How long until we're back on Sunday Night Football?

Gotta start small.

I think 2018 we'll get a game. We've been on SNF during the dark Nolan/Sing years, no?

I think it depends on what happens this year if off season. If we draft garrett and watson and a good WR, and make some splashes in FA they might give us a shot, or if we get JIMMY G from the pats...other than that....probably not till 2018...

They throw us a bone and give us a Preseason Sunday Night game. HA

hopefully never. who needs the embarrassment of a nationally televised game.

Originally posted by JTsBiggestFan:

Gotta start small.

I think 2018 we'll get a game. We've been on SNF during the dark Nolan/Sing years, no?

SNF on NBC started in 2006...Niners were never on while Madden was the color commentator. First game was in 2010 IIRC vs the Vikes...there were high hopes Singletary-led Niners were gonna win the NFCW that year

Edit: Niners beat the Vikes, but it was preseason

They lost to the Eagles in their first ever SNF on NBC regular season game (the infamous "We Want Carr!" game)

Collinsworth was color commentator by then

Best bet is if the team is ever competitive in the NFCW late in the season, then a game can get flexed into SNF

Only reason Niners might get a SNF early in a season is if it vs a big market east coast team like NY (to get max ratings), but even that's unlikely nowadays with the options of TNF and MNF

NFL starts flexing at week 5 I think, so it would have to be weeks 1-4 and that probably shouldn't happen for a couple more years at least.

Cowboys vs Niners next season on SNF

Originally posted by ChazBoner:

hopefully never. who needs the embarrassment of a nationally televised game.

This. I actually hope they stop televising all our games its an embarrassment to the legacy of the franchise.

2021 my best guess

Whenever NBC stops caring about ratings and wants to showcase god awful football in primetime.

Originally posted by amir_tn80:

Whenever NBC stops caring about ratings and wants to showcase god awful football in primetime.

So when NBC acts like the NFL about which games get played in Europe?

Originally posted by susweel:

Originally posted by ChazBoner:
hopefully never. who needs the embarrassment of a nationally televised game.

This. I actually hope they stop televising all our games its an embarrassment to the legacy of the franchise.

pretty sure only games that'll be televised are away games. The NFL doesn't want our piece of s**t, empty stadium to get airtime.

Niners used to get an inordinate number of primetime games (even when they sucked) due to being in a shared market with the Raiders...if both teams were hosting a game the same weekend, the NFL and their daytime networks (FOX & CBS) would work around splitting the viewing market by having one team be the afternoon 1pm start and the other scheduled to a prime time game (on ABC MNF or ESPN/TNT SNF). There also wasn't flex scheduling back in the day, so the Niners kept their prime time games late in the season.

The network shuffle of the mid-2000's and reformatting of how prime time games were scheduled coincided with the Niners sucking, which is why their prime time games dried up during that time.

As I said, later on the league added (then expanded) TNF, making that an option for "B-rated" matchups (and avoiding splitting viewership in shared markets like NY, the Bay & now SoCal), and saving SNF as the new marquee prime time slot.

So, for the foreseeable future the Niners have only to hope for:

- preseason prime time game (likely on the road) to get west coast ratings

- the later broadcast, second ESPN MNF season opener (again to get west coast ratings)

- a TNF game or two

Originally posted by ChazBoner:

Originally posted by susweel:

Originally posted by ChazBoner:
hopefully never. who needs the embarrassment of a nationally televised game.

This. I actually hope they stop televising all our games its an embarrassment to the legacy of the franchise.

pretty sure only games that'll be televised are away games. The NFL doesn't want our piece of s**t, empty stadium to get airtime.

Just imagine how empty it would be if it didnt have any away fans.