The new set of ‘Sunday NFL Countdown’ and ‘Monday Night Countdown.’
(Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images)
BRISTOL, Conn. – It was time for ESPN to move their NFL shows out of “Candlestick.”
Just as the San Francisco 49ers finally vacated their outdated old home in favor of a state of the art stadium earlier this summer, all of the network’s pro football programming will move into a brand new 9,000 square foot space on its Bristol, Conn. campus in time for the first Sunday of the 2014 NFL season.
For the past decade, the NFL shows shared Studio E -which Chris Berman nicknamed after the Bay Area relic – with other network fare like Mike & Mike, First Take and assorted college football shows. About two years ago, ESPN started discussing the idea of building a separate football-only facility. After picking a design by the company Jack Morton PDG, who also built the new SportsCenter studio across the hall, build-out began on the NFL studio in May.
“There’s certainly a lot more variety,” ESPN senior creative director Noubar Stone told For The Win. “SportsCenter is about the displays, the scenic is pretty minimal. Here there’s a lot more things whether it’s the balconies, the high-beams, reused wood. Yeah, we have a lot of displays too but it’s a different vibe to it.”
(Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images)
One of the biggest changes will be having a dedicated mini-set inside the space for each individual show. The back half of the set is occupied by the two Countdown shows, with a giant U-shaped desk sitting underneath a giant drop down banner in front of three giant LED screens. There are two balconies that lead to separate upstairs interview spaces, as well as a two-person desk about 15 feet to the right of the Countdown desk that will host NFL insiders Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen on Sunday and the show of the same name the rest of the week.
The NFL Live set, which feels a bit like Restoration Hardware mixed with Battlestar Galactica and Madden video game graphics, sits at the opposite end of the studio, facing the Countdown desk. Directly opposite across the floor from Mortensen and Schefter is a rounded table whose top comes off to reveal a touchscreen. Analysts will be able to telestrate game film while seated at the desk, as their work appears on the two large screens to the right and left of them.
“It’s ridiculous,” analyst Ron Jaworski says as he enters the studio, excitedly describing the potential capabilities of the touchscreen. “It’ll take a little time to refine it, but it’s a really cool technology.”
It seems like ESPN’s NFL producers and directors are just starting to conceptualize all of the different things they’ll be able to do. All three of the main set areas are on hydraulic lifts, which allow more flexibility and movement for various angles and approaches. There are numerous LED displays and 25 miles of LED tape that both light up the walls and allow them to change colors. Most of the studio lights are also expensive LED models, making them much more expensive and high-functioning but also more energy efficient. It’s clear that no expense was spared in crafting the space, although ESPN executives refused to reveal a dollar figure on exactly what the construction costs ended up being.
A separate ‘NFL Live’ set is just one component of ESPN’s new NFL studio.
(Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images)
“What we are going to get is a fresh, important looking set in which what we’re saying and talking about kind of leaps out. The set will be totally up to date and it’s got bells and whistles,” Berman said, noting that the new studio will debut 35 years to the day that ESPN opened for business. “We hope that people will pay attention to what we are saying and discussing, rather than being distracted by all sorts of lights and this and that. The content we have on Countdown, we’re very proud of. This set I think will accent that, where some of the others may not have in the past. We hope it also doesn’t feel overpowering – that it feels comfortable and important and it draws people in.”
Berman’s role, which he’s had since 1985, was taken into consideration when planning the design of the new desk, which will have Berman and five analysts on it when Ray Lewis is on the set.
“We’ve been blessed to have a really conversational show but I don’t think our desk really lended itself to that unscripted conversational style. So when we were starting from scratch, we looked at the desk that will give our guys the best chance to talk to each other, not the cameras,” ESPN senior coordinating producer Seth Markman said. “Most of our shows have always had the host on one end or the other. Based on the shape of the desk, we felt that Chris being the moderator of the show, he should be in the middle, which allows the analysts to talk to each other.”
Also gone is the green mini-football field from the former set, according to Markman.
“If I want a guy to stand up to demonstrate how a guy’s throwing a football or a technique, you can do that without being on a painted field that’s ten yards long.”
About 90 percent of the nearly 1000 lights used in the new studio are high-end LED models.
(Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images)
The studio designers gave the space some room to grow, allotting it with the technical capability to broadcast in 1080p resolution, even though all major networks still do so in 720p. It’s a future consideration that makes sense given the past decade at ESPN.
“The digital center [home of Studio E] when it opened [in 2004] was a groundbreaking, innovating thing,” NFL Live host Trey Wingo said. “Now it looks like something from the Mesozoic era compared to the new one.”
