ESPN has stepped in to take over as the host of “Monday Night Football” after FOX lost a key member of its NASCAR broadcast crew. With the network scheduled to broadcast the Super Bowl for the first time in 2027, ESPN and its “Monday Night Football” cast are at a turning point in their illustrious history. Additionally, ESPN is taking no chances and is looking to NASCAR to re-energize its staff in light of the perception that the Worldwide Leader’s football presentation has fallen behind those of competitors CBS and FOX. The director of FOX’s NASCAR coverage and head of its No. 2 NFL crew, Artie Kempner, has been headhunted to take over as director of “Monday Night Football,” succeeding longtime director Derek Mobley.
The announcing team Kempner worked with at FOX, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, will be joining him again. Buck and Aikman have five-year contracts with ESPN worth a total of $165 million, with two seasons left on them. Buck and Aikman were in the booth for the New York Giants’ unexpected victory against the New England Patriots in 2008, one of the two Super Bowls that Kempner, who worked for FOX for more than 30 years, oversaw. With eight races left until the broadcast rights are transferred to Amazon Prime Video, TNT, and NBC for the rest of the season, Kempner’s departure will undoubtedly create a vacuum in the FOX broadcast rights for the first 16 races of the NASCAR season.
About the choice to employ Kempner, ESPN’s president of content Burke Magnus told The Athletic, “I feel like we are not in the same conversation with Fox and CBS relative to our overall game presentation.” “As I was leaving, he introduced himself to me and we got to talking a little bit and I came to understand he was going to be available in the coming months,” Magnus recounted when he and Kempner first met in December at the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. Magnus is certain that Kempner is the best candidate to raise ESPN’s broadcast quality to match that of other networks.
Magnus remarked, “He is one of only 12 individuals on the planet who have directed Super Bowls.” Without exaggeration, we seek to present ourselves in the best possible light in every situation. This man has the ability to improve the way we present our game.
