I no longer have a proper surround system, but when I was able to mute the center speaker to create the effect. Not sure if broadcasters have changed their mix to prevent this from being possible.
One day I had turned on the television and found a MLB game as an interim choice while I found something else to watch. I didn't know, but my center channel's wiring had gone loose from moving speakers around. There were no announcers and it was so... wonderful. It was peaceful and I'll even say it was relaxing. For the first time in my life I enjoyed professional baseball... and kept it on. Ever since, I wonder why providers don't offer announcer muting.