What’s up?
It’s Week 2 of the NFL.
Games of the Week?
Naturally, the Manning Bowl, Denver at New York Giants. It’s the third incarnation of the Manning Bowl and the first two were on NBC. This year, CBS gets it. Jim Nantz and Phil Simms call the game and they’ll be joined by Tracy Wolfson in a rare case of a sideline reporter for the NFL on CBS. That’s at 4:25 p.m. ET.
Early, Chargers at Eagles on CBS to be called by Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf. And for Fox, it’s Washington at Green Bay with Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and the solid tough Pam Oliver.
So Tracy Wolfson worked New England at Buffalo last Sunday and the Manning Bowl this week. Is this a change for CBS? Will CBS have sideline reporters for at least one game every week?
No. The first two weeks are aberrations for CBS. Last week was of course, an off-week for the SEC on CBS so the network decided to have Tracy work the NFL in Week 1 to get ready for Alabama-Texas A&M yesterday. And Tracy offered her services for the Manning Bowl since she lives in the New York area. She told me in the Sports Media Weekly podcast that if works out, she’ll do a game. CBS told me that this is not an official change in policy.
Any ratings numbers for those new pregame shows?
Not for CBS Sports Network. They’re not in enough homes to garner ratings points, but we’ll check for Fox Sports 1.
NBC got big numbers for last week’s games. What about for this week?
With an NFC West rivalry game, I would expect the network to do well once again. The competition on network TV is rather weak, although cable has HBO and Showtime with their usual venerable lineups, but I’d expect NBC to do quite well for San Francisco-Seattle tonight.
Anything else I should know?
Not for this week. Try me next Sunday.
