The former 94.1 WIP sideline reporter and Fox 29 sports anchor is leaving Philadelphia to cover the Chicago Bears for Fox 32, she announced on social media.
Kaney is taking over the role vacated by Cassie Carlson, who was promoted as the station’s lead sports anchor. Kaney will also do some sports anchoring work for the station, much like her role at Fox 29, which she left last month.
“I’m so grateful for the support all of my colleagues at Fox 29 have given me during my time there, but especially in the last few months,” Kaney told The Inquirer.
Those last few months included being laid off at WIP as part of company-wide cutbacks by parent company Audacy.
Devan Kaney (right) with 94.1 WIP’s morning show: (from left) Rhea Hughes, Jon Ritchie, Jason Kelce, and Joe DeCamara.
She also served as an on-air host, worked with the station’s popular morning crew, and hosted shows alongside Phillies announcer and former general manager Rubén Amaro Jr.
WIP hasn’t announced who will replace her, and the clock’s ticking. The Eagles’ first preseason game is five weeks away, with the Birds taking on the Baltimore Ravens on Aug. 15.
“It’s a tough job,” WIP program director Rod Lakin told The Inquirer in 2025. “You have to be someone that’s a really good communicator. You also need to be able to change quickly — circumstances change all the time in the NFL, and you’ve got to deliver that information quickly and in a collaborative way, because the game doesn’t stop.”
Over at Fox 29, Kaney’s role was partly taken over by former 6abc sportscaster Jamie Apody, who among other things is anchoring the station’s 10 p.m. newscast.
While Kaney is leaving the city, she’ll continue to host Werth Talking About, a PHLY podcast she’s co-hosting with former All-Star Jayson Werth. And Eagles fans might get a glimpse of her Sept. 28, when the Birds travel to Soldier Field to take on the Bears on Monday Night Football in Week 3.
If the Phillies end up taking a pitcher with the No. 36 pick in the upcoming draft, the MLB network will have the perfect analyst on hand to break it down.
Cole Hamels, the 2008 World Series MVP and current NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcaster, is joining MLB Network’s live coverage of the 2026 MLB draft, which kicks off Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
Longtime MLB Network coordinating producer Chris Roenbeck, who is working his fourth draft, said they’re always looking to add a “special wrinkle” to their coverage. With this year’s draft taking place in Philadelphia, the stars aligned to add Hamels to their broadcast.
“When we started brainstorming months ago, we quickly thought of Cole, given his decorated career with the Phillies and being a first-round pick,” Roenbeck said. “We’ll go to him early and often for pitching insights, relying on his unique perspective, which will only enhance our broadcast.”
Hamels is the only new addition to MLB’s Network’s draft coverage, which will be hosted by Greg Amsinger and feature analysis by Mark DeRosa, Harold Reynolds, and former Colorado Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd.
“We’re beyond excited to have Cole part of our draft team,” Amsinger said, noting Hamels’ “draft experience and pitching expertise will take our show to the next level.”
“Certainly, we would love to have him every weekend,” Alexandra Matcham, the vice president of content for NBC Sports Philadelphia, told The Inquirer in March.
Hamels won’t be the only Philly addition. The opening of MLB Network’s draft coverage will be voiced by Black Thought (aka Tariq Trotter), lead MC of the Philly hip hop group The Roots.
NBC will broadcast the first 10 picks of the MLB draft
The 2026 MLB draft will take place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Center City.
Hamels and company will be on hand to discuss the Phillies’ No. 32 pick, but MLB Network won’t air the first 10 picks of the draft
Why? Because NBC will be broadcasting the first hour and a half of this year’s MLB draft as part of their three-year TV rights deal with MLB, taking over for ESPN.
As a result, the MLB draft will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday on NBC before coverage shifts to MLB Network at 2:30 p.m., picking things up with the No. 11 pick.
NBC will carry MLB Network’s production, so you won’t see Mike Tirico and crew this weekend.
The entire draft will stream on Peacock, which will simulcast MLB Network’s coverage after NBC cuts away to cover the American Century Championship, often described as the Super Bowl of celebrity golf tournaments.
The draft streaming on Peacock is good news for YouTube TV subscribers, where MLB Network has remained dark for three years due to a contract dispute. The network is also available to stream as part of MLB+, beginning at $5.99 per month.
The MLB Network has broadcast the draft since 2009. ESPN was the first network to broadcast the draft, which aired the first round live on ESPN2 in 2007.
Quick hits
Malik Tillman reacts after the U.S. was eliminated from the World Cup by Belgium Monday.
“This doesn’t have to be the last soccer you watch for the next four years.” That was John Strong, Fox’s lead World Cup announcer, pleading with American fans after the U.S. was eliminated from the World Cup by Belgium Monday.
Credit to Delran native and two-time World Cup champ Carli Lloyd, who wasn’t afraid to criticize U.S. star Christian Pulisic after the United States’ disappointing loss.
On a brighter note for American football fans, the NFL preseason is less than a month away. The annual Pro Football Hall of Fame game, featuring the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers, kicks off Aug. 6. The Eagles’ first preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens is one week later on Aug. 15.
Bill Wine, 81, of Philadelphia, three-time Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award-winning film and TV critic, retired tenured associate professor of TV and film at La Salle University, onetime freelance TV critic for the Daily News, freelance writer, playwright, and popular lecturer, died Sunday, June 14, of complications from Parkinson’s disease at his home in Chestnut Hill.
The son of two part-time amateur actors and a lifelong devotee of theater, film, TV, writing, and teaching, Mr. Wine was a film critic for WTXF-TV, Channel 29, for 12 years and KYW radio for 17 years. Known for his pithy, witty, and often acerbic reviews, and a breezy conversational style of writing, he worked at Channel 29 from 1990 to 2002 and KYW from 2001 to 2018.
“Bill Wine was a character out of a Neil Simon comedy, more Oscar than Felix,” said Carrie Rickey, former Inquirer movie critic. “You didn’t have to wait long for the punchline.”
Mr. Wine’s film reviews on Channel 29 were often funny and entertaining.
At Channel 29, Mr. Wine was nominated for eight regional Emmy Awards for commentary and writing, and won three. He appeared regularly on the station’s Ten O’Clock News, in primetime movie preview and review programs, and later on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays on Good Day Philadelphia.
By 1990, he had already written hundreds of freelance film reviews for the Daily News and Courier-Post, done radio reviews for WPEN, and taught a variety of classes about film and writing for a decade at La Salle. So, despite no previous TV experience, he was hired at Channel 29 over 60 other film critic applicants.
“I had never been on TV, but I wasn’t nervous,” he told the Daily News in 2001, “because I had been standing in front of 100 students for 10 years.”
Mr. Wine worked at at WTXF-TV, Channel 29, for 12 years.
He started at KYW radio in 2001 and usually aired reviews and reports on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Sometimes, he watched three movies in one day. He left Channel 29 in 2002 and KYW in 2018 only after both companies eliminated their local film critic position.
“When I started [writing film reviews], it was before the internet,” he told The Inquirer in 2018. “A lot of people [now] feel like, ‘Who the heck is a movie critic to come on in a minute and to dismiss something that took hundreds of people and millions of dollars to create?’”
In the 1970s and ‘80s, he wrote articles and reviewed films, TV shows, books, and plays for WPEN, The Inquirer, Courier-Post, Philadelphia Magazine, and other outlets. In 1975, he wrote dozens of freelance TV columns called “On the Air” for the Daily News.
Mr. Wine wrote dozens of columns as a freelance TV critic for the Daily News in 1975.
He spent three years in California in the 1970s working on plays and film and TV scripts. He hobnobbed with famous writers, producers, and actors in Los Angeles, staged one of his own plays, and was a winning contestant on a new TV game show.
He wrote 11 plays over the years, and several made it to the stage. “Now the people who disagree with my reviews can come and find out if I’m as dumb as they think I am,” he told The Inquirer in 2002.
He aired reviews on WIP radio and lectured often at libraries, schools, community centers, theaters, and other venues about his favorite films, adapting books to film, and other topics.“He could be wickedly funny, especially when delivering a pan of a movie,” his family said in a tribute. “One of his favorite quotes was: ‘I had a bad seat. It was facing the screen.’”
Mr. Wine was a prolific playwright who enjoyed table readings with family and friends.
Mr. Wine earned a bachelor’s degree in math at Drexel University and a master’s degree in communications at Temple University. He helped design La Salle’s nascent Communication Department in the 1980s, and school officials called him one of their “Founding Fathers.” He also taught briefly at Drexel, and came close to earning a doctorate at Temple.
In 2001, he was featured in a Daily News story about “celebrity professors” and said: “You have to remind yourself that this is television, not the classroom. You mention, say, ‘film noir’ on TV, and you get a memo.”
William David Wine was born June 21, 1944, in Germantown. He grew up in West Oak Lane and Cherry Hill, attended Central High School, and graduated from the old Cherry Hill High School.
A story and this photo of Mr. Wine about his time as a professor at La Salle appeared in the Daily News in 2001.
As a boy, he devoured newspaper movie reviews and fell in love with film after seeing Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller Rear Window. He got positive reviews of his own freelance movie review when he was at Temple, and he knew then, he said later, that writing about movies was his creative niche.
He married Dina Lichtman, and they divorced later. He married Suzanne Monsalud in 1981, and they had daughters Simone and Paulina, and lived in Germantown, Wyncote, and Chestnut Hill.
Mr. Wine and his wife, Suzanne, married in 1981.
Together, Mr. Wine and his family traveled to Paris and London, and he and his wife honeymooned in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He doted on his daughters and sometimes took them to his La Salle classroom, the Channel 29 TV set, and movie screenings.
Friends, former colleagues, and former students called him “a force of nature,” “smart and gifted,” and “a rare combination of kindness, professionalism, and humor.” His daughter Simone said: “His humor, warmth, and presence made life brighter.”
Mr. Wine played tennis, third base on adult softball teams, and pickup basketball into his 70s. He followed the Phillies, 76ers, and Eagles closely, and hit tennis balls with Hall of Famer Rod Laver at a publicity event in Los Angeles.
Mr. Wine and his family made memorable trips to Paris, London, and elsewhere.
“He was a wonderful father and a dedicated teacher,” his wife said. “He was a real Philadelphian, and we complemented each other.”
His daughter Paulina said: “Dad, I think you cracked the code. We’ll see you at the movies.”
Rachel Maddow’s brief turn as a Philadelphian began with her bicycle being stolen on the first day of a new job.
“I got to work at 9 a.m. and I got out for lunch before noon, because I didn’t have anything to do,” Maddow said. “My bike was already gone.”
MS NOW’s top star was in Center City on Thursday night to interview constitutional legal expert Sherrilyn Ifill live in front of nearly 2,000 people at the Academy of Music.
But prior to the event, she reminisced about her brief time in Philly in the early 1990s, shortlyafter she came out as gay during her freshman year of college at Stanford University.
“It didn’t go well at home, so it was a bit of a scramble in terms of like paying for college, figuring out what I was going to do, where I was going to live,” Maddow said. “And I got an internship at a think tank at Penn.”
Maddow lived in West Philadelphia and basically ate nothing but Ethiopian food for a few months, though she can’t remember the name of the street: “It was in the 40s and it was one of the tree-named streets.”
In college she was an AIDS activist and focused on healthcare policy, so landing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics seemed liked an ideal fit.
Maddow said her job was to answer the phone. But the internship didn’t last long.
“I was not an additive,” Maddow said. “I don’t think I was an asset to the organization.”
Kiyoshi Kuromiya seen here in 1992, was a gay civil rights activist who helped establish ACT UP Philly.
Maddow’s activism began when she was still in high school, when she began working at a hospice for people who were dying during the AIDS epidemic.
Still, those few months living in Philadelphia influenced Maddow’s developing political voice. She idolized ACT UP Philly, an activist organization fighting for people with HIV/AIDS, and thinks that gay civil rights activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya is the city’s most overlooked hero for the work he did helping connect people with hard-to-find information about the virus and treatment.
“He saved millions of lives,” Maddow said. “The city needs to build a statue for Kiyoshi Kuromiya.”
Maddow has returned to Philly a number of times over the years, and every time she does, it makes her feel like she’s 19 again. Things have changed — seeing Indego bicycles to rent on street corners after hers was stolen is pretty jarring — but though her time living here was brief, she didn’t hesitate saying, “Philly was really formative for me.”
“The thing I loved about Philly at the time, and that I kind of fell in love with, even before I really knew what to do with it, was the really sparky, edgy, impolite activist spirit,” Maddow said. “I think I’m just a middle-class polite kid who doesn’t like to offend anybody, and Philly kind of shook me out of that a little bit, and made me aspire to edgier things.”
More live events and a new app coming from MS NOW
Nearly 2,000 people attended Thursday night’s event at the Academy of Music.
A strong Philly current ran through MS NOW’s event Thursday night, which highlighted the messy history of the American experiment leading up to the country’s 250th anniversary next week.
“My mother’s best friend of 70 years lives here,” Psaki said.
Thursday’s event was part of a larger strategy of engagement at the network after breaking away from NBC and becoming part of Versant, hence the name change from MSNBC to MS NOW. Ratings are up, but the cord-cutting trend is undeniable, so MS NOW is attempting to secure a digital future while it remains a popular TV destination.
The network has now hosted three large fan events since 2024 and another is planned for Sept. 26 ahead of the midterm elections, though further details have not been announced. Attendees in Philly on Thursday night received a free, one-year subscription to MS NOW’s membership product that is set to launch soon. It will act as a streaming platform and online community for the network’s progressive fans and provide access to its biggest stars.
“We’re always looking for ways to connect with our MS NOW community, to meet more viewers where they are, and to engage them in new ways,” said Lauren Peikoff, the network’s executive producer of live events.
Cecil Parker, a Philadelphia musician, said the state of affairs in Washington compelled him to attend Thursday’s event.
“Urgency. That’s the all-encompassing word,” Parker said, who often tunes into MS NOW to get their take on the news. “They have their opinions, but it’s based on the facts. So I dig that.”
Some audience members traveled from as far as Arizona and California to have a chance to hear Maddow and her MS NOW colleagues in person.
Tony Clyburn and his wife, Lisa, drove more than 10 hours from West Columbia, S.C., to take part. A radio host back home, Clyburn said it was inspiring being in a room with people from different walks of life who want what’s best for their neighbors and their country.
“These gatherings are good because they’re as close to a town hall as we can get,” Clyburn said.
FCC commissioner Anna M. Gomez, the only remaining Democrat on the three-member panel, wrote in a May letter to Disney that the company had “been made a target” by Trump’s FCC, and that targeting local stations “is an extraordinary and dangerous misapplication” of the agency’s authority.
“What Disney and ABC are facing is not a series of coincidental regulatory actions but a sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control,” Gomez wrote, “carried out through the weaponization of the FCC’s authority as a federal regulator and aimed at pressuring a free and independent press and all media into submission.”
“If the evidence does in fact play out and shows that they were engaged in race- and gender-based discrimination, that’s a very serious issue at the FCC, that could fundamentally go to their character qualifications to even hold a license,” FCC chairman Brendan Carr said on Fox News in March.
6abc viewers being asked to comment
In an attempt to fight back, 6abc, which did not immediately respond to request for comment, is asking viewers to weigh in on the early review of its broadcast license and support the station.
The FCC doesn’t make it easy. Viewers need to visit the agency’s website and submit a “express comment” using the FCC’s docket number: 26-131
The public comment period is open until June 29.
6abc renewed its broadcast license in 2023 for eight years, but the FCC could move to revoke it if it determines the station hasn’t “served the public interest” or has violated federal broadcast rules and regulations.
A Disney spokesperson said in a statement the company has “a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules” and was “prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels.”
It’s been more than 40 years since the FCC has revoked a broadcast license from a TV station. The last time it happened was 1987, when the FCC stripped RKO General Inc. of its licenses in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles because of business misconduct.
The process could take years, and no changes are expected for 6abc during that time.
‘The View’ is also fighting back
It’s not just ABC’s local stations the Trump administration is targeting. The FCC is also targeting the daytime interview show The View and its ability to interview politicians.
The investigation of The View stems from an February interview featuring U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, a Texas Democrat who at the time was facing off in a primary against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
The FCC claimed the interview was a violation of the equal time rule, a federal requirement put into law in 1934 requiring broadcast stations to provide comparable airtime to political opponents during an election.
Disney has asked the FCC to declare The View qualifies as a “bona fide news” interview program and is exempt from the federal rules, like news programs on broadcast TV like Meet the Press and Face the Nation.
In a May filing, ABC said The View received a news exemption from the FCC in 2002, and in 24 years it hadn’t been challenged. It called the FCC’s move to go after The View “unprecedented” and an attempt to “chill critical protected speech.”
It’s a blurry line for late-night shows, which feature politicians as guests. While not technically news programs, the FCC hasn’t enforced the equal time rule on late-night shows since 2006, when it ruled then-California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger’s appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno qualified as a “bona fide news interview.”
But that’s changing under the Trump administration. The FCC issued a notice to broadcasters in January stating late-night and daytime TV talk shows may no longer be exempt, claiming some were “motivated by partisan purposes.”
Carr also pressured ABC affiliates to take Kimmel off the air in September. ABC ultimately suspended his show after two companies — Nexstar and Sinclair — said they would preempt it on their ABC-affiliated stations. Ultimately, ABC backed Kimmel and his show was back on TV a week later.
Devan Kaney is saying goodbye to Philadelphia, at least for now.
Kaney anchored her final Fox 29 sportscast over the weekend and and is leaving town for a yet-to-be-announced job opportunity in a bigger market. Though she hinted she would still appear on Fox’s airwaves.
“I’m so grateful for the support all of my colleagues at Fox 29 have given me during my time there, but especially in the last few months,” Kaney said.
“As much as I would have loved to return as the sideline reporter, they never reached out,” Kaney said, “and I’ll be covering a different NFL franchise moving forward.”
Kaney had been with Fox 29 since 2023, serving as a part-time sports anchor and reporter. She also appeared on Good Day Philadelphia and featured prominently on the station’s Eagles coverage.
She’ll be replaced in part by former 6abc sportscaster Jamie Apody, who just landed an expanded role at Fox 29 and will anchor the station’s Saturday 10 p.m. newscast.
“I was absolutely not expecting Jayson Werth,” Kaney told The Inquirer earlier this month. “He’ll just drop the most insane stories, and it’s awesome to work with him.”
Mike Schmidt returned to the Phillies television booth Thursday night, but not to call the game.
The Phillies legend walked away from NBC Sports Philadelphia this season after 12 years as a part-time announcer, but jumped back in the booth Thursday night to spend the fourth inning with Tom McCarthy, John Kruk, and fellow Hall of Famer George Brett.
It was a fascinating way to spend 20 minutes, especially considering the many ways Schmidt and Brett are linked. Two of the best third baseman in the history of the game, taken one behind the other in the 1971 MLB draft. Brett had 1,596 career RBIs, while Schmidt had 1,595 (Brett “hired someone to go back through his career and find an RBI” Schmidt once jokingly claimed).
And of course, there’s the 1980 World Series, where the Phillies defeated the Royals and Schmidt was named MVP, which Brett said was “hard to swallow.” They were both named the respective MVPs of their leagues that season, with Brett ending the season with a batting average of .390.
George Brett and Mike Schmidt, seen here ahead of Game 1 of the 1980 World Series.
“By the way, I had .260 in the bag,” Schmidt joked. “I went 0-10 in the last series and dropped down to .250.”
“I feel so bad for you, Mike. You only had 50 home runs that season,” Brett shot back.
For the record, Schmidt ended the 1980 season with 48 home runs and 121 RBIs.
Schmidt and Brett compared stats, busted chops, and shared a life-long friendship borne through intense competition on the field.
“I hated him. I didn’t like him at all,” Brett said, noting Schmidt beat him “every time I played against him.”
At one point, Phillies announcer Ben Davis, positioned in the dugout during the game, chimed in to note that between Schmidt, Brett, Phillies manager Don Mattingly, and Mets announcer Keith Hernandez, there were 31 Gold Gloves and 9,723 hits in the building.
“Who’s that talking?” Brett jokingly replied before taking a shot at himself.
“They always say you got 3,000 hits. I say, ‘No, I made 7,000 outs,’” Brett said, turning to Schmidt. “How many outs do you think you made?”
“Well, I know I made 7,000 strikeouts. I mean, I can count those,” Schmidt said.
The two even joked about their current roles. Brett serves as the Royals’ vice president of baseball operations, while Schmidt complained he can’t get a title with the Phillies.
“John Middletown, if you’re listening, give Mike a title,” Brett said. “I’m Mike Schmidt, and I own this stadium.”
So why was Brett in town for a Phillies-Mets game? To help Schmidt promote his “Play Sun Safe” skin cancer awareness campaign, something he’s been passionate about since being diagnosed with melanoma in 2013. As part of his partnership with the Phillies, 12 sunscreen stations have been placed across Citizens Bank Park during games.
As interesting as the pairing and the history was, the broadcast did lose focus of the game at times. Thankfully, McCarthy and company refocused after Derek Hill drove in Bryson Stott to tie the game in the bottom of the fourth.
Phillies head to national TV, but Kruk will still be around
John Kruk will jump to NBC Sunday to call the Phillies on national TV.
The Phillies have Friday night off, but NBC Sports Philadelphia won’t be broadcasting the team again until Monday.
Saturday night’s game will air on Fox, with Joe Davis and John Smoltz calling the game and Ken Rosenthal reporting from Citizens Bank Park. Chris O’Connor, the brother of Pennsylvania State Police Corporal Timothy O’Connor, who was shot and killed during a Chester County traffic stop in March, will throw a ceremonial first pitch.
NBC will take over for Sunday Night Baseball, with Kruk back on the network to broadcast the game alongside play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti and former Mets pitcher John Franco.
While Benetti is the voice of baseball on NBC, the network decided to turn to a rotating crew of analysts to call each game, one representing each team on the field. It’s largely a response to the biggest complaint networks hear when broadcasting baseball games — fans just want to hear their local announcers.
It’s the second game Kruk has called for NBC this season, though the first — an April loss to the Atlanta Braves — only streamed on Peacock. Hopefully this time Kruk will be a bit luckier for the Phillies. Having Zack Wheeler (6-1, 2.01 ERA) on the mound should help.
The Phillies will be back on Peacock July 5 when they take on the Pittsburgh Pirates, but they won’t be alone. Peacock will exclusively stream 13 baseball games that day as part of an event NBC is calling “Star-Spangled Sunday.”
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Phillies news
Andrew Painter has a 1-8 record and 7.06 ERA, and opponents are batting .404.
From the retro opening to the “Roundball Rock” theme to the 1990s-style graphics, everything NBC put together was pitch perfect. Even the retro scorebug captured the feel of NBC’s heyday covering the league in the 1990s and early 2000s, though back then the network didn’t keep the score on the screen out of fear of driving viewers away during blowouts like Tuesday night.
ROUNDBALL ROCK INTO BOB COSTAS CALLING PLAY-BY-PLAY! Feels like the old days. 👏
In their first season broadcasting NBA games since 2002, NBC assembled a who’s who of former talent for Tuesday’s broadcast. Bob Costas, calling his first NBA game in 24 years, ably weaved back and forth from nostalgia to the action on the court, at least until the Spurs put the game out of reach in the third quarter.
“It’s been nothing but pain for the Sixers tonight,” Costas said alongside longtime NBA analysts and former coaches Mike Fratello and Doug Collins.
Costas also managed to squeeze the line “Two great Dicks” into the broadcast, referencing famed sportscaster Dick Enberg and former NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol.
“Two great Richards,” Costas jokingly added.
Bob Costas knew right away what happened when he paid tribute to "two great Dicks" at NBC in Dick Ebersol and Dick Enberg during the Spurs blowout over the 76ers.
Initially, NBC planned to bring back Marv Albert, but the iconic NBA announcer had some health issues related to his voice and was unable to participate.
Former NBC host and reporter Ahmad Rashad (who once played a preseason game for the Sixers alongside Charles Barkley) also wasn’t part of the broadcast. It’s not clear why Rashad wasn’t in South Philly alongside his former colleagues Tuesday night, but Costas gave him a special shoutout during the broadcast.
“One of my favorite people I ever worked with in any sport,” Costas said. “Great company, terrific sense of humor. A lifelong friend.”
The connections past and present were everywhere. Sixers point guard Kyle Lowry, among the few players on the court old enough to have watched the NBA in the 1990s, was drafted by NBC analyst Mike Fratello when he was still head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies in 2006.
Heading into halftime, Spurs point guard Dylan Harper was interviewed by longtime NBC reporter Jim Gray, who interviewed Harper’s father, five-time NBA champion Ron Harper, many times over the years.
“It really is Throwback Tuesday now,” Costas joked during the broadcast. “We’re now talking to the sons of guys we covered.”
Doug Collins should be calling more NBA games
Doug Collins speacks to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Ashlyn Sullivan ahead of Tuesday’s Sixers-Spurs game.
As far as the nuts and bolts of the broadcast, Collins was on top of things all night. In the first quarter, the former Sixers player and head coach quickly pointed out after a Wembanyama block it was the 24th game this season he’s had at least three blocks, leading the NBA.
Later in the first half, when Costas mentioned the Thunder as one of the few teams that might challenge the Spurs in the playoffs, Collins quickly noted San Antonio won four of their five games against Oklahoma City this season.
During the second half, with the game well out of reach for the Sixers, Collins recalled back to his own coaching days trying to get thrown out of a game he could no longer watch.
“One of the old-time referees ran by the bench, stopped me, and said, ‘Listen, I know what your doing. You’re trying to get thrown out. You’re going to stay here and watch the same crap I’m watching,’” Collins recalled. “I couldn’t even get thrown out!”
In recent years, Collins has divided his time between homes in Arizona and West Chester, where he’s able to watch his grandchildren play basketball. Collins said he’d love to come back and call more games, but some health issues with his feet and legs have held him back.
Interestingly, a lot of Sixers fans probably missed NBC’s throwback coverage, since NBC Sports Philadelphia’s broadcast was a strictly 21st century production featuring regular announcers Kate Scott and Alaa Abdelnaby. But most viewers probably changed the channel by the third quarter anyway.
Scott and Abdelnaby will be back Wednesday to call the Sixers’ game against the Utah Jazz at 7:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Sixers standings
Eastern Conference
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Upcoming Sixers TV schedule
Wednesday: Jazz at Sixers, 7:30 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)
Saturday: Sixers at Hawks, 6 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia, NBA TV)
Monday: Sixers at Cavaliers, 7 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)
Tuesday, March 10: Grizzlies at Sixers, 7 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)
Thursday, March 12: Sixers at Pistons, 7 p.m. (Amazon Prime Video)
Saturday, March 14: Nets at Sixers, 1 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)
Sunday, March 15: Trail Blazers at Sixers, 6 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)
There will be a lot of change on TV for Major League Baseball this season, but Jimmy Rollins isn’t going anywhere.
The former Phillies star and 2007 National League MVP signed a deal to remain at TNT as part of the network’s studio show. Terms of his new contract weren’t announced, but it’s a “multi-year extension” that will keep him on TV the next few years, the network said.
It will be Rollins’ 11th season with TNT, though his broadcasting career began with Fox during the 2013 World Series, while he was still with the Phillies. He also tried his hand at calling a few games on NBC Sports Philadelphia alongside Tom McCarthy and John Kruk but has grown to love the back-and-forth of the studio.
Rounding out the cast is host Lauren Shehadi and three-time All-Star Curtis Granderson.
TNT also re-signed game analyst Jeff Francoeur, who spent most of his career with the Atlanta Braves but played for the Phillies in 2015.
During the regular season, TNT airs nonexclusive national games on Tuesday nights, which means when the Phillies are on the network, they’re also airing locally on NBC Sports Philadelphia. This season, TNT also will broadcast the American League divisional and championship series.
TBS will air two Phillies games during the first half of the season — April 14 against the Chicago Cubs, and June 2 against the San Diego Padres. Both will be blacked out in the Philly TV market.
NBC bringing Bob Costas back for MLB games, too
Bob Costas will return to NBC for its coverage of MLB this season.
Costas told The Inquirer the plan is for him to host about two-thirds of the pregame shows leading up to NBC’s coverage of Sunday Night Baseball, beginning March 26 when the Arizona Diamondbacks take on the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“NBC sees me as the bridge between the last time they had baseball. … To just kind of attach the old to the new,” Costas said, not counting the one season they streamed Sunday morning games on Peacock, which also is returning this season.
While Costas is known for opening monologues and a thoughtful analysis of sports that goes beyond the field, he won’t have much time most nights.
“The average Sunday night is going to be a tight pregame, only maybe 12 minutes of content,” Costas said. “But we wanted it to be worthwhile content.”
Costas last called an MLB game in 2024, when he did play-by-play for the American League Divisional Series between the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals on TNT. After the series, he announced he was retiring as an announcer, ending a four-decade career calling MLB games.
During the series, Costas received a lot of criticism on social media, not unusual for baseball announcers during national broadcasts. Looking back, he called his performance “OK” but not “as good as the decades prior.”
“I was able to do baseball play-by-play pretty darn well for a very long time,” Costas said. “I just couldn’t consistently reach my own standard.”
“But I can do everything else as well,” Costas added. “The interviews, the essays, the commentaries, the hosting. I can do that as well as I ever did. I think.”
The Phillies’ first appearance on Sunday Night Baseball will be April 19, but that game will be a Peacock exclusive because NBC will be airing the NBA playoffs on Sunday nights through the end of May.
The Phillies’ first game on NBC (other than opening day locally on NBC10) will be June 21 against the New York Mets.
Netflix, ESPN round out MLB TV changes
While ESPN will no longer broadcast Sunday Night Baseball or the wild-card games (which also were nabbed by NBC), it still will air 30 MLB games during the regular season, mostly during the week.
ESPN’s schedule includes the second-half opener between the Phillies and Mets on June 16 and the MLB Little League Classic on Aug. 23 in Williamsport, Pa.
Netflix will stream MLB’s season opener between the Yankees and San Francisco Giants on March 25. It also will stream this year’s Home Run Derby on July 13 at Citizens Bank Park, and the annual Field of Dreams game between the Phillies and Minnesota Twins on Aug. 13 in Dyersville, Iowa.
The last time Doug Collins called the Sixers on NBC Philly, the team was playing in the NBA Finals and some guy named Allen Iverson was dominating the court.
Fast-forward 25 years and NBC is bringing NBA Hall of Famer Collins back to Philadelphia to call the network’s Coast 2 Coast Tuesday night game against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.
Collins will be joined on the call by Bob Costas and Mike Fratello — the “Czar of the Telestrator” — in yet another callback to the heyday of the NBA on NBC.
Jim Gray will return to report court side from the recently renamed Xfinity Mobile Arena. NBC’s studio coverage will be handled by Hannah Storm (on loan from ESPN), Isiah Thomas, and P.J. Carlesimo, who nearly joined the Sixers’ coaching staff a decade ago.
Doug Collin and Bob Costas called NBA games together during the late 1990s and early 2000s on NBC.
Costas stopped calling MLB games in 2024 because he felt he wasn’t as good as decades prior. He said he was comfortable returning to do play-by-play for Tuesday’s game because the tone of the broadcast will be more conversational, leaning heavy on NBC’s history broadcasting the league and the unending list of stories Fratello and Collins can tell.
“I know we can accomplish that,” Costas said. “How much of the nuts and bolts of the play-by-play I can nail? Well, we’ll see.”
Collins and Costas share more than their time together in the booth. During Collins’ days playing college ball at Illinois State, he remembers two young girls around who where big fans and would come to games dressed as cheerleaders.
One of those girls — Jill — happens to be Costas’ wife. And her brother, Doug, is named after Collins.
“How about that?” a laughing Collins said. “So I have a connection with Bob that goes far deeper with our friendship and all.”
It’s more than a broadcasting homecoming for Collins. The Sixers took him with the No. 1 pick in the 1973 NBA draft, though his career was shortened by a series of injuries beginning in 1979. The team later brought him back to coach from 2010 to 2013.
When Matt Guokas left Channel 17 to join Billy Cunningham’s staff in 1982, Collins jumped to TV and replaced him during the regular season alongside Andy Musser, and later called playoff games on CBS. From there he ping-ponged between coaching and calling games, first for NBC and later TNT and ESPN.
“I spent 13 years of my life with the 76ers,” Collins said. “I’m not sure there are a lot of people who have been a former player, broadcaster, then coached” for the same team.
Collins had a year remaining on his contract when he stepped down as head coach of the Sixers in 2013, knowing the team was headed for a rebuild. His tenure is best remembered for Andrew Bynum, who never played a game after the Sixers traded for him in 2012. It was that failed trade that set off “The Process” and years of endless losses, landing the Sixers Joel Embiid but not much else.
“Through the years, they’ve had number one picks and all, but they’ve never really had a sidekick for Joel,” Collins said. “Now they have Maxey, and I think people are going to sleep on the Sixers. They can light that scoreboard up if Joel isn’t playing.”
While Tuesday’s throwback game is a who’s who of famed NBC talent, there are some notable omissions. Not joining the broadcast will be legendary NBA voice Marv Albert, who was alongside Collins during the 2001 NBA Finals.
Initially, the plan was for NBC to carry the retro theme across a doubleheader, with Albert and Fratello calling Sixers-Spurs and Collins and Costas covering the Phoenix Suns vs. the Sacramento Kings. But Collins said Albert has a health situation with his voice, shifting plans to a three-man booth.
Peter Vecsey, who worked as a reporter and analyst on NBA games for NBC, also isn’t on the lengthy guest sheet for Tuesday night’s throwback game. Vecsey wrote on social media he wasn’t invited to participate, which he called “complete disrespect” from NBC.
The network plans to produce more comeback games in future seasons, executive producer Sam Flood said, though he stopped short of saying who would be offered a chance to participate.
“Not everyone was able to join us this year, but there will be invites to plenty of other former NBA stars as time goes forward,” Flood said during a conference call.
NBC is scheduled to air one more Sixers game this season — March 17 on the road against the Denver Nuggets. There’s also a Peacock exclusive on March 30 against the Miami Heat, though the game is also scheduled to air on the relaunched NBC Sports Network.
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