The following is a list of the national
television and
radio networks and announcers who have covered the
American League Division Series throughout the years. It does include any announcers who may have appeared on local radio broadcasts produced by the participating teams.
TNT was scheduled to air three entire Division Series games in
2011 due to conflicts with
TBS. On October 1, it aired Game 2 of the
Tampa Bay Rays vs. the
Texas Rangers at 7 p.m. ET, which overlapped with the end of Game 1 of the
St. Louis Cardinals vs. the
Philadelphia Phillies and the continuation of Game 1 of the
Detroit Tigers vs. the
New York Yankees on TBS. (The latter was also to have been Game 2, but Game 1 was suspended after 1+1⁄2 innings due to rain.) On October 2, it aired the rescheduled Game 2 between the Tigers and the Yankees at 3 p.m. ET, two hours before Game 2 of the
Arizona Diamondbacks vs. the
Milwaukee Brewers on TBS. On October 4, it aired Game 3 of the Diamondbacks vs. the Brewers at 9:30 p.m. ET, one hour after Game 3 of the Tigers vs. the Yankees started on TBS.
For the 2012 and 2013 seasons, TBS has been awarded the rights to televise both Wild Card Playoff games that occur on the day before the Division Series games. In exchange,
MLB Network has been awarded the rights to televise two of the Division Series games that previously belonged to TBS.[10]
Beginning in
2014, when
Fox Sports began a new television contract with
Major League Baseball,
FS1 airs 40 regular season MLB games (mostly on Saturdays), along with up to 15
post-season games (eight Divisional Series games and one best-of-7 League Championship Series). The deal resulted in a reduction of MLB coverage on the
Fox network, which will air 12 regular season games, the
All-Star Game, and the
World Series.[11]
Don Orsillo replaced
Ernie Johnson on
TBS'2018 ALDS coverage after Johnson announced[12] that he would not cover the Major League Baseball playoffs as a result of his treatment for the blood clots in both of his legs.
In
2000,
NBC was caught in the dilemma of having to televise a first round playoff game between the
New York Yankees and
Oakland Athletics over the first
presidential debate between
George W. Bush and
Al Gore. NBC decided to give its local stations the option of carrying the debate or the baseball game. If the
NBC affiliate decided to carry the debate, then local
Paxaffiliate could carry the game. However, if there was no Pax availability and the local NBC affiliate aired the debate (which actually occurred in most NBC affiliates), then that market was shut out of the baseball telecast.
Skip Caray filled-in for
Bob Costas on NBC's coverage of the 2000 New York-Oakland Division Series because Costas had just finished anchoring
NBC's
prime time coverage of the
Summer Olympic Games from
Sydney,
Australia. Meanwhile, NBC used
Bob Wischusen as a field reporter (filling-in for
Jim Gray, who like Bob Costas, was covering the Sydney Olympics) for Game 1 of the ALDS.
ABC Family's coverage of the
Division Series was produced by
ESPN. The reason that games were on ABC Family instead of
ESPN was because
The Walt Disney Company (ESPN's parent company) bought Fox Family from
News Corporation. The ABC Family/ESPN inherited Division Series package was included in Fox's then exclusive television contract with Major League Baseball (initiated in
2001). ABC Family had no other choice but to fulfill the contract handed to them. The only usage of the ABC Family "
bug" was for a ten-second period when returning from a commercial break (in the lower right corner of the screen).
Game 2 (played on October 2) of the
Minnesota/
Oakland series in 2002 started on
ESPN2 because the
San Francisco-
Atlanta game (which started at 1 p.m.
Eastern Time) ran over the three-hour time window. The game was eventually switched back to ABC Family once the early game ended.
Former longtime Tigers announcer
Ernie Harwell served as a special guest commentator for two innings in Game 3 of the
2006Tigers-
Yankees series.
Turner Sports provided a provisional plan in which if a League Division Series game televised on
TBS ran into the start of the next LDS game scheduled to air on TBS, then
TNT would provide supplementary coverage of the latter games' early moments. To be more specific, all games in the Division Series round were presented back-to-back, with each game scheduled for a 3+1⁄2-hour window. If a game exceeded this window, the first pitch of the next game would be switched to
TNT. If a game ended within 3+1⁄2 hours, the studio team would return for interstitial programming.
In
2007, TBS switched the starts of four games to TNT in the Division Series round because the previous games exceeded the time limit. TNT was also scheduled to air Game 4 of the
Diamondbacks-
Cubs series, which overlapped with Game 3 of the
Red Sox-
Angels series, but the former game was not played; the night before, the D-Backs completed a three-game sweep of the Cubs.
1995 marked the only year of postseason coverage provided by "
The Baseball Network", which was a
revenue sharingjoint venture between
Major League Baseball, ABC and NBC. "The Baseball Network" was also scheduled to cover the Division Series in
1994, but plans were scrapped when a
strike caused the postseason to be canceled. All games in the first two rounds (including the
League Championship Series) were scheduled in the same time slot for regional telecasts. Initially, under the alternating six-year plan, ABC would've covered the Division Series in even numbered years (as well as the World Series in even numbered years) while NBC would've covered the Division Series in odd numbered years (in even numbered years, they would've gotten the rights to the All-Star Game and League Championship Series).
From
1996–
2000,
NBC aired LDS games on Tuesday/Friday/Saturday nights.
Fox aired LDS games on Wednesday/Thursday nights, Saturdays in the late afternoon, plus Sunday/Monday nights (if necessary). Meanwhile,
ESPN carried many afternoon LDS contests. At this point, all playoff games were nationally televised (mostly in unopposed timeslots).
In
1981, as means to recoup revenue lost during a
players strike, Major League Baseball set up a special additional playoff round (as a prelude to the League Championship Series).
ABC televised the
American League Division Series while
NBC televised the
National League Division Series. The Division Series round was not officially instituted until 14 years later. Games 3 of the
Brewers/
Yankees series and
Royals/
Athletics series were aired regionally. On October 10,
Keith Jackson missed Game 4 of Milwaukee-New York series due to his commitment in calling an called an
Oklahoma vs. Texascollege football game for
ABC. Consequently,
Don Drysdale filled-in for him on play-by-play alongside
Howard Cosell.
Bob Uecker was originally named to join
Al Michaels and
Jim Palmer on ABC's secondary crew, but the network excused him due to the involvement of the Brewers (for whom Uecker was a local radio announcer) in the ALDS.
Due to health and safety concerns related to the
COVID-19 pandemic, all of
ESPN Radio's commentators for the 2020 postseason called the games off of monitors at the ESPN studios in Bristol, Connecticut.[25]