NBC's 'Green Zone' Immediately Backfires, Becomes Overnight Failure

By Dave Kovaleski August 27, 2018 at 8:07am

Well, that didn’t go over too well.

NBC debuted a new feature for its “Sunday Night Football” telecast called the “green zone,” which is the area between the line of scrimmage and the first-down marker.

“On third down there’s an enhancement, we think you’re going to like … this green zone, we’re going to call it,” said NBC’s Al Michaels during the Cowboys-Cardinals preseason game.

Welcome to the green zone.

On third downs, see just how far players will have to go at any point during the play to get a first down. pic.twitter.com/cCLdkdLjls

— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) August 27, 2018

“So we are going to paint, in effect, the area that the team has to go to get to the yellow line, the first down line,” Michaels said.

Do you like NBC's 'green zone'?

“We know the yellow line is great, its been around for a lot of years, but this will show you exactly how far he has to go at any point in the play,” he added.

The Green Zone will only appear on third downs, but many fans are hoping it never appears again.

The Green Zone? Are you serious NBC? …And no Al I'm not going to like it

— Tom Tolbert (@byronjr23) August 27, 2018

I appreciate the effort, but please immediately remove the “Green Zone” from all future broadcasts

— Cameron Magruder (@ScooterMagruder) August 27, 2018

The yellow line has been a pretty simple and effective enhancement to figure out where the first-down line is, but a number of fans thought the green zone was just overkill for the sake of overkill.

Never in my life do I ever want to have to see The Green Zone on my television screen ever again.

— RJ Ochoa (@rjochoa) August 27, 2018

NBC just debuted the “green zone.” I don’t know, I thought the yellow line pretty much showed you all you had to know..??

— Dave “Softy” Mahler (@Softykjr) August 27, 2018

Immediately hate the green zone

— Bo Brack (@BoBrack) August 27, 2018

Not everyone on Twitter hated it, however.

Call me a fan of "The Green Zone." Nicely done, @SNFonNBC.

— Brad Evans (@NoisyHuevos) August 27, 2018

And for what it’s worth, an online poll by Kansas City Star columnist Pete Grathoff found the majority of those who responded said they liked the new feature.

But the overwhelming sentiment on social media was thumbs down.

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Tags:

Media watch, NBC, NFL

Dave Kovaleski

Contributor, Sports

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Dave is a lifelong sports fan who has been writing for The Wildcard since 2017. He has been a writer for more than 20 years for a variety of publications.

Dave has been writing about sports for The Wildcard since 2017. He's been a reporter and editor for over 20 years, covering everything from sports to financial news. In addition to writing for The Wildcard, Dave has covered mutual funds for Pensions and Investments, meetings and conventions, money market funds, personal finance, associations, and he currently covers financial regulations and the energy sector for Macallan Communications. He has won awards for both news and sports reporting.

Location

Massachusetts

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English

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Sports