CBS Sports will present its final live game broadcast of the National Football League playoffs this Sunday, Jan. 26 with a seminal AFC Championship Game emanating from GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs look to move within one victory of becoming the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowl championships, while Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills look to win the conference for the first time since 1993.
The network will feature its lead NFL broadcast team of play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz, analyst Tony Romo and reporter Tracy Wolfson, along with rules analyst Gene Steratore. Furthermore, analyst Jay Feely and reporter Evan Washburn have been listed as being among the game announcers for the contest, which aligns with the crew from last season.
This will be the 27th consecutive year CBS Sports will broadcast the AFC Championship Game, all but six of which have been called by Nantz. The lead play-by-play announcer recently broadcast the 500th NFL game of his career, and he has delivered the Lamar Hunt Trophy to the AFC Champions for the last three seasons. Kickoff for the AFC Championship Game takes place at approximately 6:30 p.m. EST on CBS and streaming live on Paramount+.
The broadcast of the AFC Championship Game last season averaged 55.5 million viewers and a 25.5 rating on CBS, which was the largest audience on record for the game. CBS Sports is coming off having broadcast the most-watched game of the Divisional Round last week, a marquee matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills that averaged 42.2 million viewers on the network. Paramount Global, which is in the midst of a pending merger with Skydance Media as part of a two-step transaction, is in the third year of a 10-year media rights agreement with the NFL, reportedly worth $2.1 billion annually.
The award-winning pregame show, The NFL Today, will be back on the road for this matchup broadcasting live at 6 p.m. EST. James Brown will host the show and be joined by analysts Nate Burleson, J.J. Watt, Bill Cowher and Matt Ryan live from Kansas City. The team will discuss the quarterback matchup between Mahomes and Allen, along with the Chiefs’ defense in an EyeVision segment. NFL Network host Kyle Brandt will also join the show to break down the quarterbacks, and there will be additional contributions from CBS Sports lead NFL insider Jonathan Jones.
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