,” he said. McManus noted CBS’ Dolphins-Raiders telecast this year from London did not make sense because it would mean a 6:00am start time for Raiders fans on the West Coast.

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