Steely McBeam
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- Mar 20, 2019
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The postponement of Sunday’s Steelers-Titans has created a challenge for the NFL. It also will create another national TV window.
Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reports that the game between Pittsburgh and Tennessee, which originally was lumped within the 1:00 p.m. ET cluster of Sunday games, will be nationally televised in its new time slot, whenever that may be.
If the game moves to Monday, it’s expected to start at 5:00 p.m. ET, setting up an unprecedented non-Week One doubleheader, with Steelers-Titans on CBS preceding Falcons-Packers on ESPN. If the game moves to Tuesday, it will be played at 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. ET.
Marchand notes that CBS prefers that the game start at 7:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, in order to avoid a conflict with national programming like the CBS evening news, and the late-afternoon local news broadcasts for its various affiliates.
However it plays out, the Steelers-Titans game not only will be getting a new day and time but a larger footprint. In turn, it will draw larger ratings. And that makes the mini-outbreak in Tennessee ultimately a good thing for the NFL and for CBS.