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Could this be the last season that Scott Hanson hosts “seven hours of commercial free football” for NFL RedZone?
Technically, the answer is yes.
Scott Hanson’s current contract with NFL Media, which he signed in 2021, reportedly expires after the 2024 NFL season.
While it would a shocking move for Hanson to leave NFL RedZone, money talks and there are definitely going to be some potential suitors for his services. Especially after how popular he was with non-football fans hosting NBC Sports’ Gold Zone for the Paris Summer Olympics.
NBC Sports would surely like to keep Hanson on their payroll and have him be exclusive to both NBC and Peacock.
“Scott brought his inimitable enthusiasm and energy to Gold Zone. NFL fans loved watching him transfer his ‘all-in’ mentality from football Sundays to the Paris Olympics,” Molly Solomon, executive producer and president of NBC Olympics production, told Front Office Sports in a statement. “Each of our four hosts brought his own unique personality to the show, and Scott was certainly a key contributor to our process of re-imagining how Gold Zone could be experienced and consumed going forward.”
Yes, Hanson leaving NFLN after 18 years seems far-fetched. But anybody who’s paid attention to the myriad talent moves in sports media would say: Never say never. NFL Media has been cutting costs, amid talks about a possible equity deal with ESPN or another partner. Despite the league’s $20 billion-plus in annual revenue, NFLN laid off multiple employees this spring and canceled NFL Total Access, its live weeknight show. Among those pink-slipped were Andrew Siciliano, the longtime host of DirecTV’s now-defunct NFL Red Zone channel, and studio host Melissa Stark.
Meanwhile, ESPN changed hosts for its two NFL pregame shows over the last two off-seasons, naming Mike Greenberg to succeed Samantha Ponder on Sunday NFL Countdown and Scott Van Pelt to replace Suzy Kolber on Monday Night Countdown.
Fox Sports, CBS, ESPN and Amazon Prime Video all also could put Scott Hanon’s special ability to connect with his audience to good use with their packages of NFL games.
Then there is YouTube TV, the home of NFL Sunday Ticket.
2024 will be the 16th straight season Scott Hanson has hosted NFL RedZone, so it would be a seismic change for fans should he decide to leave.
Perhaps to main reason Scott Hanson wouldn’t leave NFL RedZone, other than the fact that he appears to love working there, is that the main NFL hosting roles are currently occupied by some pretty big names: Greenberg, Van Pelt, Maria Taylor, Charissa Thompson, James Brown and Curt Menefee.
Then again, stranger things have happened. After all, CBS, Fox and ABC all let John Madden go to other networks during his Hall of Fame career.