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CBS kicks off Thursday football By Jay Bobbin © Zap2it "NFL Thursday Night Football" is a very big deal for CBS. In more ways than one. One only needs to see the ads sporting such stars as Mark Harmon and Julianna Margulies with lampblack under their eyes to know how much the franchise means to the network ... which is temporarily relocating one of its biggest hits, "The Big Bang Theory," back to Mondays to accommodate the games. Reports place the price of the deal between CBS and the NFL in the area of $250 million. The first match-up, on Sept. 11, takes the Pittsburgh Steelers to meet the Baltimore Ravens. Jim Nantz, Phil Simms and Tracy Wolfson will call the game, as they will for the six subsequent Thursday contests. Another sign of what Thursday Night Football means to CBS — which will co- produce and simulcast the games with the NFL Network — was the July panel it assembled for television reporters in Los Angeles, boasting three of America's top businessmen: Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation; NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell; and Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and chairman of the NFL's broadcast committee. Though CBS' Thursday deal with the NFL initially is for only one year, "It is our job to show the NFL what we can do and how great it's going to be and how great the partnership is going to be," Moonves says. "We're confident that after this year is over, they'll sit down and, hopefully, give us a longer deal than that." With the NFL Network owned by the National Football League itself, Goodell explains the aim is to "take what we had started on the NFL Network (and) continue to grow the NFL Network, but really create a greater awareness of the NFL on Thursday night in a franchise that we all will be proud of. And we were proud to pick CBS. The promotion of Thursday night, the commitment to the production value, the Robert Kraft owns the New England Patriots, one of the teams to be featured on "NFL Thursday Night Football," which makes its CBS debut Thursday. commitment to having their 'A' talent on Thursday night is something that was very important to us." Kraft's Patriots will play Thursday hosts to the New York Jets on Oct. 16. The Patriots owner reasons that CBS is doing "the heavy lifting, really, in terms of the announcing, the broadcast, their support people, (and) taking the best people from the NFL Network and combining it. We thought it allowed us to bring a bookend type of mentality to weekends in America, where people — by Thursday night, because of fantasy football and all the other things we try to bring as enhancements to the game — want football." 2 The Goshen News • TV Spotlight • September 8 - 14, 2014 On or Off-Site Catering All Occasions Dine under the glow of gas lanterns Breakfast and Lunch Meals also available Open Tuesday through Saturday www.goshennews.com

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