NBC brings back its old US Open theme and changes its Sunday Night Football open.
Sports affairs daily reported Tuesday that NBC would use a new version of its long-running U.S. Open theme, Yanni‘s In Celebration of Man, on the cover of the British Open. The revised version will “incorporate bagpipes” (SBD, 6/28).
According to Golf Digest, Yanni originally created the theme in 1992 in hopes that CBS would use it for its coverage of the Winter Olympics. CBS rejected the offer, paving the way for NBC to reprise the theme for a Summer Olympics preview show that same year. It later became the theme of the US Open after NBC acquired the rights to that event in 1994.
This isn’t the first time NBC has brought back a popular theme. After losing the NBA rights in 2002, the channel brought back the musical theme: Round ball rock by John Tesh – for coverage of Olympic basketball in 2008. It also retained its old Major League Baseball theme, itself taken from the short-lived FOX series. The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.for coverage of the Olympic Games.
In addition, NBC will launch a new Sunday Night Football anthem, I abandon the cover Joan JettIt is I hate myself for loving you it has been used since the beginning of its distribution SNF in 2006. The new open will again be sung by Carrie Underwood and be based on his 2014 song Something bad.
Music videos are now the opening of choice on sports television, with networks avoiding the dramatic, staged intros common in the 1980s and 1990s. NBC will debut an updated version of its Blake Shelton-Sung NASCAR opened this weekend and ESPN presented a new Sunday Night Baseball last week opened by Florida. Notably, the series that started the trend — Monday Night Football – spent almost five years without his Are you ready for some football? intro without missing a beat.
(News from Sports affairs daily, NBC Sports group press box)
