The National League Championship Series will be televised exclusively on TBS, which will continue to feature a familiar voice to Braves fans in its postseason broadcast lineup.
Jeff Francoeur, the lead analyst for Braves regular-season games on regional networks Bally Sports South and Bally Sports Southeast, will serve as an analyst on the telecasts of the NLCS between the Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also was an analyst on TBS’ coverage of the Division Series between the Braves and the Milwaukee Brewers.
TBS had chosen Francoeur to work NLDS and NLCS games before knowing which teams would be in the series, so the Braves’ presence is coincidental to his role on the telecasts.
Francoeur will join play-by-play announcer Brian Anderson and co-analyst Ron Darling in the booth for the NLCS, which begins with Game 1 at 8:07 p.m. Saturday. Lauren Shehadi will be the in-game reporter. Anderson calls Brewers games during the regular season, and Darling is an analyst on Mets telecasts.
Anderson, Darling and Shehadi worked the Dodgers-Giants Division Series, while Francoeur worked with play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo and reporter Matt Winer on the Braves-Brewers series.
The American League Championship Series, between the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros, will be televised by Fox and FS1, with play-by-play announcer Joe Buck and analyst John Smoltz, the former Braves pitching great, calling the games. Buck and Smoltz also will call the World Series on Fox.
TBS’ coverage of each Braves-Dodgers game will be preceded by an on-site studio show hosted by Bob Costas, who’ll be joined on set by Pedro Martinez, Jimmy Rollins and Curtis Granderson. The same cast will return for postgame analysis on TBS.
Costas will step into the host’s role that was filled by Ernie Johnson during the NLDS round. With the NBA season opening next week, Johnson turns his attention back to hosting TNT’s popular “Inside the NBA” studio show.
In addition to his role on Bally Sports’ Braves telecasts, Francoeur worked some non-Braves national games on TBS during the regular season. He first called postseason games on TBS in 2019.
A former outfielder with the Braves and seven other MLB teams, Francoeur completed a 12-year major-league playing career in 2016. He served as an analyst on nine Braves telecasts in 2017 and 25 in 2018 before becoming the lead analyst, working about 100 games, in 2019.
Bally Sports South/Southeast doesn’t televise games during the postseason, but will broadcast its own postgame show at the conclusion of each Braves game in the NLCS, as it did during the Division Series.
The show, “Braves Live Postseason Edition,” will air from a set in The Battery Atlanta, adjacent to Truist Park, immediately following every home and road NLCS game. It’ll be hosted by Chip Caray, who’ll be joined by Paul Byrd, Kelly Crull, Nick Green, Brian Jordan and Peter Moylan.
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