Editing NFL on CBS (section)

===2000s===
On January 28, 2001, CBS Sports, Core Digital and Princeton Video Image introduced state-of-the-art, three-dimensional replay technology called "[[EyeVision]]" for its coverage of [[Super Bowl XXXV]] in [[Tampa]] (at [[Raymond James Stadium]]). The game, CBS Sports' first Super Bowl broadcast since [[Super Bowl XXVI|1992]], drew 131.2 million viewers for the [[2000 Baltimore Ravens season|Baltimore Ravens]]' win over the [[2000 New York Giants season|New York Giants]]. As a result, Super Bowl XXXV was the most watched television program that year. [[Play-by-play|Play-by-play announcer]] Greg Gumbel became the first African-American announcer to call a major sports championship; he was joined in the broadcast booth with Phil Simms. Both of the Ravens' Super Bowl championships to date have been on CBS; the CBS-owned station in Baltimore, [[WJZ-TV]], had been, as an ABC affiliate, one of the strongest television stations for ''Monday Night Football'' for most of the 1980s and early 1990s, due to Baltimore's previous NFL team, the [[Indianapolis Colts|Colts]]' move to Indianapolis.

The [[2001–02 NFL playoffs]] marked the first time that the league scheduled prime time playoff games for the first two rounds, in an attempt to attract more viewers. Saturday wild card and divisional playoff games were moved from 12:30 and 4&nbsp;p.m. Eastern Time to 4:30 and 8&nbsp;p.m., respectively. As a result, the league abandoned its practice of scheduling playoff games held mainly in colder, northern regions for daylight hours only; any stadium, regardless of evening January temperatures, could host prime time playoff games.

====Jim Nantz and Greg Gumbel swap roles====
In [[2004 NFL season|2004]], Jim Nantz and Greg Gumbel swapped roles on CBS's NFL broadcasts.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Big Picture: More than meets the eye in CBS pro football trade|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04176/336678.stm|work=[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]]|date=June 24, 2004|access-date=April 18, 2012}}</ref> Nantz took Gumbel's place as the lead play-by-play announcer while Gumbel took Nantz's spot as the host of ''The NFL Today''. Following the [[2005 NFL season|2005 season]], CBS discontinued the use of sideline reporters in its regular season NFL coverage until [[2014 NFL season|2014]].

In Week 1, the [[2004 Tennessee Titans season|Tennessee Titans]]-[[2004 Miami Dolphins season|Miami Dolphins]] game was moved a day earlier due to the threat of [[Hurricane Ivan]]. As per Dick Enberg's [[2004 US Open (tennis)|US Open]] duties, he was filled in on play-by-play by Dan Dierdorf, while Todd Blackledge provided color commentary. Two weeks later, the Dolphins' game against the [[2004 Pittsburgh Steelers season|Pittsburgh Steelers]] was pushed to 8:30&nbsp;p.m. [[Eastern Time]] because of [[Hurricane Jeanne]]. The game aired on the CBS and [[List of former UPN affiliates|UPN affiliates]] in both Pittsburgh and Miami.

In the 2005 season, the game between the [[2005 Kansas City Chiefs season|Kansas City Chiefs]] and the [[2005 Miami Dolphins season|Miami Doplhins]] was moved two days earlier from its originally scheduled date due to the threat of [[Hurricane Wilma]]. The game aired in the local markets of the two teams.

The next group of broadcast contracts, which began with the [[2006 NFL season|2006–07 season]], resulted in a size-able increase in total rights fees. Both Fox and CBS renewed their Sunday afternoon broadcast packages through 2011, in both cases with modest increases. On February 6, 2006, CBS Sports announced the return of James Brown, who left CBS eleven years earlier to become studio host of ''[[Fox NFL Sunday]]'', to the network as the host of ''The NFL Today''. Greg Gumbel moved back to play-by-play, teaming with [[Dan Dierdorf]]. CBS decided to not feature sideline reports for the [[2006 NFL season|2006 regular season]]. However, the network did use Lesley Visser, [[Sam Ryan]], [[Solomon Wilcots]] and Steve Tasker to report from the sidelines and around the stadium for its telecast of [[Super Bowl XLI]].

In the 2006 season, CBS' coverage of the [[2006–07 NFL playoffs#AFC Championship: Indianapolis Colts 38, New England Patriots 34|2006 AFC Championship Game]] between the [[2006 New England Patriots season|New England Patriots]] and the [[2006 Indianapolis Colts season|Indianapolis Colts]] earned a 28.1 rating, which topped the season premiere of ''[[American Idol]]'' on Fox. Its Super Bowl XLI broadcast drew the third largest television audience in history, finishing behind only its broadcast of the ''[[M*A*S*H (TV series)|M*A*S*H]]'' finale ("[[Goodbye, Farewell and Amen]]") in 1983 and NBC's broadcast of [[Super Bowl XXX]] ([[1995 Dallas Cowboys season|Dallas Cowboys]] and [[1995 Pittsburgh Steelers season|Pittsburgh Steelers]]) from 1996. Super Bowl XLI was the second [[List of most-watched television episodes|most watched]] Super Bowl broadcast of all time, averaging 93.1 million viewers.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Best and worst of NFL on TV|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/richard_deitsch/02/08/tv/index.html|magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]]|date=February 8, 2007|access-date=April 18, 2012}}</ref>

====HDTV coverage====
As late as 2006, CBS aired only three of its NFL games in [[high-definition television|high-definition]] each week, the same number of games it had aired for the past few seasons. The other networks that held rights to broadcast NFL games – [[NBC Sunday Night Football|NBC]], [[Run to the Playoffs|NFL Network]] and [[Monday Night Football|ESPN]] – broadcast all of their games in high definition, and [[Fox NFL|Fox]] broadcast up to six in HD. Because of this, some fans accused CBS of being "cheap."<ref>{{cite web|title=CBS: The 'C' Stands For Cheap|url=http://www.tvpredictions.com/cbscheap090806.htm|publisher=TVPredictions.com|date=September 8, 2006|access-date=April 18, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415113256/http://www.tvpredictions.com/cbscheap090806.htm|archive-date=April 15, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> Beginning with the [[2007 NFL season|2007 season]], CBS began airing five of the Sunday games in high definition television on doubleheader weeks, and six on singleheader weeks.<ref>{{cite web|title=Schedules – CBS Sportsline|url=http://www.sportsline.com/cbssports/schedules/page/nfl|work=CBSSportsline.com|date=August 19, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Flipping channels|url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20070420-9999-1s20media.html|work=Sign-On San Diego|date=April 20, 2007}}</ref>

Former CBS Sports Executive Vice President [[Tony Petitti]] (who left CBS in April 2008 to become the head of the newly established [[MLB Network]]) claimed the network would probably air all of its NFL games in high definition by [[2009 NFL season|2009]]. When asked about the move, Petitti commented that CBS was focused on building a new studio for ''The NFL Today'' pre-game show. However, another CBS executive had previously indicated<ref>{{cite news|title=Why CBS Sports isn't 100% HD |url=http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2006/01/why_cbs_sports_.html |series=TV Barn blog|work=[[The Kansas City Star]]|date=January 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061005034505/http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2006/01/why_cbs_sports_.html |archive-date=October 5, 2006 }}</ref> that, because CBS was an "early adopter" with its first HD game in [[1998 NFL season|1998]], it is already "at capacity" and would have to replace newly purchased equipment in its network center with even more expensive equipment. However, CBS did carry its entire slate of games in 2009 in HD, though a few non-essential camera positions for some games (mainly used only in analysis situations) continued to be shot in 4:3 SD.

Beginning with the [[2013 NFL season|2013 season]], CBS Sports switched to a 16:9 full [[widescreen]] presentation, which began requiring the use of the #10 [[Active Format Description]] tag to present the games in a [[letterboxed]] [[widescreen]] format for viewers watching on [[cable television]] through [[4:3]] television sets.

====CBS introduces the "CBS Eye-lert"====
For the [[2007 NFL season|2007 season]], CBS announced the advent of "CBS Eye-lert",<ref>{{cite web|title=CBS Eye-lert to Tip Off Viewers to Overruns|url=http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/tvstations/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003614458|publisher=Mediaweek.com|access-date=April 18, 2012}}</ref> a service that allows viewers to be notified via e-mail and text message when the start time of a program will be delayed. The "Eye-lert" was eventually extended on-air to a banner graphic that appears during the prime time lineup within sports broadcasts and segments of delayed regularly scheduled evening programs.

During Week 7 of the [[2008 NFL season|2008 season]], a power failure at [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]]'s [[Ralph Wilson Stadium]] caused problems leading to the regular broadcast team of Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf being unable to call portions of the game (the [[2008 Buffalo Bills season|Buffalo Bills]] vs. the [[2008 San Diego Chargers season|San Diego Chargers]]). Video was still available, and so James Brown called portions of the game from the studio, with the rest of the [[List of NFL Today personalities|''NFL Today'' team]] providing color commentary.