MLB 2022: Turner Sports Kicks Off New MLB on TBS Tuesday Night Package During Ultra-Busy Spring

TBS is back with a full-season MLB package 

Turner Sports is back on the baseball diamond tonight and, for the first time in recent years, will continue to be throughout the MLB season. Whereas, under the previous MLB media-rights deal, the broadcaster started its coverage at the season midpoint, its new seven-year rights extension calls for a season-long MLB on TBS Tuesday Night game of the week. And, with more regular-season reps than ever over the next six months, Turner Sports will be even more prepared come postseason time.

“The exciting part is covering the full 26-week season again,” says Chris Brown, director, technical operations, Turner Sports. “Being able to follow storylines from the beginning of the season all the way through the postseason not only helps in providing more-compelling storylines but also in the preparation for the postseason.”

Juggling Properties: March Madness, MLB, NBA, and NHL Collide

Although Brown and company are excited to be back in the MLB production business all season long, the earlier start date creates a major logjam of events for Turner. In addition to the MLB package, Turner Sports’ operations team is just coming off the NCAA Final Four and juggling the start of the NBA Playoffs (the Play-In Tournament begins tonight concurrently with MLB on TBS Tuesday Night) and its first-ever NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“We looked to balance the load amongst our operations teams,” says Brown. “The usual exit from the [NCAA] tournament into the NBA Playoffs is something we have been able to manage for some time now. Balancing the load amongst the operations teams and providing dedicated operations support where needed has helped tremendously.”

Back Onsite: Upgraded TS2 Serves as Home of MLB on TBS Tuesday Night

Turner’s production team and announcers will be onsite for all MLB productions this year and will operate out of the recently upgraded NEP TS2 mobile unit. Turner Sports worked closely with NEP to upgrade cameras, EVS machines, the audio console, and numerous other components.

TBS’s coverage will also bring back Base Cam, which debuted during the 2020 MLB Postseason and has become a hit with viewers. With Base Cam, a camera installed in each base path provides unique angles on base runners during replays.

Additionally, MLB on TBS Tuesday Night games will continue to feature several graphics enhancements — including augmented K-Zone and virtual graphics — courtesy of SMT and MLB’s Statcast platform.

The season-long Tuesday-night MLB franchise will also include 30-minute pre/postgame studio shows each week hosted by Ernie Johnson or Lauren Shehadi and featuring Turner’s MLB Postseason team of analysts: Pedro Martinez, Jimmy Rollins, Curtis Granderson. For the games, Brian Anderson and Bob Costas will share play-by-play duties, with Ron Darling and Jeff Francoeur providing game analysis.

Though keeping Turner’s MLB Postseason production plans close to the vest for now, Brown says TBS’s MLB production will be on-par with what viewers have come to expect from primetime baseball.

“Having a primetime package,” he adds, “means presenting the most comprehensive telecast possible.”

The new season-long MLB on TBS Tuesday Night franchise debuts tonight with the San Diego Padres visiting the San Francisco Giants at 9:30 p.m. ET, preceded by the pregame show at 9 p.m.