Super Sunday is Sky Sports' flagship live association football programme, broadcasting live Premier League football on most Sundays over the course of a season. The main live game will typically kick off at 4:30 pm, often following a 2:00 pm game, on the Sky Sports Premier League channel.
It had been presented since its debut in August 1992 by former TV-am host Richard Keys alongside a variety of guest match pundits until January 2011. From the 2005–06 season, former Liverpool player Jamie Redknapp joined Keys as a regular pundit. The commentary team of Martin Tyler and former Scotland striker Andy Gray became synonymous with Sky's football coverage, although other commentators were also used. Gray was sacked in January 2011 ‘unacceptable and offensive behaviour’ and in April 2011 former Manchester United defender Gary Neville was confirmed as his replacement. Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher joined in 2013.
Innovation
The first match shown on Super Sunday was between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool on 16 August 1992, a match Forest won 1-0. This first broadcast featured a digital on-screen graphic (DOG) throughout the game showing the score and match time. It was the first time a UK broadcaster had done such a thing and DOGs are now part of coverage of virtually all televised sports worldwide.
Broadcast times
In the first four seasons of the programme, Ford Super Sunday – the title due to major sponsorship with the Ford Motor Company – used to start at 2 pm, giving viewers two hours build-up before the slightly untraditional kick-off time of 4 pm, as opposed to a Saturday kick-off at 3 pm. Eventually, Sky decided this was a bit too much, and in 1996 decided to start the programme at 3 pm instead. From the 2004–05 season, some Super Sunday coverage started as early as 1:00 pm if two live games were shown that day. From the 2005–06, coverage began at 3:30 pm if only one live game was shown.
Sometimes, three live games are shown on Super Sunday, with the games kicking off at 12 pm, 2:15 pm and 4:30 pm respectively. This can happen because of one of two reasons, either Sky selecting three matches for live broadcasting on a Sunday during the three time slots or the Saturday 12:30 pm game being rescheduled for Sunday at 12:00 pm due to the team featured playing in the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference League the preceding Thursday night. Sunday noon kick-offs are sometimes broadcast on TNT Sports instead.
Sky advertise Super Sunday as showing the Premier League's biggest match of the weekend, but, although they have first pick of live Premier League games on most weekends, there are numerous restrictions which mean the best game does not necessarily kick off at 4:30 pm, or is even broadcast on Sky. Police restrictions mean many derby matches must kick off earlier while there are restrictions on the number of times Sky can show each team per season. Additionally, Sky can not move a game to take place on Super Sunday if one of the teams involved is playing in the UEFA Champions League the following Tuesday, in order to give the team time to recover. As Sky are also the broadcasters of the EFL Cup, the final takes centre stage on the network on a Sunday mid-afternoon in late February/early March, meaning on that particular day, only one Premier League match is broadcast live, usually at 2 pm.
In the 2020-21 season, when fans were not allowed to attend matches due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in all matches being televised, Super Sunday was sometimes expanded to broadcast three matches. The matches at 2 pm, 4:30 pm were retained, with an extra match that kicked off at 7 pm or 7:15 pm, depending on the scheduled games that day.
Presentation
Richard Keys had hosted the programme from one of the grounds, usually from that of the second game, alongside Jamie Redknapp and at least one more guest. The panel often introduce the first game with an empty stadium behind them because of the staggered kick-off times. This was until 27 January 2011 when Keys resigned from Sky Sports following allegations of sexist remarks and unacceptable behaviour in the workplace.
Martin Tyler and Andy Gray have been the most regular commentators on Super Sunday, appearing either as a team or split over two matches. When there were two matches, Gray would commentate on the main match and act as a studio pundit for the other game as well as appearing on The Last Word discussion programme alongside Keys immediately after Super Sunday on Sky Sports 1.
