Ahmed Fareed will host NBC’s Sunday Night Baseball pregame show when the network returns to MLB this spring, handling studio duties while Bob Costas works in what both he and NBC have described as an “emeritus role” focused on on-site contributions.
NBC announced Fareed’s assignment during Super Bowl pregame coverage Sunday, adding baseball to a hosting portfolio that already includes Big Ten football, NBA coverage, and Olympic duties. Fareed will anchor the pregame show from the studio and work with NBC’s rotating analyst crew, which includes Clayton Kershaw, Joey Votto, and Anthony Rizzo, for Wild Card round coverage and select Sunday Night Baseball pregame shows based on their schedules and availability.
Costas recently clarified on the Sports Media Watch Podcast that he’s not the studio host for baseball and that his role was deliberately designed to avoid overlapping with anyone else’s responsibilities. That leaves Fareed as the traffic cop running the pregame show from Stamford, while Costas contributes from on-site at the ballpark.
Fareed joined NBC in 2019 after working at NBC Sports Bay Area from 2013-18, where he covered the Giants. He had a stint at MLB Network from 2011-12, and he also worked as studio host and in-game reporter for Peacock’s MLB Sunday Leadoff in 2022 and ’23 before Roku took over the package.
NBC added Fareed as host of Big Ten College Countdown in July 2025, replacing Maria Taylor, who shifted focus to NBA coverage. After the college football season ended, Fareed began hosting NBC’s Monday night NBA studio show on Peacock. He also hosted Olympic Late Night coverage during the Paris Games and will work the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics coverage starting this week.
The expanding responsibilities forced Fareed to make a choice. He departed Chris Simms Unbuttoned in August 2025 after 737 episodes, citing mounting duties that came with his expanded role at NBC. He couldn’t maintain the twice-weekly NFL podcast with Simms anymore.
NBC’s MLB schedule begins March 26 with two Opening Day games one day after Netflix airs an Opening Night special. The Pirates face the Mets at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, followed by the Dodgers raising their World Series banner before facing the Diamondbacks at 8 p.m. ET. That primetime game will kick off NBC’s Sunday Night Baseball coverage.
Fareed and Costas will be part of the pregame show for that game and throughout the season. The network secured a three-year deal with MLB that includes 25 Sunday Night Baseball games, the entire Wild Card round, and exclusive primetime windows for Opening Day and Labor Day.
