It’s dead, Jim.
That was the first thought which came to mind upon seeing the news that the NFL’s longtime highlights and analysis show, Inside the NFL, will not be returning to Paramount+. The program, produced by CBS Sports and NFL Films, had been on the streaming service for the past two seasons after moving from Showtime, where it ran from 2008 to 2021.
Past generations of football fans know that the history of Inside the NFL goes back even further to the 31 years it aired on HBO, from 1977 to 2008. For nearly 25 of those years, the show was essential viewing for highlights from the previous Sunday (each week’s new program debuted Wednesday night), including audio from mic’d up players and coaches, and commentary from NFL Hall of Famers Len Dawson and Nick Buoniconti.
Later iterations featured Cris Collinsworth (who co-hosted with Dawson and Buoniconti before they retired), Bob Costas, Dan Marino, Cris Carter, Jimmy Johnson, and Jerry Glanville. Comedians including Lewis Black, Wanda Sykes, and George Lopez provided commentary, which added some pop culture into the show.
All of that sounds antiquated now, of course. Highlights are perenially available on ESPN, NFL Network, and FS1 throughout the week. Fans can see them almost immediately during game broadcasts on CBS, Fox, and NBC. Then there’s NFL RedZone (on cable or DirecTV) and Twitter where video clips of great catches, long runs, major hits, painful turnovers, and other impact plays are widely circulated by the NFL itself, media outlets, and regular users.
Where does Inside the NFL fit amid that landscape? Well, that’s the point we’re getting at here. It doesn’t fit anywhere anymore. Is there really a suitable home for a program offering content fans can find at nearly any place else on TV and the internet? Even cord-cutters who might be devoted subscribers to Paramount+ probably already saw their weekly NFL highlights elsewhere.
And with no disrespect intended toward Brandon Marshall, Ray Lewis, Phil Simms, and Julian Edelman — or even host James Brown — are those former NFL stars offering analysis that stands apart from what we get from the likes of Dan Orlovsky, Marcus Spears, Mina Kimes, Ryan Clark, Louis Riddick, Boomer Esiason, Chris Simms, Kurt Warner, and Michael Irvin? Where are ex-coaches like Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson, or former executives such as Bill Polian and Mike Tannenbaum?
What about the insiders? Can a show cover the NFL without some reporting on league rumors, transactions, possible trades, and news regarding players, coaches, and executives? How much of football fandom is following insiders like ESPN’s Adam Schefter, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Fox’s Jay Glazer, CBS’s Jonathan Jones, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, and NBC’s Mike Florio?
In fairness, maybe having a reporter on to track the latest rumors wouldn’t work on a streaming show that viewers watch at their convenience. Any information provided could become quickly outdated, especially when most of that reporting is found on Twitter.
Diehard NFL fans with insatiable appetites for deep-dive coverage can go even deeper with podcasters such as ESPN’s Bill Barnwell, The Athletic’s Robert Mays, and Ross Tucker. Fans’ regular NFL diet also includes coverage from local reporters and analysts covering your favorite team or teams.
A counter-argument might be that Inside the NFL was never meant to appeal to the truly devoted football fan. It was intended as a quicker, one-stop look at the past weekend’s NFL action and what’s coming next.
Yet by putting such a show on a streamer like Paramount+, the NFL is essentially asking its fans to seek it out. Granted, the same could be true when the program was on premium cable networks HBO and Showtime. But a move to streaming is pushing that out even further from fans who might just want to turn on their TV and get some football content.
How much of that content is special, though? Each Inside the NFL episode has highlights and interviews with key figures from the week’s major storylines. But how many of those people were also interviewed by ESPN, NFL Network, Rich Eisen, or Dan Patrick?
Paramount+ likes to promote the show’s personalities with clips of their picks for upcoming games. How much of an attraction is that? Poking fun at a pundit’s poor record is often fun, but sports betting is something else that’s abundantly available elsewhere. Even more so as more states legalize betting and information can be found on dedicated websites and apps.
In breaking the news of Paramount+ ditching Inside the NFL, Sports Business Journal‘s John Ourand reported that the league is looking to find a new landing spot for the program. Among the outlets mentioned are Amazon Prime and YouTube.
Both appear to be feasible possibilities. Amazon can complement its Thursday Night Football package — or its lineup of sports talk shows and sports app — with more NFL programming. YouTube TV will be the new home of NFL Sunday Ticket beginning this upcoming season. Google will probably want some supplementary official NFL programming with that.
At Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio also speculated that the NFL could just keep Inside the NFL in-house, showing it on NFL Network or its NFL+ streaming service. Why offer that compelling, sometimes amusing, NFL Films footage anywhere else? One more streamer that could be a possibility is Peacock, which is a reminder that these platforms all need content for their catalogs. And the NFL has wide appeal.
However, that appeal might truly be tested by shopping Inside the NFL around. Nearly every media entity wants to be in business with the NFL. But this isn’t live sports programming. And most of the possible stops for the program already have a relationship with the league. But maybe there’s never enough when it comes to NFL highlights, analysis, and commentary. The NFL is hoping that’s true by believing Inside the NFL still has some viability and isn’t obsolete.
Ian Casselberry is a sports media columnist for BSM. He has previously written and edited for Awful Announcing, The Comeback, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation. You can find him on Twitter @iancass or reach him by email at iancass@gmail.com.
If on a streamer it could work on ESPN+ Amazon or NFL+ if it were to go back to TV it will be on NFL network I do not see Peacock wanting it Apple is not a good fit nor is YouTube I think it will air first run on NFLB then on-demand on NFL+