As the bids for Thursday Night Football have come into the NFL, we’ve told over the last week that Fox has made an aggressive bid to take away the package from CBS and multiple networks could divide the games.

Now the latest development according to The Street is that ESPN has decided to drop out of the bidding. Ronald Glover writes that the Worldwide Leader and its parent company Disney are happy with its signature Monday Night Football series and that if it were to take Thursday Night Football, it would have to air it on ABC and the company higher-ups don’t want to blow away the network’s successful Shondaland series (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder) on that night.

So that apparently leaves CBS, Fox, NBC and to a lesser extent, Turner Sports in the bidding. CBS as the incumbent is still the favorite to retain the package, but as we told you last week when we discussed Fox’s bid, it’s not willing to break the bank to keep TNF.

As for ESPN, it appears content to stay pat and have college football games air opposite the NFL on Thursday nights and not pay for what could turn out to be another expensive NFL package and also have to share it with NFL Network which would air some games exclusively.

The Request for Proposal for TNF seeks to have the winning network produce all 16 games as CBS has for 2014 and 2016, simulcast at least half of the schedule with NFL Network and then have NFLN air the rest of the games.

In addition, another part of the RFP has the winning network taking a role with NFL Network in marketing and perhaps buying a stake in the channel.

The NFL will make a decision on the winning bid before the Super Bowl.

[The Street]