Time to do some original content here. The thoughts come to you in bullet form as always.
- As the Super Bowl fast approaches, we hear from those who know more than your humble blogger that Sunday’s Big Game could set a viewing record. Super Bowl XLV on Fox between Green Bay and Pittsburgh set the standard with an average of 111 million viewers. I do expect we’ll see an average of 115 million for Pats-Giants with a total viewership reaching 170 million. I’ll also predict a rating of 47.5 with a 70 share. Based on last year’s numbers, my prediction would be on track. Patriots owner Robert Kraft feels Super Bowl XLVI will be the most watched program of all-time and I agree with him.
- I wish ESPN would cover every event like it does tennis. The announcing from Chris Fowler, Cliff Drysdale, Patrick McEnroe, Darren Cahill, Chris Evert, Mary Jo Fernandez, Pam Shriver, Brad Gilbert to host Chris McKendry was stellar throughout the Australian Open. I have not been enamored with Fowler’s play-by-play in the past, but I thought he was very good especially in calling the men’s semifinals of Rafael Nadal-Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic-Andy Murray and extremely good for the epic Rafa-Djoker final.The men’s final had so many ups and downs and so many shifts of momentum. Fowler and McEnroe were on top of potential shifts and correctly first guessed many points. ESPN2 was on top of the play on Sunday And Tennis Channel was very good as well. It’s too bad that neither ESPN2 or Tennis Channel could pick up John McEnroe for the Aussie Open. He will be on the French Open for Tennis Channel and NBC.
However, ESPN2’s efforts appear not to be rewarded as the ratings were off from last year. I’ll have more on that later today.
- And one more item from the weekend, I thought the HBO/NFL Films documentary on Joe Namath was fantastic. As with past HBO efforts, it did not sugarcoat Namath’s life and career. It delved into his partying lifestyle during his heyday with the New York Jets in the 1960’s during the height of the Sexual Revolution. In addition, it did not whitewash his alcoholism nor his most infamous moment in 2003 when he was drunk during a live interview with Suzy Kolber on ESPN. The film made great lengths to show that while Namath loved the bright lights of Broadway, he still had his home of Beaver Falls, PA deep in his soul. From the rarely seen footage of his high school days, to his college career at Alabama and through to the AFL and NFL, “Namath” captured the essence of the man. Another solid documentary from HBO, definitely Emmy Award-worthy.
- Just 19 days until pitchers and catchers report. Can’t wait.
That does it for now. This should be another busy day for sports media.
And one quick self-serving note. This week’s edition of the Sports Media Podcast will have a record amount of guests. I’m not going jinx it by pre-promoting them, but suffice to say if everything holds true, you will love the Super Bowl edition of the podcast.
I’ll be back later in the day.
