NBC moving EPL show to SoFi Stadium during Super Bowl week
The Super Bowl won’t be the only football being talked about at SoFi Stadium in the run-up to the NFL championship game next month.
NBC, which owns the broadcast rights to the Super Bowl, is moving its Premier League studio show from Stamford, Conn., to a set outside the Inglewood stadium for seven days of programming between Feb. 8-13. The show will be hosted by Arlo White, a long-suffering Chicago Bears’ fan who is also NBC’s lead play-by-play voice for Premier League soccer. He will be joined on set by analysts Robbie Earle, Robbie Mustoe and Tim Howard.
The decision to take the popular program out of the studio and on the road was made in part to highlight the network’s Super Bowl coverage, but also because of a demand for studio space at NBC Sports’ home in Connecticut.
NBC is also broadcasting the Beijing Winter Olympics, but it announced last week the network would not be sending any sport-specific announcing teams to China because of COVID-19 concerns. Instead, those commentators will call the action from Stamford.
White is replacing Rebecca Lowe, who normally anchors the Premier League studio show. Lowe will serve as NBC’s daytime host throughout the Winter Games, working from the NBC Sports International Broadcast Center in Stamford.
The U.S. returns to World Cup qualifying against El Salvador in Columbus, Ohio, where the forecast calls for a chance of snow and 30-degree temperatures.
The temporary move to Southern California is the second in four months for NBC’s Premier League coverage. In late October the network brought its soccer show to the front steps of the Coliseum as part of a two-day fan fest.
Unlike October, the public will not be allowed to attend the show’s broadcasts this time.
February’s visit also marks the second time the studio show has been broadcast live from a Super Bowl. NBC did the same thing seven years ago when the football game was played in Glendale, Ariz.
