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What should be done with TNF?

Should they ditch it?  Dial it back?  Work it around bye weeks?  Do it overseas?  Keep it as is?

It all comes down to money. Im sure it is way too expensive to get rid of it.  Can't move it to Wednesday night because that is even worse. Can't do it on Friday bc of college football.  I think it is here to stay.

I don't have a huge issue with TNF. I do think scheduling around it would make a lot of sense, although there aren't enough weeks with bye weeks for those to be a complete solution. Avoid SNF (and MNF, of course) and keep the travel light.

There are rumors that the league might consider scaling back TNF. In that case, it would make sense to schedule the games around the bye weeks. There are currently 8 weeks with teams on bye, so that very nicely gives each team a TNF game every other year. It's a fairly substantial reduction in the package, though, as there are currently 18 TNF games.

A different angle to take on the issue would be to address the issue of unpopular teams.

One last addition... is TNF really that unpopular in terms of ratings? I looked up the numbers and, boy, numbers have been brutal across the board this year, but when good teams play TNF, the games are more popular than MNF. The Monday Night games get around 10-12 million viewers, with a couple just passing the 13 million mark, including the Packers/Eagles game last Monday. Thursday Night games are all over the map, with far deeper lows than MNF, but there have been many 13+ million Thursday Night games this year. There's still a gap up to non-cable national games (mainly SNF) which regularly gets up into the low 20s.

However, teams do matter: The Houston/NE game on Thursday Night in week 3 garnered 17.5 million viewers. Indy/Houston three weeks later on Sunday Night managed only 13.6 million viewers.

The following page is a great overview of the ratings for each slot of each week and how that compares with last year:

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/nfl-tv-ratings-viewership-nbc-cbs-fox-espn-nfln-regular-season-playoffs/

I would have an opening weekend Thursday night game, And extra Thanksgiving night game...Maybe,just Maybe Weeks,16,or 17.

IMO Football used to be an event because it was Sunday,and a Monday night game. It feels too much,I rarely watch any games outside of Miami games.

I think that scaling it back to about half of the time makes sense.  Do it to open the year, like B says, and then manage the rest around BYE weeks.

Side note: I'd like for MNF to be the premiere game again.  The MNF games are 2nd choice AND you can't flex into them, so you have a fair share of turds.  A better solution is to allow the MNF game to be 1st choice, but to allow SNF to flex.

I don't understand the complaints about the Thursday night games. If you don't like the game don't watch. It's not like if jags-titans was on Sunday instead thirsdat you would actually watch that game.

They aren't getting rid of it. It makes too much money. John Madden can bitch all he wants the Thursday game isn't going anywhere

Dial it back to opening week and the weeks after Thanksgiving once college football is done.   

On Sunday, there are multiple other games to choose from.  On Thursday night, it's the only game on.

Exactly. So why say they should get rid of Thursday night games just bc you don't like the matchups. It doesn't hurt you bc you wouldn't have watched that specific game anyways. And if you do want to watch the game then it benefits you bc you wouldn't have to decide which game to watch on Sunday.

The specific complaint is that the Thursday night games feature horrible matchups.

They are almost always divisional games, likely to prevent a competitive advantage in the division from one team having to play on short rest.

Yes those same horrible matchups wouldn't be watched on Sunday either. So what difference does it make if they are on Sunday or Thursday.

The fear (and risk) is that they undermine the perception of the product and thereby drive down ratings over the longer term, even if it increases the ratings of that particular game.

The first thing the NFL needs to do if they want to bolster ratings and the general perception of their product is to get the people who sell the product to consumers (e.g. Madden) to stop criticizing it all the time. Who wants to watch something they are being told is shit?

Short rest is the operative word.   A lot of teams hate Thursday nights because it causes injuries

The traveling team on Thursday is grossly disadvantaged.  There just isn't enough time to heal, prepare, and travel.  That extra time for the home team makes a lot of difference.

Cut back the number of games, and work it so teams coming off a bye week play the game (or at least the visiting team is coming off a bye week).

The two sides have come closer to going to 17 game regular season. With the money from the Thursday night package it makes adding extra games and roster spots possible. Give and take

Interestingly, I see people talking about how much money the Thursday game generates and how that isn't going to go away. As these rating go down the advertisers are going to realize that and stop making the same deals. The advertisers are going to drive the NFL price down on Thursday at some point if the matchups don't interest the people.

I don't see the games going away and I don't see any immediate changes but I suspect there will be a scaled back version coming at some point. There is just too much football saturation for a lot of people. I play pool on Thursday so I am exposed to football starting Thursday night through Monday (college football is included in my world) and with that much football going on I just don't have the desire if the matchups aren't good.

Unless the Dolphins are playing I don't bother watching the Sunday or Monday night games anymore.  I only watch the Thursday night games because I'm out bowling in a league on Thursday nights, otherwise I wouldn't bother.  Not to mention I usually don't watch two games on Sunday anymore because only one network has the double header per week, and it's usually the network that Doesn't have the 2nd game with the game I actually want to watch.

Leave Thursday Night Football the way it is...

When possible Thursday games should matchup two teams coming off bye....

When that is not possible, the visiting team must have had a home 1 pm or 4 pm game the week before and the must have a road game the week before.  Plus no cross country travel 1000 miles or less.

No 8 pm Sunday road game followed by a Thursday road game.

This year the NFL had the Redskins play a Monday Sunday night game then play AT Dallas on Thanksgiving which was criminal honestly.

They played on Sunday night, not Monday.

Correct, my bad. Got my night games mixed up..lol

Which I as supreme ruler and dictator of the NFL, ummmm I mean commissioner, would eliminate.

Here is my final plan, adopting some of your ideas.

- Thursday night games will happen 8 times a year.  Opening weekend, Thanksgiving, and 6 other nights around BYE weeks.
- MNF will be the premiere game and will get first pick of any game on the schedule, but they have to pick prior to the season and the games are locked.
- TNF for the 8 weeks of the season it airs will have 2nd choice, but they also have to be locked in before the season.
- SNF can pick between the remaining games, but they can flex the schedule and take any game from earlier in the day, so long as they make the change at least two weeks ahead of time.

Wait, what?

Why are you switching the premier game back to MNF (which is currently on cable)?  Making the premier game on Sunday night was the best move the NFL has done in decades.

Because SNF can flex.  Mnf cant so you get shitty games.  I hate the move to SNF.  im fatigued but Sunday nights game.

But any broadcast that can flex will almost always have better late-season matchups than the "premier game" the following night.  ARI @ CAR was considered a premier game at the start of this season, but it would be worthless now; meanwhile, a stinker between two teams with double-digit losses last year - DAL and NYG - is the best game on the slate this week.

That is exactly the reason why MNF's ratings were tanking on ABC: the matchups that were picked before the season started ended up being clunkers that no one wanted to watch.  SNF and the flex mechanic was specifically designed as a solution to that problem; you're proposing going back to a system that already failed.

will never happen because FOX and CBS won't go for it. FOX and CBS pay so much money they have the ability to "block" or "hold onto " so many games per year. They aren't just gonna let NBC and ESPN take the best games every week and leave them with garbage.

Terrible move. It conflicts with Game of Thrones and now Westworld  8)

My way, you get the best of both worlds.  MNF gets to anticipate the best matchup, so you'll get a lot of the teams that are nationally popular, like NE, Pitt, Dallas, Giants, etc.  And Sunday will flex into the best game based on standings and relevance to the league.  Win-win.

In this fantasy, I'm the commissioner, so FOX and CBS can suck it.  But also, they show all the local games anyway to most media markets in the US.  They don't show the best matchup.

Phish earlier,said was I was going to say earlier,about the saturation,and money.

My captain obvious comment
I'm glad the flexing into Sunday night game,is being mentioned,it's part of the problem with All the night games (accept Sunday because of the flex).The greatest match up on paper when the schedule comes out HOF QB vs HOF Qb in week 7 on TNF,or MNF is that because of the nature of football (injuries,teams not near as good that year,etc).The match up becomes a dog of a 2nd string,and 3rd string Qb crappy game.

It's why I think it needs to be scaled back in some way.

lol, they can suck it

I think you missed my point. CBS and FOX under the current plan can hold onto a certain amount of games. CBS has the AFC games. For example, NE plays Denver CBS can block NBC or ESPN from taking it. They want that big match-up of marquee games. FOX can block a Dallas-Washington game from being taken by NBC or ESPN. CBS and FOX can block so many games so they have a few marquee match-up's they can put on at 4pm for their double-header weeks.

Yes, YOUR local CBS may show a local game. But most of the country doesn't have a local team. If your in Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota...etc you get the national game as you don't have a local team you are hand-cuffed too. That's why FOX and CBS have that ability to hold onto so many games and not give them up.

And you missed Dave's, he would be the commissioner so what is current would not be under his plan.

No I didn't...lol. I understand its all make believe. But I am presenting a CURRENT FACT. I know in his world of make believe he can do what he wants,  but he stated something about local market games which isn't true in reality (not his make believe) that he stated.

Take a chill pill bro, Dave doesn't need a lawyer he can speak for himself.

I have Phish on retainer.

So which one of these two games is on cable?  Or is ABC taking back MNF in your plan?

Let me reemphasize what I just said: the strategy of picking the projected best games before the season starts and playing them on Monday night has already failed.  It is THE EXACT REASON why SNF Flex games were created in the first place.

You have provided no explanation as to why we would not see a repeat of the poor ratings of MNF on ABC, especially late in the season.  They had to cancel the week 17 MNF slot because the games were so unwatchable and meaningless!

Sure.  ABC can have it.  Whatever.