ESPN on Sunday will air the Pro Bowl for the first time since '10, and the net will continue to produce the game through its eight-year rights deal with the NFL. ESPN’s production execs say they would prefer to produce the game from the Super Bowl site rather than from Hawaii. "MNF" VP/Production Jay Rothman, who will produce the game, said, “It starts the buzz and excitement for Super Bowl week, and there’s something cool about that." The games often are mocked by fans for not being competitive, but they produce good TV numbers. The past five seasons (three on NBC, one on Fox, one on ESPN) have averaged a healthy 12.35 million viewers per game. In order to create fan interest, the NFL allows broadcasters much greater access than they get during the regular season, including putting microphones on players and coaches. ESPN will have so many players miked up -- including all six QBs and honorary coaches Cris Carter and Michael Irvin -- that it will produce the game on a five-second delay. “We don’t want anything getting out there,” Rothman said. “The games are tough to produce. But the league’s been tinkering with it for quite some time.” ESPN views this game, coming at the beginning of Super Bowl week, as a way to set the conversation for the week. The game’s announcers, Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden, will discuss topics such as whether the Cowboys can afford to keep WR Dez Bryant and RB DeMarco Murray. “We’re selling the stars and the personalities; we’re having fun and giving access,” Rothman said. “We can do things to keep people a little bit longer by taking them a little bit more inside the game.”
