The USA Thursday Game of the Week
| USA Thursday Game of the Week | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sport |
| Developed by | USA Sports |
| Directed by | John Repczynski |
| Starring | See announcers section |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Jim Zrake |
| Producer(s) | Mark D. Stulberger |
| Running time | 180 minutes (or until game ends) |
| Release | |
| Original network | USA |
| Original release | April 26, 1979 – 1983 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows |
Thursday Night Baseball Major League Baseball on NBC |
| External links | |
| Website | www2 |
The USA Thursday Game of the Week is a former television program that broadcast Major League Baseball games on the USA Network. The network no longer airs sporting events. Sister network NBC Sports Network is the primary cable outlet of NBC Sports.
In 1979, 22 teams (all but the Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros, New York Mets, and St. Louis Cardinals) took part in a one-year cable deal with UA-Columbia (then owners of the USA Network). The deal involved the airing of a Thursday night Game of the Week in markets at least 50 miles (80 km) from a major league park. The deal earned Major League Baseball less than $500,000, but led to a new two-year contract for 40–45 games per season. The program ran through the 1983 season.
With USA's Thursday night coverage, it eliminated ABC (who was broadcasting Monday night games at the time) as the exclusive national, prime time television franchise for Major League Baseball.
The series began April 26, 1979 with a doubleheader: Cleveland at Kansas City (Jim Woods and Bud Harrelson announcing) followed by Baltimore at California (Monte Moore and Maury Wills announcing). The second game of the night was typically, based out of the West Coast. The games were usually blacked out in the competing teams' cities. Once in a while, when USA did a repeat of the telecast late at night, local cities were allowed to show the rerun.
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