Al Michaels on who should play him in the John Madden movie, his AI Olympics voice and ‘Thursday Night Football’
When legendary sportscaster Al Michaels joined the broadcast booth for Amazon Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” in 2022, he served as a security blanket for fans that may have been streaming live sports for the first time.
The games have achieved what the league sought — a larger audience of younger fans who are no longer watching traditional TV. Michaels’ stature helped make the game a gateway event to the NFL weekend ahead, after years of it being a night where fans were subjected to ragged play due to short rest.
Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit are back in the booth Thursday as Prime Video enters its third season with the Cincinnati Bengals and Indianapolis Colts in pre-season action. (The first regular season game is Sept. 12). Fans are wondering whether it will be a swan song for Michaels, who turns 80 later this year. He talked about his future in a Zoom conversation from his Brentwood home.
First you have to address last week’s big movie news. Amazon MGM will have David O. Russell directing Nicholas Cage in a film about the life of your former “Monday Night Football” broadcast booth partner John Madden. Who do you think should play the role of Al Michaels?
I could play myself. I can find the time for that. Who should play me? Greg Kinnear, who is a friend. We trust him. I mean Leonardo DiCaprio? Brad Pitt? I don’t need any of that stuff. Kinnear is a regular guy.
You’ve talked about how strong this year’s “Thursday Night Football” games are on paper. About a dozen should be very competitive. Why do you think the scheduling gods at the NFL were so kind to Amazon Prime this year?
They gave us a tremendous number of divisional match-ups (including the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers on Dec 12). We haven’t had that in the past. I think the NFL has gotten very comfortable with “Thursday Night Football.” Not just the game itself, but the shoulder programming with Ryan Fitzpatrick, Andrew Whitworth, Charissa Thompson, Richard Sherman and Tony Gonzales. Taylor Rooks is a star in her own right. She appeals to a younger generation.
Obviously, all of these people are terrific, and I think the league has gotten more comfortable to them. I think there was also a seminal moment last season when the league gave a playoff game to Peacock. They gave them one of the more attractive games in the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs. It showed that streaming is very important to the league.
I think one of the reasons the NBA may have been a lot more comfortable with Amazon is the way we presented “Thursday Night Football.” In fact, I’ve heard that from a couple of NBA owners.
NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Paris Olympics has averaged 32 million viewers, far more than the Tokyo Games, with the help of Simone Biles and Snoop Dogg.
You called the NBA Finals when you were at ABC. Any chance you will have a role in Amazon Prime’s coverage when it starts streaming NBA games in the 2025-26 season?
I don’t think so. It’s a long-term thing for Amazon, and they should put a group together that can do this for a lot of years and build. I’m sure that’s what they’re going to do. I love doing the NBA but that was a long time ago and I’m happy just to spectate next year and beyond.
You’re entering the third and final year of your contract. What are your future plans?
Right now, I feel great, and I look forward to the season. I’ve trained myself to live in the present. I don’t want to start thinking too much about the future. I’m looking forward to the next 4½ months. The people at Amazon have been fabulous from [Amazon Chief Executive] Andrew Jassy, who runs the company, on down; everybody has been terrific. I think maybe we’ll get to a point down the line, end of the season or whatever and sit and discuss this thing. Can I go on? Do I want to go on? Do they want me to go on? All these things will happen in due course. I’m having a lot of fun.
How did you react to hearing the artificial intelligence version of your voice used to create customized Paris Olympics highlights recaps for Peacock?
I was in Paris and people said, “Well, you’re here and you’re doing this,” and I said, “No, no.” I did nothing. I went to events. I was a guest of NBC, but I did zero. When I was in Paris I did hear it a couple of times and go, “Whoa, it’s really frightening.” Actually, some of it is even better than the way I would have said it. Part of me felt this is something that is new and different and you can either resist it or embrace it. I figured it was easier to embrace it. And I’m happy I did it now because people come up to me now and say, “Wow, that’s tremendous.” I’ve only heard good things about it.
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