A Field Guide to NBC's Sunday Night Football Booth, Home to Two Collinsworths

The game call: Tirico, Collinsworth, and the officiating whisperer

Mike Tirico handles play-by-play, describing the action as it happens. Cris Collinsworth sits beside him as the analyst, breaking down why a play worked or failed, usually within seconds of it ending. Terry McAulay, a former NFL referee who led officiating crews in Super Bowls XXXIX, XLIII and XLVIII before retiring in 2018, serves as the rules analyst, translating replay reviews and penalty calls into plain language while the stadium is still arguing about them. Melissa Stark and Kaylee Hartung report from the sidelines, catching coach and player reaction NBC's other cameras cannot reach.

Collinsworth has held the analyst chair since 2009, paired first with Al Michaels and, since 2023, with Tirico. NBC extended his contract through the 2029-30 season, so this particular pairing is not going anywhere soon. I go deeper into his playing career and his side business in a companion piece; here, the point is simpler: he is the fixed point the rest of the crew rotates around.

Before kickoff: Football Night in America

An hour before the game, NBC runs a separate studio show called Football Night in America. Maria Taylor hosts it. Jason Garrett and Devin McCourty break down matchups as analysts, and Mike Florio covers league news and injuries. Mike Tomlin joined the desk this year after stepping down as the Steelers' head coach in February 2026, ending two decades in charge in Pittsburgh. None of this is the same broadcast as the game itself, even though it airs on the same channel back to back.

After the final whistle: a show that only exists on Peacock

Once the game ends, the broadcast splits again. Sunday Night Football Final is a Peacock-exclusive postgame show, meaning it does not air on NBC's regular channel at all. Jac Collinsworth hosts it, joined by Devin McCourty, Jason Garrett, and Mike Florio for instant reaction from the stadium. It is his fourth season doing it. Earlier this year NBC restructured its pregame coverage and moved Jac, along with veterans like Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison, off Football Night in America entirely. The postgame hosting job is now his main assignment, alongside a new Friday countdown show called 10/10: NBC Sports Ranks, which started September 18, 2026. I don't think the Peacock exclusivity is an accident. NBCUniversal has been steering live-sports extras toward its streaming service for years now, and a stadium-side postgame show is exactly the kind of extra that rewards someone for opening the app instead of just switching the channel.

Jac's route here has its own charm. He started as a Notre Dame student assistant on NBC's college broadcasts, then spent two NFL seasons at ESPN as a features reporter before NBC hired him back in 2020. He grew up in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, the same town where his father still lives: one parent calling Sunday nights from the booth, one son eventually landing on the same network, just working a different shift of the same night.

None of this changes what you actually watch: a football game, then analysis, then a football game, then more analysis. I still think knowing which show is which, and who is actually in charge of each one, makes the whole Sunday night easier to follow, and a little more fun to notice.