Inside the NFL: Familiar Faces Plus Rotating Host?

Cris Collinsworth, James Brown, Phil Simms to host Showtime National Football League series; sources say player(s) to be named later could join.

By Alex Weprin -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/7/2008 1:10:00 PM

Showtime named Cris Collinsworth, James Brown and Phil Simms as the hosts of Inside the NFL, which will debut on the network Sept. 10.

The network said there will also be a fourth chair on the set each week, although who sits there is still being discussed.

In a conference call with reporters, CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus said that among the possibilities are a permanent analyst, a rotation of recently retired players or even current National Football League players on their bye weeks.

“In most situations, there will be four people on the set,” he added.

That would be in line with what McManus told B&C when he said he envisioned four hosts, with two of them coming from CBS Sports.

While CBS Sports mainstays Brown and Simms are new to Inside the NFL, Collinsworth has been on the show since 1989.

Inside the NFL was intercepted by Showtime after being canceled by HBO, its home since 1977, following this year’s Super Bowl.

“We felt that Chris, together with Phil and J.B., would have the strongest chemistry on the set,” Showtime senior vice president and general manager of sports and event programming Ken Hershman said.

Brown is currently host of The NFL Today on CBS and is a correspondent for Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO. He has also been host of Fox NFL Sunday and contributed to Olympic Games and NCAA basketball coverage.

Simms joined CBS Sports in 1998 as the network’s lead analyst for The NFL on CBS. Prior to CBS, Simms served as an analyst for NBC, where he also contributed to Olympics coverage.

Collinsworth also works for NBC and NFL Network.

“This team gelled kind of quickly when we went through the options,” Hershman added. “J.B. and Phil Simms have the advantage of coming from the CBS family, and Chris has the advantage of having been with the program.”

McManus and Steve Sabol will be executive producers. The show will be produced at NFL Films headquarters in New Jersey.