title: Air Arabia

text: Fly Yeti (2007–2008). In 2007, Air Arabia opened a base in Nepal's capital Kathmandu to serve Asia and the Middle East, after signing a joint venture agreement with Yeti Airlines. It established a low-cost carrier, Fly Yeti that provided service to international destinations. Due to the uncertain political and economic situation prevailing in Nepal and lack of local government support, FlyYeti operations were suspended in 2008.


title: Air Arabia

text: Fly Jinnah (2021–present). In September 2021, Air Arabia announced a joint venture with Pakistani conglomerate Lakson Group to launch a low cost airline called Fly Jinnah. This will be a budget carrier serving domestic and international routes from Pakistan.


title: Air Arabia

text: As the pandemic hit airline services, Air Arabia reported a net loss of AED192 million ($56.2 million) in 2020. Also, the turnover for Q4 of 2020 was 53% below Q4 of 2019. The airline’s net profits in Q1 of 2021 fell by 52% to AED 33.844 million. Also, revenue generated in Q1 of 2021 was AED 572.145 after witnessing major drop from AED 901.374 million in Q1 of 2020.


title: Air Arabia

text: As of July 2021, Air Arabia serves up to 120 airports across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and Europe.


title: Air Arabia

text: Air Arabia has a livery with the aircraft body being painted in three different colors red, grey and white. The tail and each aircraft engine bear the company logo of Sharjah in the form of a bird.


title: Air Arabia

text: Celebrating 15 years of service in October 2018, a new livery was introduced and was applied to the fleet. The updated logo features a large red bird logo coming down from tail to rear fuselage with grey accents behind its wings and billboard style AirArabia title in English on the front of aircraft with small Arabic title placed next to it above the windows, bird logo also adorns the engines while title in applied on red winglets.


title: Air Arabia

text: Air Arabia is one of few airlines not to provide free water for passengers, both on domestic and international flights. If one intends to get water on board, it costs 3 AED (approximately 0.82 USD).


title: Rummikub

text: Rummikub () is a tile-based game for 2 to 4 players, combining elements of the card game rummy and mahjong. There are 106 tiles in the game, including 104 numbered tiles (valued 1 to 13 in four different colors, two copies of each) and two jokers. Players have 14 or 16 tiles initially and take turns putting down tiles from their racks into sets (groups or runs) of at least three, drawing a tile if they cannot play. In the Sabra version (the most common and popular), the first player to use all their tiles scores a positive score based on the total of the other players' hands, while the losers get negative scores. An important feature of the game is that players can work with the tiles that have already been played.


title: Rummikub

text: Rummikub was invented by Ephraim Hertzano, a Romanian-born Jew, who immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in the 1940s. He hand-made the first sets with his family in the backyard of his home. Hertzano sold these sets door-to-door and on a consignment basis at small shops. Over the years, the family licensed it to other countries and it became Israel's best-selling export game. In the 70’s it was brought to the United States by Irv and Arline Kossoff to sell in their New York’s Gift, Games, and Luggage store. Arline translated the rules from Hebrew to English and by 1977, it became a bestselling game in the United States. The game was marketed as "Rummikid" during part of the 1970s.


title: Rummikub

text: Hertzano's "Official Rummikub Book", published in 1978, describes three different versions of the game: "American", "Sabra," and "International". Modern Rummikub sets include only the Sabra version rules, with no mention of the others, and there are variations in the rules between publishers. The game was first made by Lemada Light Industries Ltd, founded by Hertzano in 1978.


title: Rummikub

text: Rummikub is similar to several central European card games which are played with two decks of playing cards, including Machiavelli and Vatikan. Vatikan is played with two decks of cards and one joker per player, thus making 106 cards for two players.


title: Rummikub

text: In Turkey, the game is known as Okey and is widely played by families at gatherings or at local cafes.


title: Rummikub

text: "Rummikub's" main component is a pool of tiles, consisting of 104 number tiles and two joker tiles. The number tiles range in value from one to thirteen in four colors (blue, red, orange, and black). Each combination of color and number is represented twice. Players each have a rack to store tiles without revealing the face of the tiles to the other player.


title: Rummikub

text: Tiles are shuffled together and either placed into a bag or spread out face down across the table. Each player draws and reveals one tile. The player whose tile has the highest number value will start the game. Tiles are returned to the pool, and players collect 14 random tiles and arrange them on their racks. Play begins with the starting player and proceeds in a clockwise (for modern variants) direction.


title: Rummikub

text: For the first player’s move, they must play a set (or sets in some versions) with a value of at least 30 points. Point values are taken from the face value of each tile played, with the joker (if played) assuming the value of the tile it is being used in place of. A player may not use other players' tiles to make the "initial meld". If a player cannot make an initial meld, they must pick up a single tile from the pool and add it to their rack. Play then proceeds to the next player.


title: Rummikub

text: Once a player has made their initial meld, they can, on a separate turn, play one or more tiles from their rack, making or adding to groups and/or runs. If the player cannot (or chooses not to) play any tiles, they must pick a tile randomly from the pool and add it to their rack.


title: Rummikub

text: Players may not make their initial meld and along with that play on groups and runs during the same turn. You can play on runs and groups after the turn of making the initial meld.


title: Rummikub

text: Players may play tiles by amending sets already in play. The only limit to the length of a run is the extremes of the tile values. Groups are limited to four because colors may not repeat within a group.


title: Rummikub

text: All tiles in play must be arranged in sets of at least three tiles. The two valid set types are called runs and groups.


title: Rummikub

text: A "run" is composed of three or more, same-colored tiles, in consecutive number order. (A 1 may not follow a 13.)


title: Rummikub

text: A "group" is made from three or four same-value tiles in distinct colors. For example: red 3, blue 3, black 3 and orange 3.


title: Rummikub

text: During a player's turn, sets of tiles that have already been played may be manipulated to allow more tiles to be played. At the end of the turn, all played tiles must be in valid sets.


title: Rummikub

text: Once a winner has been declared, the losing players must add up the values of the tiles remaining in their racks ("their score for the game"). The joker has a penalty value of 30. A player's score for the game is "subtracted" from their current cumulative score. Once calculated, each of the losing players' scores for the game is "added" to the winners current cumulative score.


title: Rummikub

text: For example- suppose in a game player A wins, player B has a score of 5, player C has a score of 10 and player D a score of 3. Player A will now have a cumulative score of 18, player B will be −5, player C will be −10 and player D will be −3.


title: Rummikub

text: Should the game result in no winner, the player with the lowest number of tiles in their rack is the winner. Scoring is then carried out in the normal manner.


title: Rummikub

text: If one person never had the required points to make a meld and the game is over, their points are added to the score of each of the other players. The person with the fewest points is the winner.


title: Rummikub

text: Game play continues until a player has used all of the tiles in the rack, at which point they should call out "Rummikub," and are declared the winner. If the pool runs out of tiles, play continues until there is a winner or no player can make a valid play.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Alastair John Campbell (born 25 May 1957) is a British journalist, author, strategist, broadcaster and activist known for his roles during Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party. Campbell worked as Blair's spokesman and campaign director (1994–1997), then as Downing Street Press Secretary, and as the Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson (1997–2000). He then became Downing Street director of communications and spokesman for the Labour Party (2000–2003). He returned as campaign director for the 2005 United Kingdom general election in Blair's third win.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell is the editor at large of "The New European" and chief interviewer for "GQ". He continues to act as a consultant strategist and as an ambassador for Time to Change and other mental health charities. He was an adviser to the People's Vote campaign, demanding a public vote on the final Brexit deal. Since his work for Blair, Campbell has continued to act as a freelance advisor to a number of governments and political parties, including the Prime Minister of Albania. He published his sixteenth book in 2020. In March 2022, he launched the Rest is Politics podcast with Rory Stewart, which has been since its launch the top politics podcast in the UK in the Apple rankings, and often the leading podcast in the UK.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell was born on 25 May 1957 in Keighley, West Riding of Yorkshire, son of Scottish veterinary surgeon Donald Campbell and his wife Elizabeth. Campbell's parents had moved to Keighley when his father became a partner in a local veterinary practice. Donald was a Gaelic-speaker from the island of Tiree; his wife was from Ayrshire. Campbell grew up with two older brothers, Donald and Graeme, and a younger sister, Elizabeth.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: He attended Bradford Grammar School for a short period of time, followed by City of Leicester Boys' Grammar School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he studied modern languages, French and German, for which he received an upper second (2:1). Campbell is an emeritus professor in media at Cambridge University.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In the late 1970s, Campbell spent time teaching in a secondary school in Nice as part of his academic degree course. While hitchhiking back to the city from Aix-en-Provence, he learned of the Belgian singer Jacques Brel's death and shared stories with the Belgian lorry driver who had picked him up, leading to a lifelong interest in Brel's music.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: After leaving university Campbell spent some months busking, as well as training as a roulette dealer at the Golden Nugget Casino on Shaftesbury Avenue, before being accepted as a trainee reporter with the Mirror Group Newspapers.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: His first published work was "Inter-City Ditties", his winning entry to a readers' competition in "Forum", the journalistic counterpart to "Penthouse" magazine. This led to a lengthy stint writing pieces for the magazine with such titles as "Busking with Bagpipes" and "The Riviera Gigolo", written in a style calculated to lead readers at the time to believe they were descriptions of his own sexual exploits.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: As part of the Mirror Group training scheme Campbell spent a year at a local weekly paper and he quickly became the sports editor at the "Tavistock Times", writing a column called 'Campbell's Corner'. It was while he was at the "Tavistock Times" he met his partner Fiona Millar, with whom he has three children; two sons (born November 1987 and July 1989) and a daughter, comedian Grace Campbell (born May 1994). However, his first significant contribution to the news pages was coverage of the Penlee lifeboat disaster in December 1981, while a trainee on the Plymouth-based "Sunday Independent", then owned by Mirror Group Newspapers.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In 1982 Campbell moved to the London office of the "Daily Mirror", Fleet Street's sole remaining big-circulation supporter of the Labour Party. He became a political correspondent, then in 1986 moving to "Today", a full-colour tabloid newspaper which was at the time trying to turn leftward, where he worked as a news editor. His rapid rise and its accompanying stress led to alcohol abuse.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: While accompanying Neil Kinnock's tour of Scotland in 1986, he began to display increasingly erratic behaviour, including dumping his hire car in the Rosyth Dockyard. He continued on that day, following Kinnock to Perth, Scotland and finally Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, where he had a nervous breakdown and was arrested by two Special Branch detectives. Police contacted his partner and following her calls to friends in Scotland the police let a family friend take Campbell to Ross Hall Hospital, a private BMI hospital in Glasgow where she and her father visited him. Over the next five days as an in-patient he was given medication to calm him, and he realised that he had an alcohol problem after seeing a psychiatrist. Campbell said that from that day onwards he counted each day that he did not drink alcohol, and did not stop counting until he had reached thousands.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell returned to England, preferring to stay with friends near Cheltenham rather than return to London (and his partner) where he did not feel safe. His condition continued with a phase of depression, and he was reluctant to seek further medical help. He eventually cooperated with treatment from his family doctor.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell's first son was born in 1987. He returned to the "Daily Mirror", where he eventually became political editor.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: He was a close adviser to Neil Kinnock, going on holiday with the Kinnocks, and worked closely with "Mirror" publisher Robert Maxwell. Shortly after Maxwell drowned in November 1991, Campbell punched "The Guardian" journalist Michael White after White joked about "Captain Bob, Bob, Bob...bobbing" in the Atlantic Ocean, referring to where the tycoon's body had been recovered. Campbell later put this down to stress over uncertainty as to whether he and his colleagues would lose their jobs.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: After leaving the "Mirror" in 1993, Campbell became political editor of "Today". He was working there when Labour leader John Smith died in 1994. Campbell was a well-known face and helped to interview the three candidates for Labour Party leader; it later became known he had already formed links with Tony Blair.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Shortly after Tony Blair was elected as Leader of the Labour Party in 1994, Campbell left "Today" to become Blair's press secretary. Having recovered and become teetotaler, he told Blair about his alcoholism, which Blair did not see as a problem. In his autobiography, Blair would later reveal that Campbell had coined the name "New Labour" and described Campbell as a "genius". Campbell wrote the speech that led to the party's review of Clause IV and the birth of "New Labour". In addition to being press spokesman, Campbell was Blair's speechwriter and chief strategist. He oversaw new co-ordination and rebuttal systems which gave birth to a communications machine which became both feared and respected, and the model for modern communications in politics and business. He earned a reputation for ruthless news management which made him many enemies in the media. But even the Conservatives conceded they were partly defeated by their inability to find someone to match him. Campbell played an important role in the run-up to the 1997 UK general election, working with Peter Mandelson to co-ordinate Labour's successful election campaign. He also worked hard to win support from the national media for the Labour Party, particularly from newspapers that for many years had been anti-Labour. By March 1997, many of the leading newspapers—including "The Sun", once a staunch Thatcherite paper; had declared their support for Labour.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell moved into government when Labour won the general election in May 1997 and served as the Prime Minister's chief press secretary until 2000. In government, he implemented many radical changes to both procedure and operational management. He persuaded Cabinet Secretary Sir Robin Butler that government communications had to be modernised, and the government set up the Mountfield Review. He created a Strategic Communications Unit which gave Downing Street the power to co-ordinate all government activity, using what became known as "the grid" as its main apparatus. He set up a rapid rebuttal unit similar to the one he had used in opposition. He put Downing Street briefings on record for the first time, and although he was only identified as "The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman", he became one of the most high-profile and written about figures in British politics, earning the epithet "the real deputy Prime Minister". He opened briefings to the foreign media, among a raft of modernisation and efficiency strategies he introduced. In 2001, Campbell claimed that the days of the bog standard comprehensive school were over due to educational policies of the Labour government.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: BBC documentary maker Michael Cockerell produced a full-length documentary about Campbell's media operation, "News From Number Ten", which Cockerell said attracted more coverage than any of the other films he made. Campbell attacked the news media for their obsession with him, and eventually began to pull back from frontline work and delegated direct briefing of the media to others, but, if anything, his profile continued to grow. He then moved to the post of Prime Minister's Director of Communications which gave him a strategic role in overseeing government communications.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: He was sponsored by US President George W. Bush to complete the London Marathon in aid of leukaemia research charity Bloodwise.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell was part of Tony Blair's core team that conducted the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, and he has been honoured by several Irish universities for his role in the peace process. He became a close friend of, among others, Martin McGuinness, and attended his funeral in 2017. It emerged McGuinness was helping Campbell with a novel which had an IRA active service unit as part of the plot.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: He was seconded to overhaul the communications of NATO during the Kosovo crisis, when US President Bill Clinton feared NATO was losing the propaganda war against the Slobodan Milošević regime. The general in charge of the military operation, Wesley Clark, credited Campbell with bringing order and discipline to NATO communications, and freeing the military to do its job.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell became a central figure in the handling of the aftermath of Princess Diana's death after the head of the royal household, the Earl of Airlie, asked Tony Blair to second Campbell to help prepare the funeral, saying they knew it would have to be different. Campbell is widely reported to have coined the phrase "the people's princess" and to have persuaded the queen to make her broadcast to the nation more personal, not least by using the phrase "speaking as a grandmother". Campbell's character appears in the 2006 film "The Queen", but he has said most of it was fictional.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: He oversaw Blair's successful 2001 UK general election campaign for re-election and also returned to assist with the successful 2005 UK general election campaign.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In the run-up to the Iraq War, Campbell was involved in the preparation and release of the "September Dossier" in September 2002 and the "Iraq Dossier" (nicknamed "Dodgy Dossier") in February 2003. These documents argued the case for concern over possible weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq. Both have been criticised as overstating or distorting the actual intelligence findings. Subsequent investigation revealed that the September Dossier had been altered on Campbell's orders to be consistent with a speech given by George W. Bush and statements by other United States officials. On 9 September 2002, Campbell sent a memo to Sir John Scarlett, the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, in which Campbell directed that the British dossier be "one that complements rather than conflicts with" the US claims.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Later in 2003, commenting on WMDs in Iraq, Campbell said, "Come on, you don't seriously think we won't find anything?". He resigned in August 2003 during the Hutton Inquiry into the death of David Kelly. Kelly's view that the government exaggerated the Iraqi threat in the Iraq Dossier, told to BBC journalists Andrew Gilligan and Susan Watts, had led to Campbell battling with the BBC. When Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon revealed to Campbell that Kelly had talked to the BBC, Campbell had then decided, in his own words, to use this fact to "fuck Gilligan". The counsel for the Kelly family said to Lord Hutton: 'The family invite the inquiry to find that the government made a deliberate decision to use Dr Kelly as a pawn as part of its strategy in its battle with the BBC.' Campbell claimed in June 2013 that Tony Blair had "greater commitment to wartime truth than Winston Churchill".


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell worked again for the Labour Party as Campaign Director in the run-up to their third consecutive victory at the 2005 general election. Campbell also acted as an adviser to Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband at the 2010 and the 2015 general elections. Sir Clive Woodward recruited Campbell to manage relations with the press for the British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand in 2005. Campbell wrote a column for "The Times" during the tour.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Throughout his time in Downing Street, Campbell kept a diary which reportedly totalled some 2 million words. Selected extracts, titled "The Blair Years", were published on 9 July 2007. Subsequent press coverage of the book's release included coverage of what Campbell had chosen to leave out, particularly in respect of the relationship between Blair and his chancellor and successor Gordon Brown. Campbell expressed an intention to one day publish the diaries in fuller form, and indicated in the introduction to the book that he did not wish to make matters harder for Brown in his new role as Prime Minister, or to damage the Labour Party.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In 2003 and 2004, he ran a series for "The Times" newspapers, analysing greatness in sport to answer the question "Who is the greatest sports star of all time?" Although his conclusion was Muhammad Ali, as part of the process; he interviewed and profiled sports stars from around the world, including Ian Botham, Nick Faldo, Ben Ainslie, Michael Phelps, Martina Navratilova, Shane Warne, Alex Ferguson, Bobby Charlton and Lance Armstrong. Campbell later said that he "fell hook, line and sinker" for the Armstrong legend. He subsequently worked with Armstrong, campaigning for cancer charities, but drew criticism from Armstrong's nemesis David Walsh for being so supportive and defending him so passionately. Campbell later said that Walsh had been right.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In 2006 and 2007, Campbell took part in Soccer Aid as part of the Rest of the World team. He appeared with Diego Maradona and Paul Gascoigne to raise money for UNICEF.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In 2007, he appeared on "Comic Relief Does the Apprentice" as project manager, having several clashes with Piers Morgan including his comment of "again?" when Morgan got fired, which went viral.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell has his own website and blog, as well as several pages on social networking websites. He uses these platforms to discuss British politics and other topics close to his heart. So far, Campbell's commentaries and views have garnered media attention and generated interest among various online communities. In October 2008, he broadcast the personal story of his mental illness in a television documentary partly to reduce the stigma of that illness. He has written a novel on the subject entitled "All in the Mind".


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell appeared as a mentor in the BBC Two series "The Speaker" in April 2009 offering his advice on persuasive speaking.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell famously clashed with Adam Boulton on Sky News about the result of the 2010 general election, with the latter being reduced to shouting over both Campbell and the show's presenter.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell made his first appearance on the BBC One political discussion programme "Question Time" on 27 May 2010. At the opening of the edition, presenter David Dimbleby said that the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition would not allow a frontbench member of the government to appear on the show unless Campbell was dropped. The BBC refused to do this. The government later accused the BBC of behaving improperly for allowing Campbell to appear as a more in-depth version of his diaries was due to be published the following week, and a Downing Street spokesman told "The Guardian", "Campbell seemed to be on because he's flogging a book next week, so the BBC haven't behaved entirely properly here." Campbell said that he had waited until Labour were in opposition before appearing on the show and that the date was a coincidence as it was the only time he was free. He suggested the discord was part of a Conservative anti-BBC agenda. The minister who had been scheduled to appear was the then-Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws who Campbell produced a picture of during the programme. Three days later, Laws resigned his post following revelations about possible irregularities in his expenses claims in "The Telegraph" the day before.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell appeared on BBC's "Top Gear" in July 2010 where he was booed by the audience but set a time of 1:47 around the "Top Gear" test track in the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In 2011, Campbell contacted the Metropolitan Police with suspicions that his phone was hacked by the "News of the World" in 2003. He received damages, part of which he used to sponsor the Burnley FC women's team.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell presented and narrated the edition of 20 February 2012 of BBC current affairs programme "Panorama", which was entitled "Britain's Hidden Alcoholics".


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In 2012, Campbell made his first appearance in an acting role with a small part in an episode of the BBC drama "Accused".


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In May 2012, Campbell took a role at PR agency Portland Communications, at the invitation of Tim Allan, a former adviser to Tony Blair. Along with Tony Blair, Campbell has also provided consultancy services to the government of Kazakhstan on "questions of social economic modernisation."


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In January 2014, Campbell announced that he was joining "British GQ" with a brief to conduct interviews with figures from "politics... sport, business, culture, (and) other aspects of life that I find interesting", succeeding Piers Morgan. In his role at "GQ" Campbell has interviewed a wide range of people, including Jose Mourinho, Raheem Sterling, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mario Balotelli, Mo Farah and Usain Bolt from the world of sport and Tony Blair, Sadiq Khan, Nicola Sturgeon, George Osborne, John McDonnell, John Bercow, and Chuka Umunna from the world of politics, as well as conducting in depth interviews with many other figures from public life, including Archbishop Justin Welby, Garry Kasparov and Rachel Riley. In 2017, he conducted an interview with Prince William. In March 2017, "GQ" began to film the interviews to use as part of their digital platform, beginning with an interview with Owen Jones, and then Tony Blair. When Jeremy Corbyn was interviewed for the magazine in late 2017, he did so on the condition that Campbell would not be the interviewer.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In May 2016, the "International Business Times" announced that Campbell had joined it as a columnist.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In March 2017, the newspaper "The New European" announced that it had appointed Campbell as editor-at-large.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In May 2019, he announced that he and his daughter Grace, a comedian and feminist, had launched a joint podcast, "Football, Feminism and Everything In Between"; a series of interviews with figures from politics, sport and other walks of life. Their first interview with Ed Miliband was followed by Rachel Riley, Jamie Carragher, Kelly Holmes and Maro Itoje.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: When Government Adviser Dominic Cummings broke government guidelines to visit Durham, England, Campbell urged his social media followers to write to all Tory MPs asking for their view, and published a 50,000 word analysis of what he called 'Organised Hypocrisy' on his website based on the responses he collated.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell was a guest presenter of "Good Morning Britain" from 10 to 12 May 2021, where he presented with Susanna Reid.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: January 2022 began a series of interviews for Men's Health called "Talking Heads", with a focus on mindset and well-being. Starting with England rugby player Maro Itoje and former athlete turned sports politician Sebastian Coe.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In March 2022 he launched a new podcast, "The Rest Is Politics", discussing politics home and abroad with former Tory cabinet minister Rory Stewart. It became an instant hit, rising by week 2 to the top of the Apple UK podcast charts, and leading to calls that he and Stewart form a new centre ground party.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: He launched a regular series of 'Instagram live' broadcasts, in which he vented his criticisms of Boris Johnson. He was an outspoken critic of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the Tory government's tolerance of oligarchs close to Putin in contrast with their 'cruel and shabby' treatment of Ukrainian refugees, who faced enormous red tape before being considered for exile. He wrote extensively on his meetings with the Russian president alongside Tony Blair.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell stated immediately after the UK's referendum on membership to the European Union in June 2016 that he thought it was "the worst decision Britain had made in his lifetime" and would do what he could to change people's minds. In addition to establishing "The New European", he was one of the early movers in the People's Vote campaign for a referendum on the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In 2018 Campbell became part of the top table team at the People's Vote campaign fighting for a referendum on the Brexit deal. This included overseeing the production of campaign films including one written by and starring his daughter Grace, called The Brexit Special, for which Campbell persuaded actor Richard Wilson to revive his most famous character, Victor Meldrew.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In 2018 Campbell worked for the People's Vote campaign's planning and organisation of a march on Parliament on 20 October, which drew an estimated 250,000 people onto the streets. The march was described by the media as the second biggest ever, after the protest against the Iraq war in 2003.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: He helped organize and spoke at a second march and rally attended by an estimated million people in October 2019, on the day Boris Johnson called a rare Saturday sitting in Parliament to back his Brexit deal.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In July 2017, he was invited to speak at the French National Assembly to the newly elected MPs of President Emmanuel Macron's victorious En Marche party, Campbell having met and advised Macron during the campaign. He urged the French to be patient with the United Kingdom and to give them a chance to change course and reverse Brexit. He said Macron had been bolder than Tony Blair in setting up a new party and leading it to power within little over a year.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell wrote a piece criticising the chairman of Open Britain, Roland Rudd, after Rudd unilaterally decided to sack two key campaign officials on the eve of the 2019 UK general election.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell's experience with depression was recalled in a BBC documentary titled "Cracking Up". He has since then been a prominent supporter and advocate for the mental health anti-stigma campaign Time to Change. In November 2017, he was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in recognition of his work in breaking down the stigma surrounding mental illness and promoting the importance of psychiatry.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell took part in the Mental Health Foundation's takeover of Channel Four for Mental Health Awareness Week 2017, acting as a celebrity continuity announcer. For the Mental Health Awareness Week two years later he broadcast the documentary "Alastair Campbell: Depression and Me", exploring different ways of dealing and coping with depression. It was part of a BBC series drawing attention to different mental health conditions.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In 2019, he was appointed global ambassador to Australians for Mental Health, a new umbrella organisation fighting for better services. He made numerous media appearances and caused controversy by saying on the Australian version of "Question Time", that Donald Trump and fellow populists were "sowing the seeds of fascism".


title: Alastair Campbell

text: On 28 May 2019, Campbell announced that he had been expelled from the Labour Party after voting for the Liberal Democrats in that month's European elections, and that he would appeal against the decision. He also questioned the speed of his expulsion compared to the treatment of Labour colleagues accused of anti-semitism. In response, shadow minister Dawn Butler stated that it was common knowledge that voting for another party would result in automatic exclusion.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: He was a long-standing critic of Labour's Brexit strategy and in the May 2019 European elections, he voted Liberal Democrat as a protest vote. He announced this after the polls had closed in interviews on TV and radio covering the results as they came in. He said he did so, in common with many others, to persuade Labour unequivocally to back a People's Vote. Two days later, by email, he was expelled from the Party, a move which provoked a major media storm in which many other Labour members outed themselves as having voted for parties other than Labour, including Cherie Blair, Charles Clarke, Bob Ainsworth and Betty Boothroyd. A hashtag #ExpelMeToo trended on Twitter as ordinary members expressed their support for Campbell. He immediately appealed the decision, saying tactical voting was not a breach of the rule under which he had been expelled, and arguing that unless all others who had acted as he did were expelled he also had a case for discrimination. Labour deputy leader Tom Watson condemned the expulsion as "spiteful" and a number of senior MPs immediately called for the decision to be reversed, and an amnesty of all who voted against Labour in the European elections.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In July 2019, in the week Boris Johnson became prime minister, Campbell penned a 3,500-word open letter to Jeremy Corbyn saying he no longer wished to be re-admitted to the party despite legal advice saying he would win a court case against his expulsion. He called on Corbyn to step down and cited his "failure" on Brexit, antisemitism, broader policy and "above all the failure to develop and execute a strategy". The story was broken in "The Guardian" and the full letter published in "The New European". Corbyn said he was "disappointed", prompting Campbell to ask why he had been expelled.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell voted Labour in the 2019 general election, having been part of a failed tactical voting campaign aimed at preventing Johnson from winning a majority.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In March 2022, Campbell launched "The Rest is Politics" podcast with Rory Stewart, a former Conservative Member of Parliament and candidate in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election. The pair discuss current news stories and reminisce about their old jobs.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell has described himself as a pro-faith atheist, and his statement "we don't do God" is one of his more repeated soundbites. However, he was asked in late 2017 by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, whom Campbell had interviewed for "GQ", to contribute to his book on the meaning of Christmas.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In August 2016 Campbell's older brother, Donald, who had schizophrenia, died at the age of 62 due to complications resulting from his illness. Campbell has talked extensively about how Donald, the Principal's official bagpiper at Glasgow University and a competitor in high-level Piobaireachd competitions, had inspired him to fight for better mental health services and understanding, and to become the ambassador for several mental health charities.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: When Campbell was a boy, he would cross the county boundary to Lancashire to watch Burnley F.C. with his father. He remains a lifelong Burnley supporter and writes about their exploits in a column titled "Turf Moor Diaries" for the FanHouse UK football blog. He is regularly involved in events with the club. He was heavily involved in rescuing the club from potential bankruptcy, gaining the support of many high-profile public figures. He was one of the founders of the University College of Football Business, based at Burnley's stadium. He is also a fan of the Rugby League club Keighley Cougars, it having been a childhood dream to play for the team.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In his spare time Campbell plays the bagpipes to relieve stress. In December 2017, a musical project he was involved in won the Community Award at the Na Trads traditional Scottish music awards. He had played the bagpipes at a concert in Glasgow earlier in the year, staged entirely by musicians with links to Tiree. The Tiree Community Songbook was made into a CD, which won a Community award at the Traditional Music awards.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: He is a keen runner, cyclist, swimmer and triathlete. He raised over half a million pounds for charity running the London Marathon in 2003. In his 60s, he developed an interest in cold water swimming.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, he performed on the bagpipes in a charity song written by Martin Gillespie of Scottish band Skerryvore, Everyday Heroes, which topped the iTunes download charts within hours of release. All proceeds from sales went to the National Health Service Charities COVID-19 Urgent Appeal. Earlier, a film of Campbell serenading his next door neighbour, nurse Matilda Bridge as she comes home from work, had millions of views and garnered media coverage around the world. It started a trend of pipers playing around the country during weekly 'clap for the NHS' events.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: He entered into a civil partnership with British journalist Fiona Millar, on 30 March 2021, after being together for 42 years. The couple have two sons and a daughter.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: A regular feature of comedy programme "Bremner, Bird and Fortune" was a satirical version of Campbell's discussions with Tony Blair, in which Rory Bremner played Blair and Andrew Dunn played Campbell. In 2005, Campbell was played by Jonathan Cake in the Channel 4 television film "The Government Inspector", based on the David Kelly Case. The following year, he was portrayed by Mark Bazeley in the Stephen Frears film "The Queen" – a role reprised by Bazeley in 2010 follow-up "The Special Relationship", also written by Peter Morgan but this time directed by Richard Loncraine. Alex Jennings, who portrayed Prince Charles in "The Queen", portrayed Campbell in the television drama "A Very Social Secretary". In an episode of "Dead Ringers" his close relationship with Tony Blair is satirised in an imaginary scenario where Blair is divorcing his wife. He is asked if it will be difficult to sack the person he most loves and cherishes replying "I'm not sacking Alastair Campbell".


title: Alastair Campbell

text: It is also widely believed that the character of Malcolm Tucker from the BBC political satire comedy "The Thick of It" is loosely based on Campbell. Tucker is famous for his short fuse and use of very strong language. In an interview with Mark Kermode on BBC2's "The Culture Show", Campbell denied that the two are similar in any relevant way, but admitted to his liberal use of profanities in the workplace. The interview descended into argument with Campbell accusing the likes of Mark Kermode and the show's creator Armando Iannucci of being responsible for people's cynicism with modern politics.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In November 2021 Campbell was featured in the BBC series "Winter Walks", walking in the Yorkshire Dales along Ribblesdale, from a waterfall above the market town of Settle, to Catrigg Force near Stainforth, to the North.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: In May 2022 it was announced that Campbell would appear in the Channel 4 political entertainment series "Make Me Prime Minister", due to broadcast at the end of September 2022.


title: Alastair Campbell

text: Campbell has published a number of books including eight volumes of memoirs. In February 2018, he wrote, with Paul Fletcher, a novel on football and terrorism in the 1970s, "Saturday Bloody Saturday". The book has a front cover quote from commentator John Motson describing it as "the best football novel I have ever read".


title: Mott the Hoople

text: Mott the Hoople were an English rock band formed in Herefordshire. Originally known as the Doc Thomas Group, the group changed their name after signing with Island Records in 1969. The band released albums throughout the early 1970s but failed to find commercial success. On the verge of breaking up, the band were encouraged by David Bowie to stay together. Bowie wrote the glam rock song "All the Young Dudes" for them, which became a huge commercial success in 1972. Bowie subsequently produced an album of the same name for them, which continued their success.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: Despite personnel changes, the band had further commercial success with "Mott" (1973) and "The Hoople" (1974). Lead singer Ian Hunter departed the band in 1974, after which the band's commercial fortunes began to dwindle. They remained together with continuing personnel changes until their break-up in 1980. The band have had reunions in 2009, 2013, 2018 and 2019.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: The Doc Thomas Group were formed in 1966 with Mick Ralphs on guitar, Stan Tippins on vocals, and Pete Overend Watts on bass. Ralphs and Tippins had been in a local Hereford band the Buddies, and Watts had been in a local Ross-on-Wye band the Soulents with Dale "Buffin" Griffin on drums. The Doc Thomas Group had a concert residency at a nightclub in a resort town in Italy. The group was offered a recording contract with the Italian label Dischi Interrecord, and released an eponymous album in January 1967. By 1968, Griffin and organist Verden Allen had joined the band.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: Although the group toured and recorded in Italy as the Doc Thomas Group, their gigs in the UK were played under the names of the Shakedown Sound and later, as Silence. Silence recorded demos at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales, which were shopped to EMI, Polydor, Immediate and Apple with no success.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: The group came to the attention of Guy Stevens at Island, who liked the group but not with Tippins as lead singer. Advertisements were placed ("Singer wanted, must be image-minded and hungry"), and Ian Hunter was selected as lead singer and piano player. Tippins assumed the role of road manager.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: While in prison on a drug offence, Stevens read the Willard Manus novel "Mott the Hoople", about an eccentric who works in a circus freak show, and decided to use it as a band name. Silence reluctantly agreed to change the band's name to Mott The Hoople following their audition for Stevens in early 1969.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: The band's debut album, "Mott the Hoople" (1969), recorded in only a week, was a cult success. Their repertoire included cover versions of "Laugh at Me" (Sonny Bono) and "At the Crossroads" (Doug Sahm's Sir Douglas Quintet), and an instrumental cover of "You Really Got Me" (The Kinks).


title: Mott the Hoople

text: The second album, "Mad Shadows" (1970), sold poorly and received generally negative reviews. "Wildlife" (1971) fared even worse (despite gaining the highest UK album chart position of the band's pre-Glam years), and flirted with an overtly country-hippie stance and more acoustic instrumentation on some Ralphs-penned songs . On 10 October 1970, Mott the Hoople, the Senator, aka. the Walrus, and Bridget St John were showcased on BBC2's "Disco 2". Even though the group was building a decent following, "Brain Capers" (1971) failed to sell well. The group decided to split following a depressing concert in a disused gas holder in Switzerland. When combined with an aborted UK tour with The Lothringers, the band was close to breaking up.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: David Bowie had long been a fan of the band. After learning from Watts that they were about to split, he persuaded them to stay together and offered them "Suffragette City" from his then yet-to-be-released "Ziggy Stardust" album. They turned it down. Bowie also penned "All the Young Dudes" for them and it became their biggest hit. Released as a single in July 1972, it was a success in the UK, with the band using Tippins – who by this time was their tour manager – to sing backing vocals during concert. Bowie produced an album, also called "All the Young Dudes", which included a Mick Ronson strings and brass arrangement for "Sea Diver". It sold well, but stalled at No. 21 in the UK Albums Chart. Another casualty in the wake of "All the Young Dudes" was Verden Allen, who departed before the release of their next album, "Mott".


title: Mott the Hoople

text: "Mott" climbed into the Top 10 of the UK Albums Chart, and became the band's best seller to date in the US. It yielded two UK hits, "Honaloochie Boogie" and "All the Way from Memphis", both featuring Andy Mackay of Roxy Music on saxophone. "All the Way from Memphis" is also featured in the movie "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore".


title: Mott the Hoople

text: In May 1973, following Verden Allen's departure, the band was augmented by two keyboard players. Former Love Affair and Morgan member Morgan Fisher joined as keyboardist and Mick Bolton joined on Hammond Organ. Bolton left at the end of 1973 and was replaced on tour by Blue Weaver, while Fisher stayed on to become Allen's official replacement in the band. Ralphs left in August 1973 to form Bad Company and was replaced by former Spooky Tooth guitarist Luther Grosvenor. For contractual reasons, he changed his name to Ariel Bender at the suggestion of singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul for his stint with the band. According to Ian Hunter, interviewed in the documentary "Ballad of Mott the Hoople", the band were in Germany with de Paul for a TV show when Mick Ralphs walked down a street bending a succession of car aerials in frustration. De Paul came out with the phrase "aerial bender" which Hunter later suggested to Grosvenor as a stage name.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: In 1974, the band had a chart success in the UK with "Roll Away the Stone" recorded before Mick Ralphs left the band. Ralphs played lead guitar and the Thunderthighs provided female vocal backing and a bridge. It reached No.8 on the UK Singles Chart.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: In 1974, Mott the Hoople toured America with Ariel Bender playing lead guitar. In one of Bender's earliest performances with the band they played the Masonic Temple in Detroit on 12 October 1973 with a young Aerosmith opening the show. They were primarily supported on the '74 tour by the band Queen. This tour later provided the inspiration for Queen's 1975 single "Now I'm Here", which contains the lyrics ""Down in the city, just Hoople and me."" The song became a live favourite of Queen fans and reached No. 11 in the UK Singles Chart. The tour resulted in a lifelong friendship between the two bands, with Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson and David Bowie performing "All the Young Dudes" at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992. Morgan Fisher went on to play piano on Queen's 'Hot Space' tour in 1982, and Brian May, Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor performed backing vocals on the Ian Hunter solo song, "You Nearly Did Me In". May would later cover Mott's "All the Way from Memphis" on his solo album, "Another World", with Hunter making a guest appearance. Mott the Hoople are name-checked on two other hit singles. Reunion's 1974 single "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)" begins with the lyrics 'B Bumble and the Stingers, Mott the Hoople, Ray Charles Singers...'.; and R.E.M.'s "Man on the Moon" begins with 'Mott the Hoople and the Game of Life, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...'


title: Mott the Hoople

text: In the afterglow of "The Hoople" (1974), a live album "Live" was quickly released, after which Mick Ronson replaced Bender. The end was near when both Hunter and Ronson left the group to form a duo, following which the band abbreviated its name to 'Mott'.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: Hunter's book "Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star" about the day-to-day life on the band's 1972 winter tour of the US, covering the ups and downs of life on the road, was published in June 1974. It was out of print for many years but was reissued in 1996.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: The new line-up consisted of Watts, Griffin, and Fisher along with lead guitarist Ray Majors (formerly of Opal Butterfly, Hackensack, and a brief stint with Andy Fraser and Frankie Miller) and front man Nigel Benjamin. This line-up released two more albums, "Drive On" (1975) and "Shouting and Pointing" (1976), both of which sold poorly. After Benjamin quit in 1976, Mott briefly replaced him with Steve Hyams, before joining forces with John Fiddler (formerly of Medicine Head), and became British Lions, recording two albums, "British Lions" (1977) and "Trouble With Women" (posthumously released on Cherry Red Records 1980) before finally splitting up without any chart success. Hunter and Ronson worked and toured together sporadically until Ronson's death in 1993. Hunter has continued his solo career.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: In 1990, after a brief reunion in 1989, the former members of The Silence reunited in the studio to record a mix of new songs and staples from their days performing together. The resultant album "Shotgun Eyes" was released in 1998, combined with "The Italian Job" (a re-release of the Doc Thomas Group's self-titled album).


title: Mott the Hoople

text: In 1996 K-tel released a CD called "The Best of Mott the Hoople" purporting to be re-recordings of the band's hits and new songs by Hunter and Ronson. In actuality, the recording was by Danny McCulloch, former bass player with Eric Burdon and the New Animals and Gerry Chapman, usually going under the band name of The Trybe. The album consisted of heavy rock versions of Mott's hits and original songs, and had nothing at all to do with the original Mott the Hoople. K-tel were subsequently fined for supplying goods with a false description, but the tracks and album continued to circulate under the name Mott the Hoople, often appearing on compilation albums. In 2002, the tracks were released again as "I Can't Believe It's Not Mott the Hoople!", though this time it was credited to The Trybe.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: On 16 and 17 April 1999, the first and only 'Mott the Hoople Convention' was held at the Robin Hood Pub in Bilston, Wolverhampton, England. Hunter and his band performed both evenings of the convention. During the encore of the Ian Hunter Band's performance of 17 April, Hunter was joined onstage by Bender and Allen for a version of "Walkin' With A Mountain"; Allen performed on the original studio version of the song, whilst Bender performed an extended solo during performances of the song on Mott the Hoople's 1973–74 tours.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: No Mott the Hoople reunion occurred prior to 2009, although negotiations for one were attempted in 1985; all parties have shown some interest at various times in the idea over the last 30 years. In 2005 it was reported in the publication "Classic Rock", that Hunter had received the offer of a seven-figure number to re-form the band. In October 2007 at Hunter's concert at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, he was joined by Ralphs and Allen for the encore.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: On 16 January 2009, it was announced that the band would be re-uniting for two concerts at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, in October 2009. According to Hunter's web site, all five of the original members would participate in the reunion. Hunter wrote, "Why are we doing it? I can't speak for the others, but I'm doing it just to see what it's like. Short of war, death, famine etc... it's ON." Tickets for the two original dates sold out, and a third date at the same venue was added for 3 October 2009. After that one sold out as well another two dates were added on 5 and 6 October. The special limited 3 CD-set recorded during the first show at Hammersmith Apollo was sold directly after the concerts.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: Mott the Hoople also held a warmup gig prior to their five-night stand at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo in October. The show was held at the Blake Theatre in Monmouth, Wales, on 26 September 2009. Prior to this it was announced that because of the poor health of Buffin, his place for the concerts would be taken by Martin Chambers, drummer of The Pretenders, though Griffin did appear at encores.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: The reunion was favourably reviewed by major British broadsheet newspapers, with "The Guardian", "The Times" and "The Independent" awarding 4/5 stars and "The Daily Telegraph" awarding 5/5.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: Mott the Hoople (featuring Allen, Hunter, Ralphs and Watts with Martin Chambers on drums) played the O2 Arena in London on 18 November 2013, preceded by dates in Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester (the latter of which was recorded for a limited edition CD/DVD). One critic described the concert at the O2 Arena as "a bit of a slog" and Hunter's voice as "now little more than a guttural rasp". A recording of 17 November 2013 show at the O2 Apollo Manchester was released in June 2014 as a double album/DVD, "Live 2013." Several years after the 2013 reunion, Mott the Hoople lost two of its founding members: Dale Griffin died on 17 January 2016 at the age of 67, and Overend Watts died on 22 January 2017 at the age of 69.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: In February 2018 it was announced that Mott the Hoople would be playing several European dates in the summer of 2018. Ian Hunter would be joined by former bandmates Morgan Fisher on keyboards and Ariel Bender on guitar. In a press release, Hunter said "[Fisher and Bender] toured extensively with Mott and both were featured heavily on "The Hoople" album after Mick Ralphs and Verden Allen left the band... I know many people were disappointed when neither appeared on the 2009 and 2013 get-togethers. Hope this makes up for it!" The line-up would also include James Mastro and Mark Bosch on guitars, Dennis DiBrizzi on keyboards, Paul Page on bass, and Steve Holley on drums. Holley – a member of Wings from 1978 to 1981 – has been a member of Hunter's "Rant Band" since 2001.


title: Mott the Hoople

text: In January 2019, the band announced the "Tax the Heat" tour, a brief six-show UK tour in April 2019, preceded by an eight-date tour of the US as "Mott the Hoople '74" (which began on 1 April and concluded on 10 April at the Beacon Theatre in New York City). This was the first time in 45 years that Mott The Hoople had toured the US. Indeed, the core '74 members Ian Hunter, Ariel Bender and Morgan Fisher celebrated the 45th anniversary of their 1974 US tour (hence the name of the bill), as well as the original release of "The Hoople" and "Live", the final albums of the classic Mott The Hoople era. The band includes Ian Hunter (vocals and guitar), Ariel Bender (guitar) and Morgan Fisher (keyboards) joined by James Mastro (guitar, saxophone, mandolin), Steve Holley (drums, backing vocals), Mark Bosch (guitar), Paul Page (bass) and Dennis Dibrizzi (keyboards, backing vocals).


title: Mott the Hoople

text: The band were due to tour the US in October and November 2019, performing 11 shows. The tour dates were cancelled due to Ian Hunter's tinnitus.


title: Al Michaels

text: Alan Richard Michaels (born November 12, 1944) is an American television sportscaster currently working as the play-by-play announcer for "Thursday Night Football" on Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on network sports television since 1971, with his most recent work being with NBC Sports after nearly three decades (1976–2006) with ABC Sports. Michaels is known for his many years calling play-by-play of National Football League games, including "ABC Monday Night Football" from 1986 to 2005 and "NBC Sunday Night Football" from 2006 to 2021. He is also known for famous calls in other sports, including the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Winter Olympics and the earthquake-interrupted Game 3 of the 1989 World Series.


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, to Jay Leonard Michaels and Lila Roginsky/Ross. He grew up as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. In 1958, Michaels' family moved to Los Angeles, the same year the Dodgers left Brooklyn. He graduated from Alexander Hamilton High School in 1962. Michaels attended Arizona State University, where he majored in radio and television and minored in journalism. He worked as a sports writer for ASU's independent student newspaper, "The State Press", and called Sun Devils football, basketball, and baseball games for the campus radio station. He also is a member of Sigma Nu fraternity.


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels's first job in television was with Chuck Barris Productions, choosing women to appear on "The Dating Game". His first sportscasting job came in 1967, when he was hired to do public relations for the Los Angeles Lakers and serve as a color commentator on the team's radio broadcasts alongside veteran play-by-play announcer Chick Hearn. However, he was terminated after appearing on just four games due to Chick Hearn’s displeasure on working with someone so young.


title: Al Michaels

text: He resumed his broadcasting career in 1968 after moving to Honolulu, where he worked as a sports anchor for KHVH-TV (now KITV) and called play-by-play for the Hawaii Islanders baseball team in the Pacific Coast League as well as the University of Hawaii's football and basketball teams and local high school football games. He was named Hawaii's ‘Sportscaster of the Year’ in 1969. In 1970, Michaels appeared as attorney Dave Bronstein in an episode of "Hawaii Five-O" called "Run, Johnny, Run" (Air date: January 14, 1970); the episode also featured a young Christopher Walken.


title: Al Michaels

text: In 1971, Michaels moved to Cincinnati, where he became the radio play-by-play announcer for the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball. In 1972, after the Reds won the National League Championship Series and advanced to the World Series, he helped to cover the Fall Classic for NBC Sports. He also was the network's play-by-play man for the hockey coverage at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan.


title: Al Michaels

text: In 1973, after NBC announcer Bill Enis died from a heart attack at the age of 39 two days before he was to call the regular-season NFL finale between the Houston Oilers and Cincinnati Bengals, Michaels was brought in to replace Enis in the booth with Dave Kocourek.


title: Al Michaels

text: In 1974, he left the Reds for a similar position with the San Francisco Giants and also covered basketball for UCLA, replacing Dick Enberg on the Bruins' tape delayed telecasts of their home games, during a period when UCLA was in the midst of an 88-game winning streak. He left NBC that year and announced regional NFL games for CBS Sports in 1975. In 1976 he joined ABC Sports part-time to call the network's backup "Monday Night Baseball" games. That year, he called two no-hitters: by the Pirates' John Candelaria vs. Los Angeles on August 9 (for ABC) and the Giants' John Montefusco at Atlanta on September 29, 1976 (for Giants radio).


title: Al Michaels

text: In January 1977, Michaels signed with ABC Sports on a full-time basis. In 1983, he became the network's lead baseball announcer, replacing Keith Jackson. Up until that point, Michaels and Jackson would split play–by–play duties for ABC's coverage of the World Series beginning in 1979, with Michaels assigned to call the games from the National League park and Jackson calling games from the American League park.


title: Al Michaels

text: Over the next three decades, Michaels covered a wide variety of sports for ABC, including Major League Baseball, college football (working alongside the likes of Frank Broyles, Lee Grosscup, and Ara Parseghian from 1977–1985 and later, his "Monday Night Football" colleagues Frank Gifford and Dan Dierdorf for the Sugar Bowl from 1989–1992), college basketball (normally teaming with Joe B. Hall from 1987–1989), the Indianapolis 500, ice hockey, track and field events, horse racing (including the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes from 1986 to 2000), golf, boxing (such as the 1985 Marvin Hagler/Thomas Hearns fight), figure skating (working alongside Dick Button and Peggy Fleming), road cycling (Michaels in particular, provided commentary for those events at the 1984 Summer Olympics with Greg LeMond and Eric Heiden), and many events of the Olympic Games as well as the Olympic trials.


title: Al Michaels

text: Other prominent events that Michaels covered for ABC included serving as the studio host for the Stanley Cup Finals from –. Also, he served as host for the yearly Tiger Woods Monday night specials that aired in July or August.


title: Al Michaels

text: Episodes of "Wide World of Sports" featuring Michaels early in his ABC career have been featured at least two occasions on the ESPN Classic comedy series "Cheap Seats".


title: Al Michaels

text: Two of Michaels's more famous broadcasts were of the 1980 Winter Olympics ice hockey medal round match between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the attempted third game of the 1989 World Series.


title: Al Michaels

text: In 1980, an unheralded group of college ice hockey players from the United States won the gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games. The medal round match on February 22—which, contrary to popular belief, did not yet assure the team of the gold medal—was of particular interest, as it was played against a heavily favored professional squad from the Soviet Union, and was in front of an incredibly excited pro-American crowd in Lake Placid, New York. Michaels's memorable broadcast of this game, including his interjection—""Do you believe in miracles? YES!""—as time expired on the 4–3 U.S. victory, earned the game the media nickname of "The Miracle on Ice".


title: Al Michaels

text: Most assume that the game was broadcast live (indeed, CTV, which held Canadian rights to the game, aired it live); but in reality, the game started at 5:05 pm Eastern Standard Time and ABC decided against pre-empting local and network news (on the East Coast) to carry the game live. Instead, most of it—including the entire third period—was broadcast within the regularly scheduled, prime-time telecast from 8:30 to 11 pm Eastern time (and on a six-and-a-half-hour delay on the West Coast from 8:30 to 11 pm Pacific Standard Time). Despite being on tape, the game was one of the highest-rated programs of the 1979–80 television season and remains the most-watched ice hockey game in the history of American television.


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels, along with broadcasting partner Ken Dryden, recreated their Olympic commentary in the 2004 movie "Miracle". Although Michaels and Dryden recreated the bulk of their commentary for the film, the closing seconds of the game against the Soviet Union used the original ABC Sports commentary from 1980. Gavin O'Connor, the director of "Miracle", decided to use the last 10 seconds of Michaels's original ""Do you believe in miracles? YES!"" call in the film because he felt he couldn't ask him to recreate the emotion he experienced at that moment. Thus they cleaned up the recording to make the transition to the authentic call as seamless as possible.


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels later recalled, "When I look back, obviously Lake Placid would be the highlight of my career. I can't think of anything that would ever top it. I can't dream up a scenario."


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels was only on this particular assignment because he had done one hockey game, eight years prior. The game in question was the gold medal game (the Soviet Union vs. Czechoslovakia) of the 1972 Winter Olympics (on NBC) in Sapporo, Japan. Other announcers on the ABC Sports roster such as Keith Jackson, Frank Gifford, and Howard Cosell had never done a hockey game before. Michaels recalled this during a "Real Sports" interview in January 2009. Michaels also apparently beat out WABC-AM and New York Islanders commentator George Michael for the assignment.


title: Al Michaels

text: Two days later, Michaels would broadcast the gold medal game, in which the U.S. defeated Finland, closing the game out by declaring "This impossible dream comes true!"


title: Al Michaels

text: Al Michaels continued serving as ABC's lead play-by-play announcer for their ice hockey coverage for their next two Winter Olympics, both with Dryden, the lead color commentator. In 1984 from Sarajevo, Mike Eruzione, who was the captain of the gold medal-winning United States ice hockey team from 1980, primarily worked with Don Chevrier. For ABC's final Winter Olympics four years later, Eruzione was this time, paired with Jiggs McDonald.


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels along with John Davidson would later call Games 1 and 4 of the Calgary–Los Angeles Stanley Cup playoff series in 1993 for ABC.


title: Al Michaels

text: Even though the events of October 17, 1989, in San Francisco are widely considered to be the most dramatic baseball-related moment of Michaels's career, he had several others that were memorable.


title: Al Michaels

text: In the 1972 National League Championship Series, the defending World Series Champion Pittsburgh Pirates faced the Cincinnati Reds. In Game 5, with both teams tied at two games apiece, the Pirates led 3–2 in the bottom of the ninth inning and were three outs away from advancing to the World Series. But Pirates closer Dave Giusti unraveled. He surrendered a game-tying home run to Johnny Bench before allowing back-to-back singles to Tony Pérez and Denis Menke before being relieved by Bob Moose, who almost worked out of the jam by recording two outs. But with pinch-hitter Hal McRae at the plate, Moose lost his footing and uncorked a wild pitch sending George Foster, who was pinch running for Pérez, home with the pennant-clinching run and setting off a massive celebration at Riverfront Stadium.


title: Al Michaels

text: As previously mentioned, later that October, Michaels participated in his first ever World Series as a broadcaster, where he assisted NBC's Curt Gowdy for Games 1–2, 6, and 7 in Cincinnati. Michaels was a product of the then broadcasting policy of announcers who represented the participating teams (a process that ended following the 1976 World Series) being invited to do televised network play–by–play for the World Series. As such, Games 3–5 of the 1972 World Series instead, featured Oakland Athletics broadcaster Monte Moore working for NBC alongside Curt Gowdy.


title: Al Michaels

text: On June 6, 1983, Michaels officially succeeded Keith Jackson as the lead play-by-play announcer for "Monday Night Baseball". Michaels, who spent seven seasons working backup games (initially teaming with Bob Gibson and Norm Cash), was apparently very miffed over ABC Sports' delay in announcing him as their top baseball announcer. Unlike Jackson, whose forte was college football, Michaels as previously mentioned, had gigs with the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants before joining ABC in 1976. "TV Guide" huffed about Jackson by saying "A football guy, on baseball!" Jackson was unavailable for several World Series games in and because of conflicts with his otherwise normal college football broadcasting schedule. Thus, Michaels did play-by-play for games on weekends.


title: Al Michaels

text: Perhaps Michaels's first historic call with ABC Sports while covering Major League Baseball occurred in what is now known by many as the Don Denkinger game. The Kansas City Royals trailed the St. Louis Cardinals 3–1 in a series that was panned for being low-scoring and dull. After a Royals win in St. Louis forced the action back to Kansas City, the sixth game was also low scoring. However, this contest grew into a tense pitcher's duel.


title: Al Michaels

text: In the bottom of the 9th, pinch-hitter Jorge Orta led off for the Royals against Cardinals pitcher Todd Worrell with Kansas City trailing 1–0 and hit a ground ball to first baseman Jack Clark. Clark threw over to pitcher Worrell, who was running over to cover first base in time to beat the speedy Orta and did. Yet first base umpire Don Denkinger still called Orta safe at first. Steve Balboni then hit a pop-up to first which Jack Clark missed for an error, keeping Balboni's at-bat alive, and he promptly singled to put men on first and second.


title: Al Michaels

text: The infamous and controversial leadoff single by Orta and the Jack Clark error eventually led to the Royals loading the bases and putting the tying run on third base and the winning run on second with one out for Dane Iorg. Iorg hit a 2-run single and the Royals came back to win 2–1. The Royals went on to win Game 7 11–0 and complete the comeback after being down 3 games to 1. However, it was Denkinger's dubious 'safe' call, and not Iorg's hit, Clark's error, Jim Sundberg's heroics (for his difficult slide past catcher Darrell Porter for the winning run) or the Game 7 blowout that were most remembered in years to come.


title: Al Michaels

text: Just prior to the start of the 1985 World Series, ABC removed Howard Cosell from scheduled announcing duties as punishment for his controversial book "I Never Played the Game". In Cosell's place came Tim McCarver (joining play-by-play man Michaels and fellow color commentator Jim Palmer), who was beginning his trek of being a part of numerous World Series telecasts. Reportedly, by 1985, Cosell was considered to be difficult to work with on baseball telecasts. Apparently, Cosell and Michaels got into a fairly heated argument following the conclusion of their coverage of the 1984 American League Championship Series due to Cosell's supposed drunkenness among other problems. Rumor has it that Michaels went as far as to urge ABC executives to remove Cosell from the booth. Ultimately, Michaels went public with his problems with Cosell. Michaels claimed that "Howard had become a cruel, evil, vicious person."


title: Al Michaels

text: In 1986, Michaels was also on hand for what he says was ""the greatest of all the thousands of games I've done."" On October 12 at Anaheim Stadium, Michaels along with Jim Palmer called Game 5 of the American League Championship Series. The California Angels held a 3 games to 1 lead of a best-of-seven against the Boston Red Sox. In the game, the Angels held a 5–2 lead going into the ninth inning. Boston scored two runs on a home run by Don Baylor, closing the gap to 5–4.


title: Al Michaels

text: When Donnie Moore came in to shut down the rally, there were two outs, and a runner on first base, Rich Gedman, who had been hit by a pitch. The Angels were one out from their first-ever trip to the World Series. But Dave Henderson hit a 2–2 pitch off Moore for a home run, giving the Red Sox a 6–5 lead. The Angels were able to score a run in the bottom of the ninth, pushing the game into extra innings. Moore continued to pitch for the Angels. He was able to stifle a 10th inning Red Sox rally by getting Jim Rice to ground into a double play. Nevertheless, the Red Sox were able to score off Moore in the 11th-inning via a sacrifice fly by Henderson. The Angels could not score in the bottom of the 11th and lost the game 7–6.


title: Al Michaels

text: The defeat still left the Angels in a 3 games to 2 advantage, with two more games to play at Fenway Park. The Angels were not able to recover, losing both games by wide margins, 10–4 and 8–1. Game 7 of the 1986 ALCS ended with Calvin Schiraldi striking out Jerry Narron.


title: Al Michaels

text: Despite the fact that ABC Sports and ESPN had been under the same corporate umbrella (the Walt Disney Company) since 1996, Michaels never served as a regular commentator for "ESPN Major League Baseball". The only time that Michaels appeared in an ESPN booth of any kind was as a guest commentator on "Wednesday Night Baseball" in 2003 as part of ESPN's "Living Legends Series". Michaels joined Gary Thorne and Joe Morgan, whom he worked with on ABC's 1989 World Series coverage and served as ABC's #2 baseball team behind Michaels, Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver in 1989, for a game at Dodger Stadium between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds.


title: Al Michaels

text: In a February 2015 interview, Michaels alleged that the Minnesota Twins pumped artificial crowd noise into the Metrodome during the 1987 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Responding to Michaels' theory, Twins President Dave St. Peter said that he did not think the Twins needed "conspiracy theories" in order to win the World Series. Instead, he argued that "appreciation and respect" should be paid to players like Frank Viola, Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek, and Kirby Puckett, who, he said, "came out of nowhere to win a championship."


title: Al Michaels

text: On October 17, 1989, Michaels was in San Francisco, preparing to cover the third game of the 1989 World Series between the home team, the San Francisco Giants, and the visiting Oakland Athletics. ABC's network telecast began with a recap of the first two games (to the soundtrack of James Taylor's "Hello Old Friend"), both won by Oakland. Soon after Michaels handed off to his broadcast partner, Tim McCarver, who started assessing the Giants' chances for victory in the game, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck (at approximately 5:04 p.m. local time). While the network feed was breaking up due to the shaking, Michaels exclaimed "I'll tell you what, we're having an earth —", and at that moment, the feed completely broke up before he could finish his sentence. ABC then put up a green "World Series" telop graphic card on the screen for technical difficulties and restored audio via a telephone link 15 seconds later.  Michaels quipped, "Well folks, that's the greatest open in the history of television, bar none!" Michaels then reported from the ABC Sports production truck outside Candlestick Park on the earthquake, for which he later was nominated for an Emmy Award for news broadcasting. Michaels relayed his reports to Ted Koppel, who was stationed at the ABC News bureau in Washington, D.C.


title: Al Michaels

text: According to Tim McCarver, when the earthquake hit, he, Michaels and Jim Palmer immediately grabbed hold of what they perceived to be the armrests. In reality, the announcers were clutching on each other's thighs and they were each left with bruises the next day. Years later (on a 1999 "SportsCenter" retrospective about the 1989 World Series earthquake), Al Michaels would boldly admit his strong belief that had the earthquake lasted much longer than 15 seconds, he would have been killed. Michaels added that the only time that he really had been scared during the earthquake was when he moved in a position which he perceived to be backward. The three announcers were sitting on a ledge with their backs turned and no bracing behind them.


title: Al Michaels

text: There was later speculation that if Michaels won an arbitration case involving ABC, he would join CBS as its lead baseball announcer. ABC following the 1989 World Series, had lost its baseball package to CBS for the next four years. Michaels had been feuding with the network over an alleged violation of company policy. Michaels' contract with ABC was originally set to expire in late 1992. Ultimately however, ABC announced a contract extension that sources said would keep Michaels at ABC through at least the end of 1995 and would pay him at least $2.2 million annually with the potential to earn more. That would make Michaels the highest-paid sports announcer in television.


title: Al Michaels

text: In 1994, ABC resumed their relationship with Major League Baseball for the first time since 1989 with a broadcasting joint-venture with NBC dubbed The Baseball Network. Michaels was once again paired with Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver, for whom he had broadcast three World Series (1985, 1987, and 1989), two All-Star Games (1986 and 1988), and the 1988 National League Championship Series with. On the subject of Michaels returning to baseball for the first time since the Loma Prieta earthquake interrupted the World Series, Jim Palmer said, "Here Al is, having done five games since 1989, and steps right in. It's hard to comprehend how one guy could so amaze."


title: Al Michaels

text: A player's strike in August 1994 would however, force the cancellation of that season's postseason, including the World Series. Then in June 1995, both ABC and NBC announced that they would be dissolving The Baseball Network at the end of the 1995 season. The following month, Michaels along with Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver, called the All-Star Game from Arlington, Texas. Come that October, Michaels, Palmer, and McCarver could call Games 1–2 of the National League Division Series between the Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers, Game 4 of the NLDS between the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies, Games 1–2 of the National League Championship Series between Atlanta and Cincinnati, and Games 1, 4–5 of the World Series between Atlanta and the Cleveland Indians.


title: Al Michaels

text: In what would be the final out that he would call for a baseball broadcast on ABC, Michaels yelled "Back to Georgia!" following Cleveland closer José Mesa's strikeout of Atlanta second baseman Mark Lemke. ABC was in-line to televise a possible seventh game (since NBC was already scheduled to broadcast Game 6), but the Braves wound up clinching the world title two nights later. Game 5 of the 1995 World Series would not only prove to be the final Major League Baseball game that Michaels would call (not counting a one shot appearance on MLB Network for a game between the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets on July 8, 2011), but it would also prove to be the last time that a Major League Baseball game would be broadcast on ABC until the 2020 Wild Card series.


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels would later write in his 2014 autobiography "You Can't Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television" that the competition between the two networks could be so juvenile that neither ABC nor NBC wanted to promote each other's telecasts during the 1995 World Series. To give you a better idea, in the middle of Game 1, Michaels was handed a promo that read "Join us here on ABC for Game 4 in Cleveland on Wednesday night and for Game 5 if necessary, Thursday." Michaels however, would soon follow this up by saying "By the way, if you're wondering about Games 2 and 3, I can't tell you exactly where you can see them, but here's a hint: Last night, Bob Costas, Bob Uecker, and Joe Morgan [NBC's broadcast crew] were spotted in Underground Atlanta."


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels's longest-running assignment was that of the lead play-by-play announcer on ABC's "Monday Night Football" telecasts, a position he held for 20 seasons beginning in 1986. Before that, his most notable NFL assignment for ABC was hosting (along with Jim Lampley) the pre-game coverage of Super Bowl XIX at the end of the 1984 season. In 1988, he called his first Super Bowl. Three years later, he was on hand to call the thrilling Super Bowl between the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills. Bills kicker Scott Norwood missed a potentially game-winning field goal, and thus, ensured the Giants victory.


title: Al Michaels

text: The trio of Michaels, Dan Dierdorf (who joined "MNF" the year after Michaels's first), and Frank Gifford lasted until the 1997 season when Gifford was replaced following disclosure of an extramarital affair. During the 1980s, Gifford would fill-in for Michaels on play-by-play whenever he went on baseball assignments for the League Championship Series (1986 and 1988) or World Series (1987 and 1989).


title: Al Michaels

text: Former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason (who left after the 1999 season) replaced Gifford in 1998, and Dierdorf was dropped after that season. Unexpectedly, comedian Dennis Miller joined the cast in 2000 along with Dan Fouts. In 2002, following Miller and Fouts' departure, John Madden joined Michaels in a well-received pairing.


title: Al Michaels

text: After disastrous ratings in the 2003 NBA Finals, ABC decided to revamp their lead NBA broadcast team. Brad Nessler was reassigned to the second broadcast team, where he was joined by Sean Elliott and Dan Majerle. Michaels was hired to replace Nessler as lead broadcaster of the NBA.


title: Al Michaels

text: For the first several weeks of the 2003–2004 season, he had no partner. However, Doc Rivers, a critically acclaimed analyst when he worked with Turner Sports, became available after a 1–19 start by his Orlando Magic. Rivers was hired weeks before ABC's Christmas Day season opener. He and Michaels worked that game together, one of only six they did together during the regular season (all other games Rivers worked were with Brad Nessler). During the playoffs, the team worked every single telecast, including the 2004 NBA Finals, which saw great improvement in television ratings. During the 2004 NBA Playoffs, Doc Rivers was hired by the Boston Celtics. Though Rivers continued to work games with him throughout the rest of the playoffs, ABC would have to find a new lead color commentator for the 2004–2005 season.


title: Al Michaels

text: Early in the 2004–2005 season, ABC found a new partner for Al Michaels. Memphis Grizzlies coach Hubie Brown, a broadcasting legend with CBS, TBS, and TNT, was forced into retirement due to health reasons and was soon after hired to replace Doc Rivers. He and Brown began their partnership on Christmas Day 2004, working the highly anticipated Shaquille O'Neal-Kobe Bryant game. After that game, the two did not do a game together again until March 2005. He became sporadic in NBA coverage, doing two games in early March, and then three more games in April. Brown worked every week of ABC's coverage, broadcasting some games with veteran broadcaster Mike Breen. For the 2005–2006 season, the pair were slated to remain as ABC's lead broadcast team. The duo worked that year's Christmas Day game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat and was expected to work the NBA Finals together as well. However, due to his impending departure to NBC, that plan did not come to fruition.


title: Al Michaels

text: Replacing him on "The NBA on ABC" was Mike Breen, who became the lead broadcaster for an over-the-air NBA package for the first time in his career. Breen worked the 2006 NBA Finals with Hubie Brown, as well as all the main games ABC broadcast that year. This gave ABC its first consistent lead broadcaster since Brad Nessler, as Breen (unlike Michaels) did games every week. To put things into proper perspective, during his two-season tenure as ABC's lead NBA broadcaster, he called just 13 of a possible 26 regular season games, with all but two games taking place from either Los Angeles (where he resides) or Sacramento.


title: Al Michaels

text: Besides his inconsistent work, Michaels (despite being initially seen as adding credibility to ABC's NBA broadcasts in contrast to his predecessor, Brad Nessler) was criticized for apparently lacking the kind of enthusiasm and confidence (for instance, Michaels initially reacted to Amar'e Stoudemire's block of Tim Duncan's shot during the 2005 playoffs by calling it a "great, great contested shot") expected of a No. 1 play-by-play voice. Barry Horn of the "Dallas Morning News" said that Michaels was simply "not a basketball guy". Meanwhile, Bill Simmons said during the 2005 Finals that Michaels "shows up for these games, does his job, then drives home thinking, 'Only five weeks to the [NFL] Hall of Fame Game, I'm almost there!'"


title: Al Michaels

text: Another criticism that he received was that he too often found himself making tediously long-winded explanations. In return, he would tend to talk over two or three possessions in a row (which Michaels seemed to be better suited for football and baseball broadcasts, for which he's better known). The result was that he would hardly have time to comment on the action viewers were seeing because he was so hung up on a prior subplot or storyline that he felt the audience just had to know about.


title: Al Michaels

text: In 2003, Michaels was quoted as saying, "ABC Sports has been my professional home for the last 26 years, and I am delighted that will continue to be for several more..." after signing a long-term contract extension.


title: Al Michaels

text: In 2005, it was announced that "Monday Night Football" would be moving from ABC to ESPN beginning with the 2006 season, and partner John Madden announced he would be joining NBC Sports, which had acquired the rights to "Sunday Night Football" games. Despite speculation that Michaels might be joining NBC as well, Michaels stated that he would continue as the "MNF" play-by-play announcer, stating, "I feel like I'm a creature of Monday night. I'm home and I'm staying home." Plans were for Michaels to be teamed with Joe Theismann (who would be coming over from "Sunday Night Football") on the Monday night telecasts.


title: Al Michaels

text: At the time, then-ABC Television President Alex Wallau said, "For 26 years Al has played a pivotal role here at ABC Sports, and for 17 of those years he's been the face and voice synonymous with television's most successful sports franchise, "Monday Night Football"... It's Al's outstanding play-by-play coverage, coupled with his breadth of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm, that keep "MNF" fans invigorated, excited and coming back for more." also, "Al Michaels has been invaluable to the Network and we are thrilled to have him remain in our family. [...] Al is the consummate professional and makes everyone around him better" said then-ABC Sports President Howard Katz; however, in the weeks leading up to Super Bowl XL, it was widely speculated that Michaels was attempting to get out of his contract with ESPN to join Madden at NBC. By this time, it was clear that NBC's "Sunday Night Football" would be the NFL's premier prime-time package, with ESPN's "Monday Night Football" relegated to secondary match-ups similar to that network's previous Sunday night telecasts. Michaels added fuel to the fire by refusing to state his future plans, and he couldn't "respond to rumors ... because that would become a distraction."


title: Al Michaels

text: On February 8, 2006, ESPN announced that its "Monday Night Football" team would consist of Mike Tirico on play-by-play, with Theismann and Tony Kornheiser as analysts. ESPN explicitly stated that Michaels would not return to either "Monday Night Football" broadcasts or ABC's NBA broadcasts (on which Michaels had been lead NBA play-by-play man).


title: Al Michaels

text: On February 9, 2006, NBC confirmed that Michaels would be joining Madden at the network to broadcast football on Sunday nights, thus ending Michaels's 20-year run on "Monday Night Football" and almost 30 years of service with ABC. In exchange for letting Michaels out of his contract with ABC and ESPN, NBCUniversal sold ESPN cable rights to Friday coverage of the next four Ryder Cups, granted ESPN increased usage of Olympic highlights, and sold to parent company Disney the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a cartoon character developed by Walt Disney himself (which he lost in 1928) but previously owned by Universal Pictures (now NBCUniversal). NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol explained, "We earn nothing from those rights; they've had no value in the United States."


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels had a bemused take on the "trade." After it was noted to Michaels that the Kansas City Chiefs gave the New York Jets a draft pick as compensation for releasing coach Herman Edwards from his contract, Michaels stated, "Oswald is definitely worth more than a fourth-round draft choice. I'm going to be a trivia answer someday." In an article with the magazine "Game Informer", Warren Spector, a designer on the game "Epic Mickey", stated that Disney CEO Bob Iger wanted Oswald to be in the game so badly, he made this trade to get the rights of the character back.


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels and Madden began their new NBC tenure on August 6, 2006, with the network's telecast of the preseason Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, with their regular-season debut on September 7. Michaels called "Sunday Night Football" with John Madden from August 6, 2006 – April 15, 2009. On April 16, 2009, Cris Collinsworth made an agreement with NBC to join Michaels on replacing Madden for "Sunday Night Football". On February 1, 2009, Michaels called Super Bowl XLIII, his first Super Bowl telecast for NBC and seventh overall as a play-by-play announcer. Michaels is the third man to ever do play-by-play for an NBC broadcast of a Super Bowl, following the footsteps of Curt Gowdy and Dick Enberg. Michaels also called Super Bowl XLVI on February 5, 2012, Super Bowl XLIX on February 1, 2015, Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018, and Super Bowl LVI on February 13, 2022, and in doing so, he tied Pat Summerall for the most Super Bowls called by a play-by-play announcer, though Summerall still holds the record for the most Super Bowls announced at 16, having also worked Super Bowl I as a sideline reporter and Super Bowls II, IV, VI, and VIII as a color commentator.


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels usually ate his dinner while doing play-by-play commentary during a typical broadcast of "Sunday Night Football". Michaels would have cookies and grapes during the first half and a light dinner during the second half, having his bites during commercial breaks.


title: Al Michaels

text: On May 24, 2022, NBC announced that despite his official departure from "Sunday Night Football" following the 2021 season, Michaels would still call at least one NFL playoff game for NBC under an "emeritus" role.


title: Al Michaels

text: In March 2009, it was announced that Michaels would be serving as the daytime host for NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was Michaels's first involvement in an Olympic telecast since he called ice hockey at the 1988 Calgary Games for ABC, as well as his first non-NFL event for NBC. NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said that Michaels had previously expressed an interest in contributing to the network's Olympics coverage. Michaels also co-hosted NBC's coverage of the Closing Ceremony (with Bob Costas). Michaels also served as daytime co-host (with Dan Patrick) for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and co-hosted the Closing Ceremony (with Costas and Ryan Seacrest). For the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Michaels served as weekday host on NBCSN and weekend daytime host on NBC. He returned to host daytime coverage for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.


title: Al Michaels

text: According to Michaels, ABC was in the running to purchase the broadcasting rights for the 1996 Summer Games from Atlanta. As a provision in his contract renewal with ABC back in 1992, in the event that ABC were to broadcast the Olympics again, Michaels would get to become the prime time anchor while Jim McKay would instead play an emeritus role. Ultimately though, NBC bought the rights to the Atlanta Games for $456 million, edging out ABC by $6 million.


title: Al Michaels

text: In January 2015, NBC announced that Michaels would be at ringside along with Marv Albert and Sugar Ray Leonard for the "PBC on NBC" Saturday night bouts. In partnership with Haymon Boxing, NBC would televise 20 "PBC on NBC" events, including five shown in prime time on Saturday nights.


title: Al Michaels

text: On July 8, 2011, Michaels teamed up with Bob Costas (with the two announcers alternating between play-by-play and color commentary) to call a game between the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants on MLB Network. It was Michaels's first appearance on a baseball telecast since August 6, 2003 (when he served as a guest commentator on an ESPN game, as previously mentioned) and his first as a primary announcer since Game 5 of the 1995 World Series on ABC. (Michaels had called Games 1, 4 and 5 of that series with Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver, while Costas called Games 2, 3 and 6 with Joe Morgan and Bob Uecker for NBC.) Michaels and Costas also made appearances on SportsNet New York and Comcast SportsNet Bay Area during the game's middle innings, since the MLB Network broadcast was blacked out in the Mets' and Giants' respective home markets.


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels first called "Thursday Night Football" in 2016, as part of a deal which would see NBC produce several Thursday night games for broadcast on NFL Network with simulcasts on selected games on NBC. The following year, NBC confirmed that Mike Tirico would take over as the voice of NBC-produced Thursday night games.


title: Al Michaels

text: On March 23, 2022, the NFL and Amazon announced that Michaels would become the full-time play-by-play announcer for "Thursday Night Football", alongside Kirk Herbstreit, for the first year of the package airing exclusively on Amazon Prime Video and Twitch.


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels is the eldest child of Jay and Lila Michaels. Michaels has a younger brother, David Michaels, and a younger sister, Susan.


title: Al Michaels

text: Al Michaels currently resides in Los Angeles. He married his wife Linda on August 27, 1966. Al and Linda have two children together, Jennifer and Steven. Steven Michaels serves as president and CEO of independent film company Asylum Entertainment in Los Angeles. Michaels is also a Los Angeles Kings season ticket holder.


title: Al Michaels

text: Al's younger brother David is a television producer. David Michaels has produced such programs as NBC's coverage of the Olympic Games, Triple Crown, and Fox Sports Net's "Beyond the Glory" series.


title: Al Michaels

text: In March 2011, Michaels accompanied New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and his wife, Myra, to Israel to visit Kraft Family Stadium in Jerusalem, an American football venue and home to three teams in the Israeli Football League, which is sponsored by the Kraft family. It was one of Myra Kraft's last trips before becoming sick with the cancer that would ultimately cause her death on July 20, 2011.


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels was arrested and charged for driving under the influence on April 21, 2013. He was released after about five hours. He eventually pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of reckless driving and was sentenced to 80 hours of community service plus probation.


title: Al Michaels

text: In 2014, Michaels released his autobiography titled "You Can't Make This Up: Memories and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television", which reached "The New York Times Best Seller List" for nonfiction.


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels has also claimed throughout the years that he has never knowingly eaten a vegetable in his lifetime.


title: Al Michaels

text: Dick Enberg's death on December 21, 2017, left Michaels as the only living television play-by-play announcer from any of the first 34 Super Bowls.


title: Al Michaels

text: It was Michaels who explained to Peter Jennings that Jennings had been the victim of a prank call in the final hour of O. J. Simpson's Bronco chase, after the Bronco had pulled into Simpson's driveway and parked. The prankster, claiming to be watching Simpson inside the van, described what he said to be the scene in perfect Stepin Fetchit dialect, then signed off with "... and Baba Booey to y'all." Michaels, unlike Jennings, understood the prankster's use of the term as an association of being a Howard Stern fan. Michaels is a Howard Stern fan, too, and has discussed that prank call as a guest on Stern's show.


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels had an acting role in a 1970 episode of "Hawaii Five-O", and has appeared as himself in the films "Jerry Maguire" and "BASEketball", as well as on several TV shows including "Coach" and "Spin City". His call of the U.S. hockey team's victory in the 1980 Olympics can be heard in the 2004 film "Miracle". Michaels re-recorded all his original play-by-play coverage for the film, except for the memorable line.


title: Al Michaels

text: Brian d'Arcy James portrayed Michaels in the 2002 television movie "Monday Night Mayhem". Michaels has also been lampooned on several occasions by noted impressionists, Frank Caliendo and Billy West as well as in the "Family Guy" episode "Mother Tucker".