ESPN has named Phil Dean as its new producer for “Monday Night Football” beginning with the upcoming season.
Dean has been with the network since 1992. He has been the lead college basketball producer for 12 years and has produced the Women’s Final Four since 1995. He also has produced ESPN’s Saturday night college football games.
Dean will work alongside Jimmy Platt, who was named MNF’s new director in 2019. Stephanie Druley, ESPN’s vice president of production, said it was important to stagger the producer and director moves in order to keep a sense of continuity with a large crew.
Druley added that conversations with Jay Rothman, who has been ESPN’s producer for its NFL games since 2001, had been going on for a while. The network has not announce Rothman’s new assignments.
Who Dean and Platt will work with in the booth remains undetermined. Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland have been part of the announce team the past two seasons, but ESPN recently tried to lure Tony Romo away from CBS and made another run at Peyton Manning.
“We don’t feel pressure right now. The producer piece was more important in terms of setting the tempo and vision for the show. We’ve got some time,” Druley said when asked about when a decision on announcers might be made.
Dean has NFL experience. He was part of CBS’ coverage from 1988-92 and worked on “NFL Today” as well as games and two Super Bowls. When Dean joined ESPN, he worked on “Sunday Night Football” for eight seasons.
“Phil is as innovative and creative an event producer as we have at ESPN, and we are thrilled to make him the next producer of Monday Night Football,” Connor Schell, ESPN’s executive vice president for content, said in a statement. “Over the course of his impressive career, Phil has demonstrated his ability to lead with great vision, and has left his mark on every sport category that he has worked on. Together, he and director Jimmy Platt will do a wonderful job leading the MNF team moving forward.”
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