In 1970, ABC Sports president Roone Arledge – a central figure in the blending of sports, television, and entertainment – created the cultural phenomenon of Monday Night Football, the longest running primetime show is U.S. history. At the time, ABC’s Monday night primetime ratings were abysmal – and while CBS and NBC declined Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s proposals to broadcast a weekly Monday night game, Arledge foresaw its possibilities. (“There is something about the look of a night game,” he once said, “with the lights bouncing off the helmets.”) With Frank Gifford calling play-by-play and with Howard Cosell and Don Meredith as analysts, Monday Night Football attracted tens of millions of viewers each week. Arledge borrowed innovations from another hit show he had created, “Wild World of Sports,” including split screens, slow motion replays, and handheld cameras – and he had cameras placed in end zones and on cranes. The ultimate effect was a primetime football event with the emotion and entertainment value of a dramatic TV show. In 1994, Sports Illustrated ranked Arledge No. 3 behind Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan as the most significant individual in American sports over the past four decades. Monday Night Football has aired on ESPN since 2006.