Tom Brady takes a break finally

The Game Room
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Traditionally, on a given Sunday, only one of the two main networks (CBS and Fox) carries a national “Game of the Week” game in the late-afternoon (4pm ET) slot. What usually happens is that you have your choice of two games in the early (1pm slot) – one on CBS, and one on Fox – then just the Game of the Week in the late slot. Fox and CBS alternate which of the two of them are carrying that national 4pm game.

Also, if you live in the media market for an NFL team, when your team is playing a home game, the other network will not be allowed to run a game in your market while your home team is playing.

But, there can be some exceptions. For purposes of this example, assume that Fox has the late national game on the weekend in question.

  • If CBS is covering a home game for a West Coast team (which would start at 4pm ET), they will still carry it, despite the “national” game on Fox, but the CBS game will only be run in the designated media markets for the two teams participating in that game, and the CBS affiliates in those markets won’t be running an early game.
  • If you live in a market where Fox is carrying your local team’s home game at 1pm ET, your CBS affiliate will usually not be allowed to run any game in the 1pm slot in your market (despite it being the “early” slot). Then, in the late slot, your CBS affiliate will be allowed to run a 4pm game, against the Fox national game.

This site is an excellent resource for seeing which games you’ll be able to watch in your market, in any given week.

https://506sports.com/nfl/index.php

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It may be more complicated here. New York market so two home teams. In my youth it was easy. Giants were at 1PM and the Jets were at 4PM or vice versa. No competing games. Now sometimes they are both at 1PM and there are two games at 4PM. This week the Jets were on Thursday. There were two games at 1PM including the Giants and only one at 4PM. I can no longer predict it.

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Good point; I suspect that, due to two local teams (as well as the size of the NY TV market, and the proximity to the Philadelphia market), things sometimes break the general rules there.

In today’s case, the Giants (on Fox, against the Browns) were on the road in the early game, so there was nothing preventing CBS from showing another game in the early slot.