A quarantined society unlike anything we've seen in modern U.S. history necessitates an NFL draft broadcast unlike anything we've seen in U.S. history.
So instead of ESPN and NFL Network serving up dueling draft cablecasts with raucous fans around them in Las Vegas (which was supposed to be the site of this year's draft), the two networks are combining on _ and simulcasting _ one draft telecast which an ESPN executive calls the most complicated event he has ever produced.
ESPN and NFL Net will have cameras at the homes of more than 170 people _ including a coach or general manager from every NFL team (often both), commissioner Roger Goodell (who will announce picks from his home), 58 draft prospects, all of the on-air talent and even some fans and first responders.
The decision to produce a joint telecast, instead of separate versions on ESPN and NFL Network, was a sensible one, according to Mark Quenzel, NFL Network's senior vice president of programming and production.
"To have two distinct broadcasts, it doesn't make any sense (during a pandemic)," Quenzel said. "Everyone would be better served doing it in a unified situation than doing everything twice. The best way to do this is the way we're doing it now. The number of potential things you can do at any given moment is mind-boggling."
Seth Markham, ESPN's vice president/production, said his biggest concern is the technology of airing a draft in which none of the people interviewed will be in the same room and most will be inside their homes.
"This is the most complicated event I've been involved in, and I've been at ESPN 27 years in June," he said. "The coordination that it's taking and the magnitude of the event we have to do _ and the amount of feeds coming in _ (is remarkable). We haven't been face to face with our employees to have any meetings.
"Now we're adding a joint broadcast, which is the 100% right thing to do. We're excited about it. We do enjoy challenges. This is one we never wanted to have and hopefully one we never have again."
Because of social-distancing rules implemented by the Connecticut governor, ESPN is setting up two control rooms in its Bristol, Connecticut, studios, with each having no more than seven people and each of those people at least six feet apart. Typically, ESPN would have one control room with more than 20 people. All off-camera staffers on the draft telecast will be required to wear masks, but on-air talent will not be.
"You are talking about producers wearing masks trying to communicate with the talent; that's not ideal," Markham said. "But we believe it's the safest environment, and the governor of Connecticut has told us we need to do it that way."
On the ESPN side, only Trey Wingo, who will host all seven rounds, and Suzy Kolber, who will interview draft picks, will be working out of ESPN's studios.
ESPN's other announcers will be at home _ including Mel Kiper Jr., Booger McFarland and Louis Riddick (those three will join Wingo as the primary voices on night one), plus Todd McShay (who will be prominently featured on day three), information men Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen and team reporters Josina Anderson, Jeff Darlington (who's covering the Dolphins and three other teams), Dan Graziano, Sal Paolantonio, Mike Reiss, Dianna Russini and Ed Werder.
Only three of NFL Network's announcers will be used on the draft simulcast: Daniel Jeremiah, Michael Irvin and Kurt Warner.
"Seth and I talked about using our respective talent a lot," NFL Network's Quenzel said. "We are still formatting without regard to who's saying what to who. You will see Kiper and Jeremiah on the screen at the same time. It's not, 'Let's do an NFL Network segment and (then) let's do an ESPN segment.'"
The networks decided not to use NFL Network's information men _ Ian Rapoport, Mike Garofolo and Tom Pelissero _ but neither those three nor anyone employed by ESPN or NFL Network will be permitted to tweet picks before they're announced by the commissioner.
Meanwhile, ABC will produce its own broadcast for the first round Thursday night and the second and third rounds on Friday night. That broadcast which will be heavy on player profiles, including the journey draft prospects have taken to get to the NFL.
Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer and Maria Taylor will spearhead ABC's coverage and will all work out of ESPN's studios.
That broadcast, which will have as much of a college focus as an NFL focus, will also feature ESPN/ABC college analysts Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and David Pollack commenting from their homes, as well as McShay, who also works as a sideline reporter on college games.
Last April, 46% of the audience for that ABC broadcast was female.
"That's an amazing statistic when you can draw a female audience for an event like that," Markham said, adding that before ESPN and ABC debuted the ABC-only broadcast last year, "we were under-serving the college audience that knows these players and loves these players. We under-served a female audience and a general audience. On the ABC side, that was something we focused on."
But there won't be the live music component that was featured on ABC's draft telecast last year.
"Last year, we had a little more of the celebrity factor," Markham said. "It's not appropriate to do that this year in our opinion."
ABC will simulcast the ESPN/NFL Network coverage for rounds four through seven on Saturday.
