Netflix's NFL Christmas Gameday doubleheader went off mostly without glitches
After last month's Jake Paul-Mike Tyson, people were nervous about the NFL games
Hi everyone. I hope you had a great Christmas holiday. This column is free to all. I’ll look at the Netflix presentation from 11 a.m. — noon ET and then from 3:55 p.m. to the conclusion. I was with my sisters, uncle and cousin for lunch and to exchange presents.
I was able to monitor the first hour of Netflix’s pregame show which was produced by NFL Network hosted by Kay Adams with Dree Brees, Robert Griffin III, Manti Te’o and Mina Kimes, the final moments of Kansas City-Pittsburgh and then entire Baltimore-Houston game, both contests were produced by CBS.
Overall, I have to say I was pleased with what I saw. Let’s go into it.
After a nervy start, Netflix got the ball rolling
As Netflix signed on with its pregame show at 11 a.m. ET, host Kay Adams was live from the NFL Network studios in Los Angeles to introduce the very first live NFL game on the streaming service. The only problem was that we couldn’t hear Kay. This got Netflix off to a bad start. However, Adams’ mic was eventually turned on and she threw to an open which starred WWE wrestler John Cena as Santa Claus.
This led to Adams introducing the panel of Brees, Griffin, Te’o and Kimes and it seemed to go well until a promo for Squid Game, Season 2 fired cutting off Kimes mid-sentence.
When the promo finished, viewers saw Laura Rutledge hosting live from Pittsburgh with the McCourty twins, Devin and Jason from a set on the Acrisure Stadium field. I’ll admit when I saw this, I felt Netflix may be off to a bad day, but after that, things stabilized.
There were plenty of Netflix promos for WWE Raw which will premiere on the streaming service on January 6, the Back in Action with Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz, The Night Agent and others.
Comedians Nate Bargatze and Bert Kreischer made appearances with the Pittsburgh Steelers fans for comic relief and to also plug their Netflix specials.
Overall, after the shaky start, Netflix didn’t have any troubles at least for the rest of the hour I saw.
I was able to see parts of the Kansas City-Pittsburgh game which ended up in rather easy Chiefs 29-10 win. From what I read on social media and from my colleagues at Awful Announcing, the stream worked and the buffering that plagued last month’s Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight did not appear today.
In fact, there was widespread praise for the clear pictures and audio of the CBS-produced game. This will definitely raise the bar for the NFL media partners down the line. It’s too bad that the game wasn’t produced in true 4K, but the pictures were quite crisp which looked a lot better than what I have seen on the traditional networks.
While I wasn’t able to watch the entire game, the portions I was able to view to hear the commentary of Ian Eagle, Nate Burleson and J.J. Watt was quite good. NFL Today panelists Burleson and Watt easily worked off one another and if CBS wants to put either on games, both provided cogent thoughts on the game and that included Watt’s thoughts on his brother T.J. who was playing on the field.
Netflix finished strong
As for the second game of Baltimore-Houston which ended up in a 31-2 blowout, the team of Noah Eagle and Greg Olsen worked well. While both had not worked together prior to this game, the younger Eagle provided Olsen with plenty of opportunities to get his points across.
I thought Eagle and Olsen formed an excellent team and could make for a formidable partnership in the future if either become free agents from their respective networks.
While the game wasn’t very good, the production did its best to raise its level. The production did note that Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson broke Michael Vick’s career rushing record.
The stream at this point was quite clear and didn’t buffer.
The halftime show featuring Beyoncé went without a hitch. She did a set featuring eight songs including “16 Carraages,” “Blackbird,” “Jolene,” and “Texas Hold ‘Em.” Netflix did announce that the halftime show would be part of its own standalone special later this week. I did notice that the stream went blurry, but did not buffer.
As for the studio, Kay Adams showed us what she could have been as host of Thursday Night Football. She was reportedly a candidate before Charissa Thompson was signed. And the star of the studio was Mina Kimes who made cogent points.
Netflix claimed that viewers from 200 countries were watching the game which is interesting because there are 195 recognized countries according to the United Nations.
I’m sure we’ll get viewing figures from Netflix and the NFL either late Thursday or early Friday.
Overall, NFL Network in the studio and CBS at the game sites cam through for Netflix and the streams worked. It all led to a very nice Christmas for viewers who did not have deal with the buffering issues from the Paul-Tyson fight.
Thanks for reading and I’ll be back on Monday with a Sports Predictions column which will be for paid subscribers.
"I’m sure we’ll get viewing figures from Netflix and the NFL either late Thursday or early Friday." - and I'm sure they'll be as accurate as their "counting number of countries figures"....