‘Monday Night Football’ announcer Joe Buck agrees to contract extension with ESPN
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- ESPN reportedly has locked in ‘Monday Night Football’ voice Joe Buck with a six-year, $108-million extension, securing his role for February’s Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium and beyond.
- While Buck’s future is set, longtime booth partner Troy Aikman appears to remain unsigned past this season, as ESPN declines to discuss talent contracts ahead of its first Super Bowl.
- Buck and Aikman, paired since 2002 at Fox and ESPN, helped push ‘Monday Night Football’ to 15.8 million viewers per game last season.
Joe Buck will call his seventh Super Bowl in February. It will be his first with ESPN — and, it turns out, won’t be his last.
The “Monday Night Football” play-by-play announcer and the network agreed to a six-year, $108-million extension, according to the Athletic. Buck’s deal was set to expire following this season.
Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium will be broadcast on ESPN and simulcast on Disney sister network ABC. It will be the first Super Bowl on ESPN and the first on ABC since Super Bowl XL, which followed the 2005 season. The game is scheduled to rotate back to ESPN/ABC in February 2031.
In February 2027, SoFi Stadium will play host to Super Bowl LXI, and the NFL is excited about the possibilities after the stadium’s first Super Bowl was limited by COVID restrictions.
While Buck seems locked in for that Super Bowl LXV broadcast, his longtime booth partner may not be — at least not yet. The Athletic reports that color commentator Troy Aikman remains unsigned beyond this season.
When asked about the contract situations for Buck and Aikman, an ESPN spokesperson directed The Times to a statement executive vice president of communications Josh Krulewitz gave to the Athletic.
“With this historic season for ESPN now underway, our entire focus is on bringing fans the best possible football coverage, culminating with our first Super Bowl,” Krulewitz said. “To that end, we won’t be addressing talent contract specifics publicly before the Super Bowl.”
UCLA great Troy Aikman lamented he was never thanked after giving an NIL donation to a player who left the Bruins, but he wasn’t intentionally snubbed.
Buck broke into broadcasting in 1989, calling games for the Louisville Redbirds, a minor-league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. Two years later, he joined his father, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Jack Buck, in the radio and TV booths for the Cardinals’ games.
In 1994, Buck was hired by Fox Sports. He eventually became the network’s top play-by-play voice for the NFL and MLB, calling 24 World Series and six Super Bowls for the network. Buck joined his father in the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2022.
Buck and Aikman have been calling football games together since 2002 and left Fox for ESPN together before the 2022 season. Last season, “Monday Night Football” averaged 15.8 million viewers per game, the second-best ratings in ESPN’s 20 seasons of broadcasting the franchise (it averaged 17.4 viewers in 2023).
