Al Michaels praises TNF schedule: ‘We’ve come a long way, baby’

As Al Michaels looks ahead to the games he’ll be calling for Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football schedule in 2025, he likes what he sees.

Shortly after the NFL schedule was released on Wednesday, Michaels was interviewed by Rich Eisen on the NFL Network’s 2025 NFL Schedule Release show. During the interview, Michaels likened an old ad slogan for Virginia Slims cigarettes, “You’ve come a long way, baby,” to what he sees from the Thursday Night Football schedule for its fourth season on Prime Video.

“That’s how I look at Amazon now,” Michaels said. “We started in 2022, the schedule had a couple of pretty good games and then a lot of run-of-the-mill games. And then in ’23, it became considerably better. Last year was great. The ratings were terrific, and we had a ton of really great matchups and wonderful games that people really loved. And this year, I look at this schedule, Rich, and you see the same thing that I’m seeing. Most of the games would be Sunday Night or Monday Night games, as well. So I think we’re kind of right there where we had hoped to be four years into it.”

“I look at this schedule and Rich, I think you and I are both old enough to remember the old cigarette slogan, ‘You’ve come a long way, baby.’ That’s how I look at Amazon now.”

Al Michaels on the Prime Video schedule in its fourth season covering “Thursday Night Football.” pic.twitter.com/kBktJZr6mz

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 15, 2025

Michaels specifically said that he was looking forward to Week 6, when the New York Giants host the defending Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, specifically former Giants’ star, Saquon Barkley. In addition to Week 6, the Eagles will be on Prime Video again later in the season when they play the Chicago Bears on Black Friday.

“That was a big step for us at Prime when we were able to get teams multiple times. We have Buffalo twice. We have the Rams, who I think could go all the way, twice. Miami’s in there twice. And then we have the flexible component, as well. So, we’ve come a long way, baby.”