Time for a few links this afternoon.
Newsday’s Neil Best wonders who will have the last laugh, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen who says Giants QB Eli Manning will miss up to a month with an injured right shoulder or the Giants who say he may miss one or two games at the most. Manning had said he’ll play this Sunday, but that’s up in the air at this point. And Best tells us that he was on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” as the “Phone a Friend”. Neil is on ESPN, Millionaire, what’s next? The Amazing Race?
In his Four DVRs, no waiting blog at the Houston Chronicle, David Barron says that the Texans’ victory over the Chiefs on Sunday registered quite well with viewers.
Andy Baggot of the Wisconsin State Journal writes that the Big Ten Network is still not an option for a majority of the Dairy State’s residents. He notes that Charter Communications is still in talks with BTN. The Lansing (MI) State Journal in an editorial says fans are being abused in the BTN/Cable standoff. From the Community Common (OH), Time Warner Cable says eight or more Ohio State football games will be carried on its systems either through ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. No word on the games to be shown on BTN.
Mike Shields in Mediaweek writes that Yahoo! Sports beat ESPN.com in unique visitors for the first time last month. ESPN.com is usually the number sports website. This is considered an upset. I will say Yahoo’s NFL fantasy leagues are run very well so it could very well be people visiting to sign up.
Mike Mulhern of the Winston-Salem (NC) Journal writes that the folks at ESPN/ABC couldn’t be happier with the ratings for the NASCAR race from Saturday that aired on the alphabet network.
It seems Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun shut down in August, but he’s back now with a column about the new Monday Night Football booth and Bob Costas showing up on Fox NFL Sunday. Also from the Sun, blogger Roch Kubatko wishes MASN’s Amber Theoharis (a Fang’s Bites fav) a happy 29th birthday. If you’re in the Baltimore area, send Amber a nice E-card. And to prove I can play the same game as Neil Best, I’ll post Amber’s picture here.
Ryan Sharrow of the Baltimore Business Journal says North Carolina officials are targeting Suddenlink Communications to get MASN carried on its cable systems. MASN is also battling Time Warner Cable in the Tar Heel State.
Tim Lemke of the Washington Times recaps an interview of SNY’s Mets analyst Ron Darling conducted by John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal. Darling goes over his first year of TV analysis for the Washington Nationals on MASN.
Chris Pursell of TV Week has a new entry in his Pressbox blog regarding the most obsessed NFL cities. The results may surprise you.
John Ryan in his Morning Buzz blog at the San Jose Mercury News says the 49er opener on Monday Night Football was the highest rated Niner game in the Bay Area in four years. And from the same Morning Buzz blog, Ryan posts a screengrab of Mike Ditka grabbing his nether regions on ESPN. I kid you not. Look at the picture.
CBS Sports’ Lesley Visser writes about her experiences on the NFL sidelines. Good article. You may not know that Lesley was once a writer for the Boston Globe sports department when it had the all-star lineup of Peter Gammons, Will McDonough, Bob Ryan, Bud Collins to name a few.
CBS also gives us some advance notes from Phil Simms for NFL Week 2 as well as the announcer assignments for the next two weeks. I notice Jim Nantz and Simms will be covering games involving the NFC North in Weeks 2 and 3 as AFC teams visit Green Bay and Chicago.
The Colorado Gazette picks up an Associated Press story on Tiki Barber’s new TV career.
Phil Swann at the TV Predictions website says the NFL Network won’t have HD capabilities for 24-72 hours because of a fire at a Stamford, CT broadcast facility that also affected the YES Network and A&E.
From the AfterEllen lesbian news website, Ace14 blogs that ESPN will have coverage of the US Women’s Open over the next five Sundays. Which US Women’s Open? Golf? No, that was back in July. Tennis? No, that was just completed last weekend. Which sport you ask? Why it’s bowling!
I think that will do it for now. Primetime and Late Night Viewing Picks coming up.
