Seen on Screen: Men In Blazers to Debut Show on NBCSN; ESPN Unveils Plans For Grantland Basketball Show
Story Highlights
by Jarrel Harris, Editorial Assistant
Men in Blazers, featuring popular soccer personalities Michael Davies and Roger Bennett, are joining NBC Sports Group across television and digital platforms.
Men in Blazers is a live and on-demand multi-platform soccer program that will air on NBCSN and will stream on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports Live Extra app weekly on Mondays beginning in the first month of the Premier League season. The show will follow NBC Sports Group’s weekend Premier League coverage, allowing Davies and Bennett to break down all of the action for American soccer fans. In addition, Bennett will serve as a special contributor on television, providing on-site features from the U.K. and making monthly studio appearances alongside Premier League Live host Rebecca Lowe. He will also contribute long-form features to NBCSports.com.
A special, digital-only version of Men in Blazers will be available on Friday of every Premier League match week. The videos, along with their weekly podcast, will be housed in a Men in Blazers section on NBCSports.com. The videos will be distributed on the web and via mobile devices through ProSoccerTalk, and various content alliance partners including Yahoo! Sports and Soccerly. All weekly video previews will be accompanied by short-form written content from Bennett, who will also provide long-form pieces to NBCSports.com…
…ESPN will debut the first Grantland-branded television series – The Grantland Basketball Show – featuring Grantland Editor-in-chief Bill Simmons, on Tuesday, October 21, at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. The Grantland Basketball Show will feature lively discussion about a variety of NBA topics, facilitated by Simmons, with a rotating group of Grantland commentators and other contributors. Up to 18 one-hour, primetime episodes of The Grantland Basketball Show will air throughout the NBA season on ESPN, including eight during the regular-season and eight during the NBA Playoffs and NBA Finals. Other episodes are planned for the NBA Draft and the NBA’s free agency period.
The Grantland Basketball Show will emanate from ESPN’s Los Angeles Production Center. Elements from the show will also be showcased on several ESPN platforms, including SportsCenter and Grantland. As a result of the new NBA opportunity, Simmons will no longer appear as an analyst on NBA Countdown. He will continue to serve as Editor-in-chief of Grantland and co-executive producer of 30 for 30…
…NBC Olympics and Universal Sports Network will combine to present 54.5 hours of the upcoming 2014 Youth Olympic Games from Nanjing, China. NBC Olympics will air 24.5 hours of coverage, marking the first time the Youth Olympic Games will be televised on NBC and NBCSN. In addition, Universal Sports Network will provide 30 hours of Youth Olympic Games coverage.
NBC Olympics’ coverage began with the Opening Ceremony on Saturday on NBCSN, hosted by NBC Sports Group’s Josh Elliott and Mary Carillo. Elliott will also serve as a studio host throughout the Youth Olympic Games.
Coverage will include highlights from each day’s events, normally airing in primetime on NBCSN, similar to NBC’s traditional Olympic primetime presentation.
NBCSN will present coverage each day, beginning with the Opening Ceremony on Saturday, August 16, and concluding with its coverage of the Closing Ceremony on Thursday, August 28. NBC will air three, one-hour presentations of the 2014 Youth Olympic Games beginning Sunday, August 17 at 3 p.m. ET.
NBCUniversal will present coverage of every edition of the Youth Olympic Games through 2032, per its agreement with the International Olympic Committee that was announced in May…
… ESPN’s 2015 Big Monday Presented by Verizon men’s college basketball schedule – a weekly doubleheader featuring teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the Big 12 – will begin January 5 and conclude on March 2. The Monday night games showcase the ACC in the 7 p.m. ET window, followed by the Big 12 at 9 p.m. This season marks the 19th year the Big 12 has had a presence on Big Monday, dating back to the league’s inception in 1996-97. Last year saw the debut of the ACC on the Big Monday series.
New to this year’s schedule is a Big 12 “flex pick” on March 2, in which either Baylor at No. 17 Texas or No. 19 Oklahoma at No. 16 Iowa State will be on ESPN as part of Big Monday and the other will be on ESPNU. The network designation will be determined in the weeks leading up to the game.
The schedule includes four of the top five teams in ESPN’s RecruitingNation Class Rankings: No. 1 Duke; No. 3 North Carolina; No. 4 Louisville and No. 5 Kansas…
… ESPNU and ESPN2 will televise 12 premier games in the 2014 GEICO High School Football Showcase beginning Friday, August 29. No. 2 St. John Bosco (CA) vs. No. 1 Bishop Gorman (NV) on Friday, Sept. 26, highlights a slate involving 10 ranked teams, 33 players in the ESPN 300, and 17 recruits which have verbally committed to Alabama, Arkansas, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Notre Dame, Oregon, Penn State, Southern California, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and UCLA.
Combined with the previously announced 2014 ESPN High School Kickoff, ESPN networks will televise 22 high school football games this season.
