NBC Sunday Night Football, America’s No. 1 prime-time television show for an unprecedented nine consecutive years, gets “Back to Football,” broadcasting 19 NFL games during the 2020 regular season, as well as three postseason and two preseason games.
NBC will televise the first game of the NFL season on Thursday, Sept. 10, from Arrowhead Stadium as Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes and the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs raise their Super Bowl banner before hosting Deshaun Watson and the Houston Texans in NFL Kickoff 2020 at 8:20 p.m. ET.
The Texans and Chiefs played twice at Arrowhead last season, with the quarterbacks combining for six touchdowns in an October matchup, including Watson’s game-winning touchdown on a fourth-quarter run.
In the rematch, in the AFC Divisional Playoff in January, Mahomes led the largest comeback in franchise history (24-0 second-quarter deficit) passing for 321 yards and five touchdowns in a 51-31 victory.
In the season opener of Sunday Night Football on Sunday, Sept. 13, NFL fans will get their first look at the new and spectacular SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, as Jared Goff and the Rams host Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys. SoFi Stadium marks the fifth NFL stadium opening on NBC SNF since 2009.
The Watson-Mahomes matchup in the opener is the first of an NBC SNF schedule packed with star-studded quarterback matchups, headlined by two-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers visiting NFL all-time passing leader Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints on Sept. 27, and Brees and the Saints visiting four-time Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady and his new Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates on Nov. 8.
In addition to kicking off the 2020 NFL season, NBC will also televise three playoff games over the Wild Card and Divisional weekends – the most for the network since the debut of NBC’s SNF package in 2006.
On the weekend of January 9-10, NBC will broadcast a pair of Wild Card Playoff games, including the NFL’s first-ever prime-time Sunday Wild Card playoff game, which was added in March, when the NFL announced an expanded 14-team playoff field.
The Jan. 10 Wild Card playoff will also be presented on NBCUniversal’s new streaming service, Peacock, and in Spanish on Telemundo. NBC culminates its season with the broadcast of a Divisional Playoff game on the weekend of January 16-17.
Highlights of the 2020 NBC Sunday Night Football schedule
All 2019 NFL playoff teams are on the NBC SNF schedule, including three games each for the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, NFC champion San Francisco 49ers, NFC North champion Green Bay Packers, and the Dallas Cowboys, who have won three of the past six NFC East titles.
Matchup milestones: The Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears renew the NFL’s most-played rivalry on SNF, with the 201st meeting in the series on Nov. 29. In addition, Cowboys-Eagles on Nov. 1 is the 14th meeting between the clubs on SNF – ranking as the most-played matchup in NBC SNF history (since 2006). Cowboys-Eagles also marks the 12th consecutive season for the matchup on SNF – the longest streak for any matchup on the broadcast primetime package in NFL history (ABC 1970-2005; NBC 2006-present).
The NFL’s greatest rivalry of the 1990s – San Francisco vs. Dallas – is rekindled on SNF as Jimmy Garoppolo and the 49ers visit Prescott and the Cowboys on Dec. 20. In total, the two franchises have met in six NFC Championship Games – including “The Catch” game in January 1982. The rivalry reached its height in the 1990s when the teams played nine times overall, and met in three consecutive NFC Championship Games, following the 1992-94 seasons. The winner of each of those three matchups won the Super Bowl.
On Thanksgiving night, 2019 NFL MVP Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens visit Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first-ever Thanksgiving game in Pittsburgh. Ravens-Steelers also marks the ninth meeting between the clubs in the NBC SNF package – tops among any AFC matchup.
SNF will also twice visit Allegiant Stadium, the new home of Jon Gruden and the Las Vegas Raiders, as the last two Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks come to town. First, Brady and the Bucs visit on Oct. 25, followed by Mahomes and the Chiefs on Nov. 22.
Other notable SNF games: In Week 2, Russell Wilson and the Seahawks host the New England Patriots for the first time since the teams met in the thrilling Super Bowl XLIX; and Garoppolo and the 49ers host two October games in three weeks against fellow young quarterback stars Carson Wentz and the Eagles (Oct. 4) and Goff and the Rams (Oct. 18).
First SNF Game in Buffalo in 13 Years: On Dec. 13, NBC will broadcast its first Bills game in Buffalo since 2007, as Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs and Tre’Davious White host the Pittsburgh Steelers.