It’s snowing in New England. Luckily, I waited to go into work today so the roads were clear coming into work, but when I leave in about an hour, I’m sure there will be more people on the highways. The last time it snowed in this area in December, there will delays of more than 6 hours on the roads in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Here’s hoping the idiots in both states have learned their lessons to make sure the roads are all clear.
First, some potentially bad news for Red Sox fans. The Inside Track girls of the Boston Herald report that NESN’s Tina Cervasio may be leaving for a job closer to home (she’s a Jersey Girl) with Fox 5 in New York. Red Sox fans have come to love Tina who does great work on the sidelines on Red Sox games, but NESN is notorious for not stepping up and paying talent. Tina’s contract is up and I hope that she remains in Boston. Stay tuned.
USA Today’s Michael Hiestand tells us that Fox is going to use its Super Bowl pregame show to hype American Idol. If you have the NFL Network, turn over there to watch a real pregame show. And it’s true, Paula Abdul will have a role on the Fox pregame. Don’t watch.
The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick picks on a lot of minute things in the Fox and CBS playoff broadcasts.
Newsday’s Neil Best has a bunch of blog posts today. I’ll link to a few. First, he reports that ESPN has invested in the new NBA China. Great. Neil writes that Joe Buck and Troy Aikman did not mention Jessica Simpson once during the Giants-Cowboys broadcast.
More on that NBA China venture from Michael de la Merced of the New York Times.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell speculates how much Super Bowl tickets could cost based on the potential matchups of the four remaining teams.
Dusty Saunders of the Rocky Mountain News says the best announcing voices were missing from the NFL Divisional Playoffs this past weekend.
Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner writes in his blog about ESPN2 and the Tennis Channel teaming up for extensive coverage of the Australian Open.
Pete Dougherty of the Albany (NY) Times Union says in his blog that the matchups in the NFL Conference Championships are not what CBS and Fox had hoped for.
John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News says the NFL had a very good weekend.
The Sports Media Watch looks at both conference matchups and Paulsen says San Diego robbed CBS of extremely high ratings by winning the AFC Divisional playoff game against the Colts. And the Sports Media Watch looks at how the Giants threw a monkey wrench into Fox’s plans for the NFC Championship. Paulsen also has a story on the NBA and ESPN teaming up on the new NBA China venture.
The Toronto Star’s Chris Zelkovich hates two things, Terrell Owens and the way Fox covered Terrell Owens during yesterday’s Giants-Cowboys game.
ESPN has announced that Dick Vitale plans to return to the airwaves on February 4th on the Mike & Mike show on ESPN Radio, then return to game announcing during the Duke-North Carolina game two days later.
More reason to hate ESPN, Mike Shields of Mediaweek writes that the giant behemoth has signed with Major League Gaming for something. You can read it. Also from Mediaweek, Steve McClellan writes that NBC may hit a sales record for the Summer Olympics.
Scott Cronick of the Press of Atlantic City reviews the roast of ESPN Radio’s Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic from the weekend.
In advance of the start of the NASCAR season, United Press International talks with Fox Sports’ Darrell Waltrip’s concerns about the falling ratings for the sport.
That’s it for now.
