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Brent Musburger is not a fan of Tony Romo as a broadcaster

By Alex Butler
CBS broadcasters Tony Romo and Jim Nantz called the Green Bay Packers and Cincinnati Bengals game for the network Sunday at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisc. Photo courtesy of Tony Romo/Twitter
CBS broadcasters Tony Romo and Jim Nantz called the Green Bay Packers and Cincinnati Bengals game for the network Sunday at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisc. Photo courtesy of Tony Romo/Twitter

Sept. 26 (UPI) -- While Tony Romo has drawn rave reviews from fans as a broadcaster, Brent Musburger says "stop the hype."

Musburger, 78, retired as an ESPN broadcaster earlier this year after 60 years in the business. Romo was hired as CBS's lead NFL analyst in April, replacing Phil Simms.

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Fans have enjoyed Romo's ability to predict play calls before they happen early on this NFL season. Musburger doesn't think his popularity will last.

"Tony, get off it, okay? First of all, you're intruding on your play-by-play man Jim Nantz, who's just trying to give us the scene...we like to watch the game, okay? And you're not gonna be...here's a memo, to all the people who are like 'Oh, this is great!'...uh-uh. It's not going to happen," Musburger said on his My Guys in the Desert show on SiriusXM's Vegas Stats and Information Network.

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"And the further...the more years you spend away from the league, you're going to know less and less about the personnel that's out on the field. So I'm blowing a 'stop the hype', okay, right now."

In May, CBS producer Lance Barrow called Romo "the next John Madden."

Dallas CBS 11's Bill Jones ran a Twitter poll in Week 2 to see what viewers thought of Romo. More than 46,000 voters participated in the poll, with 91 percent saying they liked Romo's analysis on CBS. Just 3 percent said they didn't like it while 6 percent of the voters haven't decided.

Romo was in the booth Sunday for the Green Bay Packers' 27-24 win against the Cincinnati Bengals at Lambeau Field.

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CBS announced that its Week 3 viewership was up compared to Week 3 of last year after the weekend's games. The network noted that the game Romo commentated was the highest-rated NFL game on any network last week.

"The NFL on CBS overall game coverage on Sunday, Sept. 24 is up +4% from last year's Week 3 coverage, averaging a rating/share of 11.9/25 vs. 11.4/23 in 2016 in the metered markets," the CBS news release said.

"The NFL on CBS's regional window [1:03 PM, ET] earned an average overnight metered market HH rating/share of 10.0/22, +11% from last year's Week 3.

The NFL on CBS national game coverage [4:25 PM, ET] with Green Bay's 27-24 overtime win over Cincinnati and Kansas City vs. Los Angeles Chargers was the highest-rated NFL game on any network in Week 3 with an average overnight metered market household rating/share of 13.8/27, -1% from last year's 13.9/26 in Week 3, and up +1% from the comparable CBS doubleheader in Week 2 last year.

The NFL Today scored its best rating/share since 2010 earning an overnight HH rating/share of 3.2/8, +33% from last year's 2.4/6."

Romo will be calling the game on Thursday Night Football between the Chicago Bears and Packers at 8:25 p.m. on CBS. He'll also be in the booth at 4:25 p.m. Sunday for the Oakland Raiders and Denver Broncos game.

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