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New Lineup Announced for ESPN�s Monday Night Football: Tirico, Jaworski and Kornheiser
Sports television�s signature series, ESPN�s Monday Night Football, will kick off its 38th season with a new line-up when longtime ESPN NFL analyst Ron Jaworski joins Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser in the booth, and sideline reporters Suzy Kolber and Michele Tafoya.
Jaworski will occupy the analyst role previously held by Joe Theismann, who has been offered a prominent football analyst role with ESPN.
�This new lineup will enhance our presentation of Monday Night Football, our most important property,� said Norby Williamson, executive vice president, studio and remote production, ESPN. �Ron has covered the NFL from many different perspectives, and he is totally tied into the issues and trends from around the league.
�We appreciate the work Joe has done for 19 years and continue to talk with him about another high-profile football role with ESPN.�
Jaworski�s passion for football and his knowledge of all things NFL have made him a fan favorite on ESPN�s Sunday NFL Countdown and other studio shows. Following a 17-year NFL career (1973-89), most notably as quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, Jaworski joined ESPN in 1990. He has worked in various capacities � sideline reporter, game-site reporter, host and as both a studio and game analyst. He was a fixture on ESPN�s NFL studio programs last season, including Sunday NFL Countdown, NFL PrimeTime and NFL Match-Up, a show he will continue to do. Jaworski has also appeared as a weekly �Five Good Minutes� guest on Monday editions of Pardon the Interruption with Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon and worked as an analyst during the San Diego Chargers-Oakland Raiders game as part of ESPN�s 2006 season-opening NFL doubleheader. He continues to be a major contributor to ESPN�s annual NFL Draft coverage.
Jaworski�s studio responsibilities will now be spread amongst ESPN�s deep lineup of NFL analysts, including Emmitt Smith, who will join both Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown, and Bill Parcells, who will appear on ESPN�s Monday studio shows.
ESPN�S MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
ESPN�s inaugural season of Monday Night Football was the most-watched series in cable television history and the only NFL series nominated for a 2007 Sports Emmy in the Outstanding Live Sports Series category. The 17 games were the biggest 17 household audiences for cable television in 2006 and nine of the top 10 on the list of cable�s biggest household audiences ever (excludes breaking news), including the N.Y. Giants-Dallas Cowboys game (10/23/06) which ranked No. 1 with 11,807,000 homes based on a 12.8 rating. For the season, MNF averaged a 9.9 rating and 9,109,000 homes (12,325,000 P2+), increases of 39%, 43% and 41%, respectively, compared to last year�s ESPN Sunday Night Football; the accompanying �Monday Night Surround� content on ESPN.com sparked an increase of Monday traffic to the site of 52%.
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