CBS Makes Successful Bid For Thursday Night Football

The smash hit “Big Bang Theory” will be shoved out of its Thursday night time slot this fall after CBS won the right to broadcast eight NFL games on that night, according to The NY Post.

It is the first time Thursday night NFL games will regularly appear on a broadcast network.

CBS snapped up the hotly contested eight-game package for between $250 million and $300 million, according to sources close to talks.

Fox, Disney’s ABC and ESPN, NBCUniversal and Turner also bid.

CBS didn’t say where Sheldon Cooper, a lead character in “BBT,” and the rest of the sitcom lineup that night would end up — back to Monday nights or moved to a November season premiere — but it is clear why CBS and its rivals vied so hard for the pigskin programming: ratings.

Jim Nantz, Phil Simmns

And dollars.

While “BBT” attracted $316,912 for a 30-second spot, according to Ad Age, NBC’s Sunday Night Football got 85 percent higher rates, at $593,700, and ESPN’s Monday Night Football charged $325,400.

NFL games attract larger TV audiences than any other regular programming. They also deliver the coveted young male demographic.

Thursday night NFL games had been available only on the NFL Network.

With those ratings not as robust as Goodell would have liked, the league decided to sell half the weeknight slate to a broadcast network — to increase NFL revenues and hopefully tease more viewers to the NFL Network’s late season slate of games.

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