As NBC’s Olympic coverage is in a lull, I turn over to NESN and find the Red Sox and Texas embroiled in a 14-13 barnburner at Fenway Park. This is after the Red Sox put up 10 runs in the 1st inning and seemed to be cruising until the 5th inning when Texas scored 8 runs and now the Sox are hanging on for dear life in this game. I guess I’ll have to watch this until Michael Phelps comes on.
I’ll do some linkage in the interim.
The Los Angeles Daily News’ Tom Hoffarth has found a way to get around NBC’s tape delayed Olympics coverage on the West Coast.
The Sports Media Watch links to a story which states that NBC is giving serious consideration to breaking its West Coast primetime embargo for one night only. And the SMW says the estimate of 1 billion people watching USA vs. China men’s basketball may be a bit overstated.
James Hibberd of the Hollywood Reporter writes that NBC is blowing away the competition with the Olympics.
Variety’s Rick Kissell says thanks to the Olympics, NBC is having one of its best weeks ratings-wise in a very long time.
Alex Weprin of Broadcasting & Cable says boosted by Michael Phelps, NBC is riding a gold medal ratings wave for the Olympics.
Newsday’s Neil Best blogs about a very funny incident at the Olympics involving the Aussies and the Brits. Neil previews the next YES “CenterStage” program which features an interview with Yankees Hall of Fame reliever Rich Gossage.
Heidi Dawley of Media Life Magazine says traffic to NBCOlympics.com is up 641% (!) from Athens.
TV Week’s Chris Pursell writes in his Pressbox blog that the men’s 4 x 100 meter relay won by the US in dramatic fashion is helping to steer traffic to NBC Olympics.com.
Andrew Smith of the Dallas Morning News blogs that NBC is even delaying webcasts of many events on NBCOlympics.com.
Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record gives praise to the Olympics boxing coverage on CNBC.
Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post talks with NBC Olympics equestrian analyst Melanie Smith-Taylor who’s calling the sport off a monitor in New York.
I am loving CNBC’s Darren Rovell’s blog dispatches from Beijing. They’re giving me a very nice taste of what’s going on in Communist China. Darren says the Speedo LZR swimsuit is going mainstream. Darren introduces us to Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic. We like her.
And Darren writes that the US men’s basketball is dominating, but did not cover the point spread.
Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun says Baltimore remains on the top of the nation in Olympic ratings thanks to interest in native son Michael Phelps. Ray also blogs that for Saturday night only, the Orioles will be seen only on WJZ-TV while MASN carries the Ravens.
Brett Love of TV Squad isn’t spreading his love to the Olympics, but he’s still watching.
Mary McNamara of Multichannel News loves watching the Olympics in HD.
Larry Barrett of Multichannel writes that the ESPN family of networks will show all 32 games of the Little League World Series this month.
Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch has a funny look at what WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan would sound like in ten years.
It’s finally official, Jonathan “Coach” Coachman, formerly of the WWE, is now an ESPN SportsCenter anchor.
Lastly, since you’re most likely watching the Olympics and the women’s gymnastics team competition, here’s the video I put up earlier this year of Alicia Sacramone knocking out a guy at Brown University.
The Red Sox finally win 19-17. Unbelievable. Have a good night. See you tomorrow.
