Thursday Night Football moves to Fox this week. The network will turn to its usual Sunday A-game crew to call the action. In the booth, Joe Buck handles play-by-play and Troy Aikman will do the color commentary. Erin Andrews and Kristina Pink will report from the sidelines.
The crew held a conference call with members of the media on Tuesday, and one question that came up multiple times was how the broadcast would be different from what we see on Sundays. Joe Buck said that Thursday nights will feel more like a playoff atmosphere from a broadcast perspective. “The only time that [we] have really felt that before, and Kristina’s new with our group so I guess it’s Troy, Erin and me, is when we’re doing a Champ game, a playoff game or a Super Bowl.”
Kristina Pink, who is in her first year of working with Buck, Aikman, and Andrews says being a part of Thursday Night Football is a big deal, but has been made easier by her co-workers. “It’s a large audience, more resources, bigger crew, bigger feel and they’ve been incredible in welcoming me.”
Buck said one thing viewers will notice is the like of Sunday afternoon’s regular Fox Game Breaks, where the Fox studio crew updates Buck, Aikman, and their audience on action around the league. Buck says he hopes that gives the entire broadcast crew’s personalities more of a chance to shine. “That’s not there anymore, so it gives you a little more room to play with, and I think you can play with that room in a lot of different ways. You can do straight football or you can have a little fun with it. And I think we’ve come up with a pretty good balance of football and fun. That’s the silver lining in all of this for us is it gives us a little bit more room to breathe.”
