Mike Tirico Replaces Al Michaels on NBC's Thursday Night Football Broadcasts

Mike Tirico will replace Al Michaels as NBC's primary play-by-play announcer for its Thursday Night Football broadcasts this season.

According to Sports Business Daily's John Ourand, the NFL gave NBC the all-clear to let Tirico join Cris Collinsworth in the booth for Thursday night broadcasts after he was previously denied that opportunity. 

Michaels and Collinsworth will continue to comprise NBC's booth for Sunday Night Football broadcasts in 2017. 

"We're excited to have Mike join Cris for 'Thursday Night Football,' giving us two top teams in the booth for TV’s two most watched primetime shows," an NBC Sports Group spokesman said, according to Ourand. 

In August 2016, the New York Daily News' Bob Raissman reported the NFL wanted both NBC and CBS to use their No. 1 broadcast teams for Thursday Night Football games. 

"They [Michaels and Collinsworth] are [NBC’s] number one team. So are [CBS’ Jim] Nantz and [Phil] Simms. We like the idea of having the same booth announcers from Sunday night and Sunday afternoon to carry over to Thursday," NFL vice president of communications Brian McCarthy said at the time. "We're hoping for that same magic ‘Sunday Night Football’ has with Al and Cris to carry over to Thursday night."

However, that plan didn't stay in place long. 

In November, NBC announced Tirico would be on the mic for the network's final four Thursday Night Football broadcasts of 2016 to give Michaels a breather. 

This season, CBS and NBC will once again split the league's Thursday night package, while Amazon will stream 11 games after Twitter offered that service a year ago. 

Like NBC, CBS has also opted to shake up its primary booth with Tony Romo replacing Phil Simms as the network's primary color commentator next to Jim Nantz.