Longtime NBC sports executive Don Ohlmeyer dies at 72.

Don Ohlmeyer, the Monday Night Football producer who also came up with the phrase “Must See TV” in leading NBC to the No. 1 prime-time spot, died Sunday. He was 72. Longtime friend Al Michaels announced Ohlmeyer’s death while broadcasting NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. Ohlmeyer won 16 Emmys, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and two Peabody Awards. Ohlmeyer became producer of MNF in 1972, teaming with director Chet Forte and the on-air crew of Howard Cosell, Don Meredith and Frank Gifford. In 2000 in his second MNF stint, Ohlmeyer put comedian Dennis Miller in the booth. Ohlmeyer first worked for ABC Sports as a gofer while studying at Notre Dame and became a full-time production assistant in 1967 under Roone Arledge, working on Wide World of Sports. Along with his Monday Night Football work, he directed the network’s Olympic coverage and created The Superstars. Later at NBC Sports, he produced World Series and Super Bowl broadcasts. Ohlmeyer returned to NBC in 1993 as president of its entertainment division after running his own Ohlmeyer Communications Company. He came up with “Must See TV” in the 1990s, when NBC’s rating soared with such hits as Seinfeld, Friends, ER and Frasier. ESPN, now the home of MNF said it planned to acknowledge Ohlmeyer on Monday night. Ohlmeyer Communications once was a part-owner of ESPN, and Ohlmeyer served as an ombudsman for the cable network from 2009 to 2011.

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