 "Football Night in America" was also used as the pre-game show for NBC-produced "Thursday Night Football" games in 2016 and 2017, though with a slightly varying format due to it being that week's first game, and "America" in the title substituted with the name of the host city/region of that night's game (A Vikings home game would have that edition of the pre-game titled "Football Night in Minnesota", for instance).For the program's inaugural season in 2006, Bob Costas served as the host, with Cris Collinsworth, Sterling Sharpe and Jerome Bettis as analysts, and "Sports Illustrated" columnist Peter King as the special "insider" reporter.On September 7, 2006, Jerome Bettis arrived on the exterior set in a school bus (a reference to his nickname as a player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, "The Bus"); that night, in addition to providing analysis, Bettis received his ring for winning Super Bowl XL.