CBS is airing the Week 5 Bills-Titans game nationally tonight at 7:00pm ET, and it is "remarkable" that the net "did not move one of its top three NFL broadcast teams to call the game given the game will now go to 100 percent of the country and features teams with a combined 7-0 record," according to Richard Deitsch of THE ATHLETIC. CBS execs instead decided to "keep the broadcast group that was originally scheduled," a "major show of faith" for lead producer Deb Boulac, director Chris Svendsen and the booth pairing of Tom McCarthy and Jay Feely. Boulac: "What it says is that CBS believes in all of us equally and they have confidence that we can do a great broadcast. They never wavered one second. ... Not one time from my perspective did they indicate they [are] going to change us off this game." McCarthy: "I've done a lot of big games, but a lot of those big games have been regional. This is probably the biggest that I've done from a national standpoint with all the eyes that are on us. I think what's so cool from a CBS standpoint is that they have such trust in all of us." Boulac will have a "lot more production tools at her disposal than a usual week for her." CBS has "added a SkyCam for the game, the ability to use all 12 pylon cameras, and more video-editing apparatus" (THEATHLETIC.com, 10/13).
MAKING IT WORK: In Pittsburgh, Tim Benz writes thanks to a COVID-19 scheduling backlog, "I don't think this evening's game will be the last Tuesday night contest you'll see." If the ratings are good, the NFL "will make it happen again in 2021," this time "on purpose." Unless the league is "willing to institute a Week 18 buffer before the playoffs, they may need to use some remaining Tuesday dates as options to squeeze in rescheduled games." It could be the "only way to hopscotch through coronavirus-related interruptions to the schedule" (TRIBLIVE.com, 10/13).
