Even though we still have one game left in the NFL’s Wild Card round, the league has already announced the schedule and network assignments for the Divisional round next weekend.
CBS once again gets two games in this round, while NBC and Fox get one apiece.
In the early window (4:30 PM ET) Saturday, CBS will get Bengals-Titans. Fox has the primetime window and the weekend’s marquee game: 49ers-Packers, starting at 8:15 PM.
On Sunday, the winner of tonight’s Cardinals-Rams game will face the Bucs on NBC, starting at 3 PM ET. Finally, Bills-Chiefs is the late game on CBS, starting at 6:30 PM.
Additionally, the CBS broadcast of the AFC Championship in two weeks will begin at 3:05 PM ET, while Fox’s NFC Championship broadcast starts at 6:40 PM ET.
In summary….
Saturday, January 22nd
Cincinnati vs Tennessee, 4:30 PM CBS
San Francisco vs Green Bay, 8:15 PM Fox
Sunday, January 23rd
Los Angeles/Arizona vs Tampa Bay, 3 PM NBC
Buffalo vs Kansas City 6:30 PM CBS
Sunday, January 30th
AFC Championship Game, 3:05 PM CBS
NFC Championship Game, 6:40 PM Fox
Broadcaster assignments have yet to be announced, but they probably write themselves at this point. I’m guessing Ian Eagle and Charles Davis will be on the call of Cincinnati-Tennessee, with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo taking Buffalo-Kansas City. With one game each, Fox and NBC should assign their top teams to each game: Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on San Francisco-Green Bay, and Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth on LA/Arizona-Tampa Bay.
In my opinion, while CBS was the big winner this past weekend, Fox is the big winner this time around, despite only getting one game. 49ers-Packers is by far the marquee game of the weekend, and Fox getting it in primetime (albeit on a Saturday) is a nice coup. CBS gets another pair, so they can’t complain all that much (even though they got saddled with Bengals-Titans, the least desirable of the four games, in the worst window of the weekend). NBC also gets another chance to activate the Tom Brady hype machine, weeks before the Super Bowl.
