This Thursday will mark the debut, officially, of Amazon Prime Video’s exclusive Thursday Night Football package. There will be a lot of eyeballs on the first regular season game with Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit in the same booth. Herbstreit wants it that way because he is expecting to be the best.
When Michaels and Herbstreit paired, there was a common belief that it would be hard for two of the hardest-working voices in the business to be anything but good. However, good is not quite good enough for Herbstreit.
“My internal goal — no matter what the critics say — is not to be, ‘Wow, they’re pretty good,’” Herbstreit, 53, said. “I want to be the best booth in television. NBA, MLB, college — I want to be the best. I’m not doing this to just limp across the finish line and say, ‘I made it.’
Herbrstreit realizes that that the partnerships he has with this broadcast, Michaels and producer Fred Gaudelli, that the goal of being the very best is doable.
“My goal is to be the best booth in television and I feel like I’m working with Al and Freddy, I don’t know why we can’t be.”
Michaels also added that the broadcast will be big, but recognizable. Amazon will have 29 cameras (Sunday Night Football uses 25) and two skycams (SNF uses one).
“We are not reinventing the wheel,” Michaels said. “We are going to tweak it, make it better and kind of roll with it.”
