Published October 18, 2026 01:21 PM
More than 40 years after video killed the radio star, Sunday morning football could be killing the traditional pregame shows.
Last week, the Eagles-Jaguars game in London ate into the ratings for the Fox and CBS noon ET pregame shows, as noted recently by Sean Keely of Awful Announcing.
This week, the Texans-Jaguars game in London lasted until 12:48 p.m. ET, leaving only 12 minutes before the end of the Fox and CBS pregame shows.
It’s the third straight Sunday with a 9:30 a.m. ET game. And three more 9:30 a.m. ET games are coming: Week 7 (Steelers-Saints), Week 9 (Bengals-Falcons), and Week 10 (Patriots-Lions).
Spinning it forward, the next Collective Bargaining Agreement will expand the annual slate of international games to 16. That will surely increase the number of games played in Europe, which will increase the number of games that begin at 9:30 a.m. ET. Which will increase the number of times that the Fox and CBS pregame shows are undermined by live game action.
Throw in the fact that there’s non-stop NFL news and analysis, and it could spark a conversation regarding whether it makes sense to overhaul the current model, with the pregame shows shifting to the hour before the 9:30 a.m. ET game begins.