When the Green Bay Packers open up the 2026 season against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, they will do so with the eyes of most of the pro football world upon them. Sunday’s kickoff will take place at 3:25 PM Central time, and the vast majority of the United States will get to see the game on local CBS affiliates.
Week one is a doubleheader week for both FOX and CBS, one of the few weeks when each network gets to show a game in both the early and late Sunday afternoon time slots. CBS stations will carry one of Packers-Vikings or Cardinals-Chargers in the late game, while FOX stations get their pick of Commanders-Eagles or Dolphins-Raiders.
Advertisement
Here’s a look at the initial broadcast map from 506sports.com, with Packers-Vikings in red:
The blue areas will instead see Cardinals-Chargers, which will go out to those two teams’ home markets plus those of the other AFC West teams (the Raiders, Broncos, and Chiefs).
On the call for the Packers’ opening game is CBS’ top commentating team. This year, Jim Nantz will be joined by color commentator J.J. Watt, who is stepping up from the network’s #2 squad to take the place that fellow Wisconsin native Tony had Romo previously occupied. Romo was suspended from CBS programming this summer after being arrested in Milwaukee for OWI, a charge to which he later pleaded no contest, and the network is reportedly negotiating a buyout of Romo’s remaining contract.
Advertisement
This is the first of four games that the Packers are currently scheduled to play in the late afternoon “Game of the Week” time slot this season, though all four of those come in the first nine weeks of the season. Most of the country should expect to see all of those games, except for areas on the west coast that have home teams or divisional opponents also playing in that late time slot.
Read the full article here