Eagles-Seahawks game will be moved in NFL’s first ‘Monday Night Football’ flex
The Eagles will end up back on "Monday Night Football" thanks to the NFL's decision to flex out of Chiefs-Patriots.
The Eagles (10-1) entered the season scheduled for five prime-time games. Now they’ll be playing in a sixth.
The Eagles’ Week 15 game against the Seattle Seahawks (6-5) on Dec. 17 is being pushed back a day and flexed to ESPN’s Monday Night Football, the NFL announced Thursday. It is replacing a lopsided matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs (8-3) and the New England Patriots (2-9), which moves to Sunday at 1 p.m.
It’s the first time the NFL has flexed a game into Monday Night Football. The league has been able to flex games in and out of Sunday Night Football since 2006, but this is the first season the NFL can move games on Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football on Amazon’s Prime Video.
The NFL normally wouldn’t move Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs out of prime time, but the Patriots have been terrible this season and the Eagles-Seahawks game has larger ramifications for the NFC playoffs.
The Seahawks enter tonight’s Thursday Night Football matchup against the Dallas Cowboys (8-3) as solid wild-card contenders.
Meanwhile, the Eagles could be in a position to clinch the NFC East if they defeat the San Francisco 49ers (8-3) and Cowboys over the next two weeks.
The Eagles have been a big ratings draw for networks this season, especially ESPN. The Eagles’ Week 11 win against the Chiefs on Nov. 20 drew slightly more than 29 million viewers, the largest audience for a Monday Night Football game since ESPN took over the franchise. It was also the most-viewed Monday Night Football game since 1996.
Outside of Thanksgiving, the most-watched NFL game this season was Sunday’s Eagles win against the Buffalo Bills, which drew over 30 million viewers on CBS. It’s the most-watched regular-season NFL game outside of Thanksgiving since 2019, and the first to exceed the 30 million mark since 2014, according to Sports Media Watch’s Jon Lewis.
The NFL might not be finished tinkering with its prime-time schedule. In Week 17, the league could move a scheduled Sunday Night Football matchup on Dec. 31 between the Green Bay Packers (5-6) and Minnesota Vikings (6-6) if there are no longer playoff implications.
CBS has two potentially compelling games that same weekend — Cincinnati Bengals (5-6) vs. Chiefs, and Miami Dolphins (8-3) vs. Baltimore Ravens (9-3). CBS can only protect one from being flexed, which would leave Dolphins-Ravens open to a move into prime time.
”If those two teams are both at 10-11-12 wins, and there is significant AFC seeding possibilities left to be determined, and if Green Bay-Minnesota isn’t quite as compelling as we hoped it would be, I could see [Dolphins-Ravens] as being a potential move,” Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning, said last week.
A quick reminder on how the NFL’s flexible scheduling rules work:
Sunday Night Football: The NFL can flex an unlimited number of times through Week 17. Twelve days notice has to be given through Week 13, and six days notice after that.
Thursday Night Football: The league can flex twice between Weeks 13 and 17, and must give 28 days notice.
Monday Night Football: The NFL can flex an unlimited number of times between Weeks 12 and 17, and must give 12 days notice.
Here’s the Eagles’ remaining TV schedule, which now includes three-straight national games:
Week 13, Dec. 3: 49ers at Eagles, 4:25 p.m., Fox
Week 14, Dec. 10: Eagles at Cowboys, 8:20 p.m., NBC
Week 15, Dec. 18: Eagles at Seahawks, 8:15 p.m., ESPN/ABC
Week 16, Dec. 25: Giants at Eagles, 4:30 p.m., Fox
Week 17, Dec. 31: Cardinals at Eagles, 1 p.m., Fox
Week 18, Jan. 6 or 7: Eagles at Giants, TBD
NFL announces rest of Week 15 schedule
In addition to the Eagles news, the NFL announced it’s Week 15 Saturday triple-header, which will air on the NFL Network Dec. 16.
Those games are:
Minnesota Vikings (6-6) at Cincinnati Bengals (5-6): 1 p.m.
Pittsburgh Steelers (7-4) at Indianapolis Colts (6-5), 4:30 p.m.
Denver Broncos (6-5) at Detroit Lions (8-3), 8:15 p.m.
Quick hits
Eric Camille, a former 97.5 The Fanatic manager who joined PHLY Sports as its head of operations, has been fired after an interaction with an Eagles fan on X. Crossing Broad’s Kevin Kincaid was first to report Camille’s termination. ALLCITY Network, the parent company of PHLY, did not respond to a request for comment.
Speaking of The Fanatic, there hasn’t been any news on who will replace Anthony Gargano in its midday slot. It’s been nearly two months since Gargano’s employment ended as part of a lawsuit over his involvement with PHLY. Andrew Salciunas and Connor Thomas have hosted the midday time slot since Gargano’s departure. As part of the settlement, Gargano has been permitted to appear on the ALL NFL Podcast for ALLCITY alongside Brian Baldinger, but won’t be allowed to appear on PHLY until April.
NASCAR is headed to Amazon. Beginning in 2025, five midseason NASCAR Cup Series races will stream exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video as part of a seven-year deal, the tech giant announced. Prime Video will also stream exclusive coverage of practice and qualifying for the first half of the NASCAR Cup Series season, excluding a few big races, including the Daytona 500. NASCAR fans will have a lot to keep track of, with NBC, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery also televising races.
FS1 host and onetime 94.1 WIP talker Craig Carton had a weird response to the news that Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is expecting his first child with girlfriend Sarah Jane Ramos. “There goes the Cowboys’ season,” Carton moaned earlier this week on The Carton Show.