Mike Tirico to Call Thursday Night Football for NBC

Mike Tirico is taking over play by play duties for NBC on the network’s Thursday Night Football package.

The NFL okayed NBC’s request to use Mike Tirico as the play-by-play announcer for its “Thursday Night Football” productions this season, a change from last season when Al Michaels called almost all of NBC’s Thursday night games. Michaels will remain the play-by-play announcer for NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” games and is under contract for multiple years. Cris Collinsworth will be the analyst on both the Thursday night and Sunday night games. “We’re excited to have Mike join Cris for ‘Thursday Night Football,’ giving us two top teams in the booth for TV’s two most watched primetime shows,” an NBC Sports Group spokesperson said.

You may remember that when NBC lured Tirico from ESPN a year ago, they had the Thursday Night Football package in mind. The NFL reportedly insisted that NBC have Michaels call the Thursday games instead. Tirico did get to call a few regular season games during the season in Michaels’ place.

Michaels probably didn’t want the double duty to call the lesser Thursday games so this is probably a solution that fits everybody.

Tirico is Michaels’ likely successor when the legendary play by play guy decides to stop calling Sunday night games.