NFL on ABC
television series
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network has nationally broadcast National Football League (NFL) games in various stints throughout its history. ABC's first stint, which lasted from 1948 to 1950, involved a "game of the week" format and the NFL Championship Game; it also owned broadcast rights for up to three teams from 1952 to 1954. ABC started airing NFL games again with the debut of Monday Night Football in 1970; it became part of the Super Bowl broadcasting rotation in 1985 and started annually airing two NFL Wild Card playoff games in 1991.
Following ABC's broadcast of Super Bowl XL, ESPN took over as the exclusive rights holder to Monday Night Football in 2006, and the ABC Sports division was merged into ESPN Inc. by parent company Disney. Afterward, ABC did not broadcast any game from the NFL until it simulcasted a Wild Card playoff game from ESPN in 2016. ABC would then return to Monday Night Football in 2020, when they aired three games as simulcasts from ESPN.
Since 2020, ABC simulcasts or exclusively airs some Monday Night Football games, two Saturday games during Week 18, one Wild Card playoff game, and the Pro Bowl in conjunction with ESPN. Beginning in 2023, ABC and ESPN will simulcast one divisional playoff game, and both networks will air the Super Bowl in 2027 and 2031. All games since 2016, whether a simulcast or an exclusive broadcast, have used ESPN branding and graphics.
History
Prior to Monday Night Football
ABC began television professional football in 1948, where the network used a "game of the week" format to broadcast the NFL. Later that year, the network broadcast the NFL Championship Game between the Chicago Cardinals at Philadelphia Eagles with Harry Wismer providing commentary. The 1949 NFL Championship Game between the Eagles and Los Angeles Rams in Los Angeles was only made available to viewers on the West Coast because at the time, there was no way to send live television programs from the West Coast to the East Coast and vice versa.
The public source identifies “NFL on ABC” as television series. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around television and series.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “NFL on ABC”, the useful work is to connect “television series” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q110158175. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1950, 1952 and 1954.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “NFL on ABC”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow NFL on ABC primary sources, NFL on ABC archive and television research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “NFL on ABC”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “NFL on ABC” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.