The inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament concludes in Las Vegas this weekend, and one of the unique elements of the semifinals tonight will be the crossover coverage between TNT and ESPN.

ESPN will have the first semifinal of the evening. The game tips off at 5 PM Eastern. Mike Breen and Doris Burke will be joined by Reggie Miller on the broadcast. Lisa Salters will be the sideline reporter for the game.

For TNT’s game at 9 PM Eastern, Kevin Harlan and Candace Parker will be joined by Doc Rivers. Allie LaForce will handle sideline reporting.

Additionally, both networks are going to collaborate for extended segments in their respective pregame show windows. Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal will join ESPN NBA Countdown with Malika Andrews, Stephen A. Smith, Michael Wilbon, Bob Myers and Adrian Wojnarowski before the early game. Everyone will get together again when Inside the NBA gets viewers ready for the late game.

Font Office Sports reported that as the NBA prepares to negotiate a new media rights deal with both ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery, network leaders see other chances for crossovers down the road.

“This is the first step in something that potentially could create other opportunities [in] the future,” TNT Sports executive vice president and chief content officer Craig Barry said.

ESPN head of event and studio production David Roberts said something similar.

“This is just a starting point,” he said.

The NBA’s current media rights contract concludes at the end of the 2024-25 season.

This year is a milestone year for Booger McFarland as it is his 10^th year working at ESPN. It is a milestone for the former Super Bowl winning defensive lineman as he has now been in the sports media industry longer than he was as an actual player (9 years with the Buccaneers and Colts).

McFarland was a guest on the SI Media with Jimmy Traina podcast this week and he mentioned how he always enjoys talking to people about sports and he never takes any critique of the analysis he gives seriously because sports is supposed to be fun.

“I enjoy talking to people. I’m a people person. I always knew that this was a job I could do as far as being in a studio amongst a group of people,” Booger McFarland said. “And I enjoy conversing with people about sports because I think I’m one of the rare people that can give an opinion, that can take an opinion, that can give criticism and take it and it’s not personal.

“Sometimes as analysts, we allow things to become personal to us and it starts affecting not only you, but your relationships. I’ve never taken sports that seriously. This is entertainment. I’m trying to entertain people and have some fun. This is not life or death. I think that attitude has allowed me even when something has been given and/or taken away as far as a role or job, I’m continuing to move forward. I enjoy what I do.”

When McFarland is not analyzing college football, he is doing NFL Primetine with Chris Berman every week on ESPN+, which is something that he never thought he would do in his career. Yes, McFarland enjoys the entertainment Berman brings to the broadcast, but he is also impressed by the knowledge Berman has and the preparation that goes into the legendary highlight show.

“It is something I never thought in my wildest dreams thought I would be doing. The very first time I did it, I caught myself staring at him a couple of times as he was doing it. He’s got all of these different sayings and every time he did one, I’m naturally laughing. I’m just in awe at not only just how entertaining he makes it, but his knowledge of the game. We talk on a weekly basis in-depth.”

“He talks to a lot of coaches. He does research. People may look at that show and say well, what is he doing that for? It’s because he wants to be as knowledgeable about the product and about how he can entertain the fan. As he told me, my job is to serve the fan and entertain the fan with the show. He has welcomed me in with his arms wide open. It’s been fun, it’s nothing I enjoy doing more than Primetime with him. When that red light goes on at 7:30 on ESPN+, I know it’s going to be fun.”

Of course, many remember Booger McFarland for his time in the booth and in the “Boogermobile” on Monday Night Football. He told Traina when the idea was first pitched to him, the network was looking for him to have a role similar to Todd McShay (at the time) or Tom Luginbill as a field analyst roaming the sidelines.

“We started going through a lot of different scenarios and I flew out to Los Angeles and we started building this thing. I had no idea what to expect with that first iteration of it. Once I got up there and we started to understand what they were trying to do, I thought we could have done it without the crane/Boogermobile because what they wanted was a field analyst similar to what they had in college football with Todd McShay and Tom Luginbill.”

“The good thing with those guys is they get to roam around, they can go in the end zone, they can walk up and down the sideline, they can be close to the action. When you were on the Booger Mobile, we could only go so far on the sideline, so we were limited. If I was on foot, I could have gone a lot of different places.”

While the idea did not work to its full potential, Booger McFarland gives ESPN a lot of credit for trying something new.

“I give ESPN a lot of credit for trying to be innovative and trying to do a lot of different things. I think even the staunchest supporter of it would probably say if I had a do-over, I would probably do something different, but I give them a lot of credit for trying.”

The final SEC broadcast on CBS turned out to be the most-watched game of the weekend.

The SEC Championship broadcast on CBS averaged 17.519 million viewers, making it the most-watched conference championship game on any network in five years.

Viewership of the telecast peaked at 22.35 million. The game was the second-most-watched college football game of the season so far behind Ohio State/Michigan.

The game also was the most-streamed college football game ever on Paramount+ across households, minutes, and average minute audience.