Madden NFL 26 Brings in Scott Hanson

While we were onsite in Orlando for Madden Media Day, the biggest take away from the upcoming Madden NFL 26 was the introduction of a Halftime Report. This Halftime Report will be hosted by NFL Red Zone’s Scott Hanson, and it won’t be canned animations. Only a snippet was provided of how it works, and the dev team is fully in on this. 20 years in the making since a previous NFL game did this, Madden NFL 26 will allow this in Franchise Mode so that every week feels different. There is no more map and scores with a quick audible note about the game. This just touches the surface of the presentation elements in this year’s game as you can read the Gridiron Notes here.

Every NFL Game with Limited Commercial Interruption

Scott Hanson is the face of NFL Red Zone, and to many, Sundays in general. The host of the NFL Red Zone will be joining Madden NFL 26 for not only commentary on the Halftime Report, but also on the Weekly Recap. The energy and enthusiasm that stems from Hanson will include details such as mention National Tight End’s Day when a Tight End Scores a touchdown on that weekend. The Theme songs from the individual broadcast packages will provide the atmosphere and drama from around the league.

The last time a Weekly Recap was featured in Madden was back in the early 2010’s. Video highlights will also be included in the Weekly Recap, which provides the goal of making each week more meaningful in your league. Do you play in a player’s league online? Guess what? The game will take highlights from those games, as well, and show them in both the Halftime Report and the Weekly Recap.

Scott Hanson, much like the Tight End Day announcement, will provide a variety of narration across the entire season. The more the season evolves, he will let you know how it evolves. First-year head coaches getting their initial win, win streaks, team rebounds, and matchups with playoff implications will be highlighted. Teams that clinch playoff spots will also be recognized once into December.

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The team wants Madden to be the best sports simulation ever as the team incorporates more and more into the series that can be witnessed on Sundays.

Going Deeper With More Broadcast Packages

Last year, EA introduced multiple commentary teams to provide a different experience for your games. While the commentary teams will remain the same, the dev team is doubling down on providing different experiences for each game. No longer will there be the face-to-face introduction prior to every game. Madden NFL 26 will offer three different primetime packages that are separate than the Sunday package. This is four in total, and the primetime packages will come with premium assets.

Custom broadcast graphics for pregames, drive starters and touchdowns will be included along with separate score bugs. There will be package-specific wipes for players and teams. The devs have also added the famous National Football League presentation announcement prior to every game. The broadcast teams are assigned specifically for primetime games.

Primetime Games Broadcasting Team

• Thursday Night = Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis
• Sunday Night = Mike Tirico and Greg Olsen
• Monday Night = Kate Scott and Brock Huard

People have been asking for the highlights for twenty years and the redundancy is getting more and more eliminated from the series thanks to these broadcast updates. The different broadcast presentation options will be available in Exhibition mode to select along with the commentators. Franchise Mode will certainly benefit the most from these updates. The halftime in an Exhibition game will not feature videos from elsewhere. The drama of the National Football League looks to be making its appearance back into the Madden franchise. Madden NFL 26 will release for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on August 14 with a Nintendo Switch 2 version coming at a later date.