Q&A via ESPN Front Row

Veteran ESPN producer Phil Dean, who has been with the company for 28 years, will be the new Monday Night Football producer beginning with the 2020-21 National Football League season.

Dean joined ESPN in 1992 and has been one of the company’s top producers since being promoted to the position in 1999. He has worked on college football for the past 15 years, including an annual national semifinal game each season since the College Football Playoff’s inception in 2014, and most recently produced ESPN Saturday Primetime games.

In addition to his contributions in football, Dean has produced NBA games for the past seven years and was ESPN’s lead college basketball producer for 12 years, overseeing Saturday Primetime games and 12 ACC Tournament Championships. He also produced the NCAA Women’s Final Four Championship for 15 years.

Dean’s new NFL assignment brings his ESPN career full-circle as he originally started on the Sunday Night Football production team during his first seven years (1992-99) at the company. Prior to arriving at ESPN, Dean worked on the NFL at CBS from 1988-92. His production experience there included contributions to the NFL Today, NFL games and a pair of Super Bowls (XXIV and XXVI).

Dean will work alongside Jimmy Platt, who was named MNF’s new director in 2019.

“Phil is as innovative and creative an event producer as we have at ESPN, and we are thrilled to make him the next producer of Monday Night Football,” said Connor Schell, ESPN Executive Vice President, Content. “Over the course of his impressive career, Phil has demonstrated his ability to lead with great vision, and has left his mark on every sport category that he has worked on. Together, he and director Jimmy Platt will do a wonderful job leading the MNF team moving forward.”

Added Dean: “It is truly an honor and a blessing to be named the new producer on Monday Night Football. A huge thank you to Jimmy Pitaro, Connor Schell, Stephanie Druley and Lee Fitting for trusting me and my abilities with this amazing franchise. Six great producers came before me and I look forward to continuing their level of excellence.”

Dean follows Jay Rothman who has produced MNF since sports television’s longest-running series moved to ESPN in 2006. Rothman, who also produced ESPN Sunday Night Football games from 2001-05, will continue to work for ESPN with his specific assignments to be determined.

“Jay deserves an enormous amount of credit for Monday Night Football‘s consistent success on ESPN,” said Schell. “We thank Jay for his 19 years of exceptional work producing our primetime game, his many contributions to our NFL coverage, and we look forward to channeling his unmatched energy and passion around other important projects here at ESPN.”

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