Peacock, NBC’s streaming platform, continues to add sports programming in order to attract a wide audience. On Wednesday, NBCUniversal announced that a new original sports talk show with former SportsCenter host Michael Smith and NBC Sports Boston’s Michael Holley will occupy a weekday afternoon slot on the service.
The program will be titled Brother From Another and stream on Peacock from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. (The title is probably catchier than, say, “The Two Michaels” and “His & His” is likely too soon, right?) In addition to co-hosting, Smith and Holley will be executive producers on the show, which will premiere sometime in September.
“When coming up with our show’s name and thinking about the vibe we wanted to create, we kept coming back to just that—family—and to this brotherhood,” Smith said in an official press release. “We want this show and the conversations between us and with our guests to feel relatable—literally. As in if you’re giving us time out of your day, then you’re family to us.”
Related: Michael Smith reportedly leaving SC6; his last show will be Friday, March 9
Smith and Holley have known each other for more than 20 years, going back to when both worked at the Boston Globe. And the two clearly believe that longtime friendship will make for good on-screen chemistry when discussing sports, culture, entertainment, and politics. But this will be the first time they’ll do a show together.
This will be the first on-air endeavor for Smith since leaving ESPN last October, following the cancellation of his SportsCenter show, SC6, with Jemele Hill. He was with ESPN for 15 years, beginning as an NFL reporter and co-hosted His & Hers with Hill before moving to SC6.
According to the NBCUniversal release, Smith has also launched a production company called Inflection Point Entertainment which has a development deal to produce content for Peacock.
Holley joined NBC Sports Boston in 2018 after 12 years at Boston’s WEEI.
The NBC Sports on Peacock channel is building a lineup with programming from early morning to early evening, debuting on Monday, Aug. 24. The Dan Patrick Show previously announced it was moving its streaming simulcast to Peacock, joining The Rich Eisen Show (which will stream exclusively on Peacock beginning Oct. 5).
Additionally, PFT Live with Mike Florio will take the morning slot beginning in September. The PFT crew will also produce a new evening show titled PFT PM. Florio will host rotating analysts including Charean Williams, Peter King, Rodney Harrison, Tony Dungy, and Chris Simms. Both shows will join the Peacock programming lineup in September, which should follow this schedule (all times Eastern):
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- 7:00 – 9:00 a.m: PFT Live with Mike Florio
- 9:00 a.m. – noon: The Dan Patrick Show
- Noon – 3:00 p.m.: The Rich Eisen Show
- 3:00 – 6:00 p.m.: Brother From Another
- 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.: PFT PM
Along with the upcoming sports talk lineup, Peacock will also feature Premier League matchups, the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open golf tournaments, and an NFL Wild Card playoff game.
The service will also stream events from the Tokyo Summer Olympics (pushed back to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and Beijing Winter Games. Archival and original sports programming is also available, in addition to sports documentaries profiling subjects including Tiger Woods, Muhammad Ali, Evel Knievel, and the 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team.
This push with live programming is a different approach than other streaming services are currently taking. Will sports-related content help Peacock stand out from the competition?
Related: Jemele Hill and Michael Smith bring the most unique SportsCenter yet with SC6
