Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Inside The NFL’ On The CW, Where The Long-Running NFL Films Series Gets A New Network, New Panelists, And A New Attitude

After 31 seasons on HBO, 13 more on Showtime, and 2 more on Paramount+, Inside The NFL is airing on broadcast TV for the first time this season. The CW picked up the show after P+ cancelled it, and installed an entire new panel, including Ryan Clark as host. The new panel consists of Jay Cutler, Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, Chris Long, and Channing Crowder. As Clark walks to the studio, talking about getting the opportunity to host this venerable franchise, we see the panel sitting around the table, and Clark is so fired up he smacks his chair and knocks it over.

INSIDE THE NFL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: New host Ryan Clark turns to the camera while in a dressing room: “Hey, y’all. I’m RC. And this is Inside The NFL.”

The Gist: The first segment reviews Super Bowl LVII, with the focus on how the Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes beat the Philadelphia Eagles on one leg. We see NFL Films’ classic open-mic footage of Mahomes suffering the high-ankle sprain and huffing and puffing in pain as he limps off the field. Crowder thinks he’s being dramatic, as does Long. Of course, the former QB (Cutler) and wide receiver (Johnson) defend Mahomes. Then there’s a discussion about whether Mahomes is already the best QB ever — even better than Tom Brady.

The second segment looks forward to the Thursday night matchup between the Chiefs and the Detroit Lions, and tight end Travis Kelce’s injury. Johnson says that Kelce has a “Wi-fi connection” with Mahomes, and boldly predicts the Lions beating the champs.

In the third segment, we see footage of Aaron Rodgers, now with the New York Jets, jawing with a New York Giants linebacker during a preseason game, courtesy of Hard Knocks. The panel try to figure out if Rodgers’ “who are you?” taunt is truly “uncomebackable,” and Clark recounts a story of a Rodgers diss when the Green Bay Packers played Clark’s Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. Clark interviews Giants running back Saquon Barkley, and the panel talks about why Barkley and his fellow running backs aren’t getting big contracts anymore.

The final two segments were about new faces in the league, and the results of an X/Twitter poll for the soundbite of the week.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Take the classic NFL Films highlights and behind-the-scenes clips shown on Inside The NFL over the last 46 years and combine it with the chuckling banter of Inside The NBA, and you have this new iteration of Inside The NFL.

Our Take: With the move to The CW, NFL Films decided to make Inside The NFL a bit less stodgy and a bit more contemporary. What they did is essentially try to bring the Inside The NBA formula to the show, which is the same as what pretty much every other sports panel show over the last 20 years has tried to do.

Of course, the chemistry between the panelists on Inside The NBA can’t really be replicated or conjured by producers selecting a panel, and you can sense that the new Inside The NFL panel straining a bit to try to create that chemistry. Johnson, always outspoken during his playing career, has been put in the “Charles Barkley slot”, forcing bold opinions and contrarian thoughts into the discussion. What Ochocinco needs to figure out is that if he is just being himself, those bold declarations will come naturally.

Cutler, Long and Crowder are all OK; they all have experience on panel shows and podcasts, so they know when to assert themselves and when to step back. Clark, in a hosting spot for the first time, has to learn that he can’t spew the same way he used to when he was a panelist on various shows. As the host, he needs to step back, let the rest of the panel make their comments, and keep the show moving. When his monologues are longer than Johnson’s, that’s a problem.

We also saw that problem in his interview with Barkley. Clark’s questions were far longer than Barkley’s answers. He also never addressed the big topic surrounding Barkley this off-season, which was Barkley reluctantly agreeing to a barely-over franchise-tag-level one-year deal with the Giants after negotiations between him and the team came to a standstill as training camp began. Yes, Johnson pointed out how canned Barkley’s answers sounded, but that was more of a function of Clark being too afraid to ask Barkley some tough, pointed questions than anything else.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: The panel pays tribute to the showrunner’s mother, who recently died, then they replay a clip of Lions coach Dan Campbell saying how much he loves his team.

Sleeper Star: As always, the photographers and sound engineers who work for NFL Films get pretty remarkable footage and sound, and that’s always been the highlight of Inside The NFL.

Most Pilot-y Line: During the soundbite segment, Johnson’s phone goes off, playing a song that needed to be beeped out so the CW didn’t have to pay licensing fees. Why the producers decided to keep it in, we don’t know. We also don’t know why they didn’t ensure his phone was either on vibrate or back in his dressing room before the cameras started rolling.

Our Call: SKIP IT. We’re not saying that this new iteration of Inside The NFL won’t eventually get its act together. But the first episode was a pretty clunky mess that tries too hard to be loose and jovial.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.