March 17, 2025 – Entering its 17th regular season, MLB Network announced it will expand its early edition of the Emmy Award-winning MLB Tonight to a two-hour, daily national pregame show, beginning at 5 p.m. ET. Featuring a new logo, the program will be rebranded as MLB Tonight: National Pregame Show, premiering on MLB Network's “Baseball Eve,” Wednesday, March 26, the night before MLB's 2025 Opening Day. Originating from the iconic Studio 42, the program will be hosted by a collection of hosts and analysts, including the acclaimed trio of Greg Amsinger, Harold Reynolds and Dan Plesac, who will anchor the March 26 episode and on Opening Day, Thursday, March 27.
Serving as America’s pregame show, MLB Tonight will feature creative and outside-the-box segments that have become its signature, plus interviews with star players, detailed demonstrations from Studio 42’s replica baseball field, analysis of all 30 clubs, and live look-ins of games. Before evening games begin, the program will heavily utilize MLB Network’s Ballpark Cam to take fans inside the ballpark for exclusive access to batting practice and pre-game warmups. On any given night, fans can watch stars, including Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Mike Trout and Bobby Witt Jr., get ready for the game, only made possible by Ballpark Cam’s unique vantage points.
“I have not been this excited about MLB Tonight since we launched a new way to watch baseball back in 2009,” said Harold Reynolds, who was part of MLB Network’s original on-air team. “People forget that we stuck our necks out with a live look-in show, and it turned out pretty good. Well, it’s time to go to another level and that’s what we are going to do with the 5 p.m. show. Join in on the fun and let us entertain you! Let us take you to another level of watching and breaking down baseball.”
"We continue to be the place where fans get their pregame fill and chatter before they watch their team in action," said Marc Caiafa, MLB Network's Senior Vice President of Production. "Expanding our signature show with the very best analysis further demonstrates MLB Network’s importance and value to the daily coverage of this great game, and baseball fans everywhere.”
Leading into primetime baseball, the early edition of MLB Tonight has long aired daily at 6 p.m. ET since MLB Network's launch in 2009. With MLB Tonight expanding, MLB Network's popular and long-running Intentional Talk co-hosted by Siera Santos and World Series champions Kevin Millar and Ryan Dempster will now immediately follow afternoon baseball weekdays at 4 p.m. ET. “IT” will make its season debut on Wednesday, March 26. Late-night editions of MLB Tonight featuring look-ins of live games will continue to air as they always have, including by veteran hosts Matt Vasgersian and Adnan Virk.
Launched on Feb. 23, 2009, MLB Tonight has earned critical success throughout its history, capturing 16 National Sports Emmy Awards, including eight times for Outstanding Daily Studio Show. Outstanding Technical Team Show, Outstanding Graphic Design: Post Produced, Outstanding Production Design/Art Direction and Outstanding Writing – Long Form are all categories MLB Tonight has won a National Sports Emmy Award. Broadcasters Al Leiter, Harold Reynolds, Bill Ripken and Tom Verducci have all earned individual National Emmy recognition for their analysis on MLB Tonight throughout the years.
As announced last week, MLB Network will debut two new weekly shows – Off Base Podcast and MLB Network Podcast presented by New Balance – at the start of the season. Leading into afternoon baseball, the 30-minute shows will air back-to-back on Sundays at 11 a.m. ET beginning March 30. Following their on-air Sunday debuts, the entire shows will be released digitally on podcast platforms for fans everywhere. Launched in 2024, MLB Network is now available Direct-to-Consumer, which fans can sign up for here.
