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| The NFL Wild-Card is on ABC and ESPN this Saturday at 3pm ET. (ESPN Inc./ABC Inc.) |
For the first time in 10 years, the NFL returns to the ABC Television Network tomorrow as the Disney-owned broadcast network will broadcast the AFC Wild-Card matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans to officially kick-off the 2015 NFL Playoffs. The game will also air regularly on ESPN for the 2nd convective year.
The ESPN Monday Night Football team of play-by-play Mike Tirico, color commentator Jon Gruden and sideline reporter Lisa Salters will call the action from NGR Stadium in Houston, Texas. A special Saturday playoff edition of ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown will precede the game at 3pm ET on both the ABC Television Network and ESPN with host Chris Berman and analysts Tom Jackson, Cris Carter, Keyshawn Johnson and Mike Dikta from the ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut \ while on-site host Suzy Kobler and analysts Ray Lewis, Trent Dilfer and Steve Young will reported from the stadium. Berman will host the halftime show from the Bristol studios.
The last time ABC broadcast an NFL game was Super Bowl XL which Tirico, Kobler and Berman also part the broadcast through ABC Sports' then-partnership with sister company ESPN (before Disney merging the two sports operations into one several months later). In the past two years, its owned-and-operated and flagship station WABC-TV in New York preempted ABC network programming when they carried a Monday Night Football game involving the Giants using the ESPN feed (including the season opener in 2014 in a loss at Detroit and recently this past season on the road in a win at Miami), this station and the rest of ABC affiliates however will mainly use the ABC network feed for Saturday's wild-card game despite it's a simulcast with ESPN but with separated presentation as with FOX broadcast network's news coverage with its sister cable news channel.
ABC and ESPN are owned by The Walt Disney Company.
