There was a time when football, in its various guises, was generally something for the weekend. But the long-running success of a US TV show has made football at the start of the week something of a global media phenomenon.
Monday Night Football first aired on ABC in the US in 1970 and ran until 2005, making it one of the longest-lived primetime shows on US TV.
The National Football League scheduled one game each week for a Monday night to satisfy the TV audience.
Presented by legendary broadcasters such as Howard Cosell, Don Meredith and Frank Gifford, and pioneering ultra-slow-motion replays, multiple camera angles and on-screen graphics, it was a ratings topper.
The show has continued on ESPN, and as well as other-language versions of the NFL show, the Monday Night Football brand has been adopted in other countries for other codes of football.
In the UK, where football generally means the association variety, Sky Sports introduced its Monday Night Football show for a weekly English Premier League soccer game in 1992. It ended in 2007, when Sky lost the rights to Monday night matches, but returned in 2010.
In Australia, Monday Night Football on Triple M has featured a live game from the National Rugby League, broadcast on the Triple M radio network, since 2007.
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