WXYZ-TV to Celebrate Detroit Lions Monday Motown Showdown With Broadcast of Monday Night Football!

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Sept. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Detroit is ready for some football!  For the first time in more than a decade, the Detroit Lions will play a Monday night home game, and WXYZ-TV will be the place to catch all the action.  The Detroit Lions will take on the Chicago Bears on Monday, October 10th at 8:30 p.m. and WXYZ will broadcast the game live from Ford Field in downtown Detroit.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110602/CL13539LOGO )

Detroit's day-long celebration of the "Monday Motown Showdown," will take you on the field beginning at 4:30 a.m. on October 10th with 7 Action News this Morning and continue throughout the day during 7 Action News at 5 and 6.  

From 7-8:30 p.m., WXYZ will present a live special edition of Ford Lions Report LIVE: Monday Motown Pre-Game.  WXYZ will bring you all the pre-show excitement from cameras in and around town...from the celebration outside the stadium to the action on the field...and from the middle of the fan event on Brush Street to the tailgate party at Eastern Market.  Channel 7 is your place for football fun on Monday night.

The show will be hosted by WXYZ anchors Stephen Clark and Carolyn Clifford with reports from Channel 7 sports director Don Shane, sports reporter Tom Leyden, NFL analyst Rob Rubick, NFL Hall of Famer Charlie Sanders, and NFL broadcast veteran Matt Shepard.  

The show will include locker room interviews with key Lions players and coaches; interviews with former Lions greats; a behind-the-scenes look at ESPN's 35-camera game coverage; and interviews with sports and entertainment celebrities.  The program will also look at the winning strategy behind the Lions season with Head Coach Jim Schwartz.

At 8:30 p.m., WXYZ will broadcast the ESPN Production of the Monday Night Football game between the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears.  7 Action News will follow the game at 11:30 p.m.

"This is a great opportunity for Metro Detroit to celebrate football and the start of a successful season for our Detroit Lions," said WXYZ Vice-President and General Manager, Ed Fernandez.  "It's a great time for the national spotlight to shine on a team that is demonstrating such promise and giving us all a reason to be a Lions fan."

WXYZ is also the home of Ford Lions Report LIVE, a one hour live program that airs every Sunday from 11 a.m. to noon on WXYZ and Lions network affiliates throughout Michigan.

WXYZ-TV is part of Scripps Media, Inc., which operates 10 TV stations.  The corporate parent, the E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP) is a diverse, 131-year old media enterprise with interests in television stations, newspapers, local news and information Web sites, and comics/features syndication.  For a full listing of Scripps media companies and their associated Web sites, visit http://www.scripps.com/.

SOURCE WXYZ-TV