The team for Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” is almost complete, less than two months away from its first game of the regular season.
Amazon has hired Kaylee Hartung as a sideline reporter, while Andrew Whitworth and Aqib Talib have joined for pregame, halftime and postgame coverage.
Prime Video’s regular season debut as the exclusive home of the primetime package is Sept. 15 when Kansas City hosts the Los Angeles Chargers.
“It’s been a great opportunity to start from scratch to really bring a new perspective,” said Marie Donoghue, vice president of Global Sports Video at Amazon. “We have great veterans who are at the top of their profession, while bringing in incredible personalities who have recently left the game. So it brings a unique current contribution.”
Hartung returns to sports after five years with ABC News and CNN. Previously, he was a sideline reporter for ESPN, primarily covering SEC football and college basketball.
In a phone interview, Hartung said he didn’t leave the sport five years ago, but moved on to become a more versatile reporter.
“The range of opportunities has been cool and I think it’s helped prepare me better for the next step,” he said. “This is the next great opportunity for me to tell great stories. Storytelling, whether it’s news or sports, is the same craft. And that’s what’s been so exciting about this opportunity because it’s the biggest story in sports and we’re talking about the NFL and of the best game that has so many eyes.”
For game coverage, Hartung will be paired with play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and analyst Kirk Herbstreit. Hartung and Herbstreit did some events together for ESPN, but were never part of the same weekly team on the Prime Video channel.
While Herbstreit will continue to cover college football for ESPN, Hartung’s last day at ABC News was last Friday.
“I’ve heard from both of them how excited they are to be a part of building something new. And I think it’s definitely a bonding experience for us to do it together,” Hartung said of Michaels and Herbstreit. “It’s an incredible learning opportunity for me to be able to learn from them how they do their jobs and run their businesses.”
Whitworth, who capped a 16-year NFL career by helping lead the Los Angeles Rams to a Super Bowl championship, joins Ryan Fitzpatrick and Richard Sherman on the studio team that played last season. Before deciding on Prime Video, the former offensive tackle and Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year recipient received a lot of interest from networks.
“I was really excited to have a little bit of a vision of what they wanted to do — to be a little bit innovative and change it and create a new and exciting experience. Who am I to create a culture and an atmosphere and really an experience,” Whitworth said.
Talib played 12 years in the NFL, including a Super Bowl title with Denver, before retiring after the 2019 season. He had done some NFL games for Fox the past two seasons.
It was previously announced that Charissa Thompson and Tony Gonzalez will also be on the pregame, halftime and postgame broadcasts.
Donoghue said plans for some of the alternative channels that will be available during the games are still being finalized. Prime Video will hold a few practice games before the August 25 preseason game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Houston Texans.
Copyright 2022, Associated Press
