Time to give you some links for a Monday afternoon.
First, from the Sports Business Daily (no link, but I will give the publication full credit for this item), the New England-Dallas game in the 4:15 p.m. ET window garnered the highest ratings for an NFL game for CBS since it reacquired the rights to the league in 1998. Overnight ratings for the game which was seen in 87% of the country reached a 18.5 rating with a 35 share. Fox for its regional coverage received an 11.6/25 while NBC for New Orleans-Seattle reached 8.4/13. For all three networks, the ratings were up for Week 6 as compared to the same period last year. Fox was up 20%, CBS increased 7.5% and NBC raised 3.4% from Week 6 in 2006.
The Jackson (MS) Clarion Ledger’s Kyle Veazey has the SEC TV schedule (Lincoln Financial Sports, CBS and ESPN) for October 27. Note that Georgia-Florida will be on CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET. Brett Dawson of the Louisville Courier-Journal writes that with the Kentucky-Mississippi State scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on October 27, the Wildcats will not have played a night game this month. Tennessee will host South Carolina on ESPN at 7:45. Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa (AL) News says he doesn’t like the idea of this Saturday’s Alabama-Tennessee game being played on Lincoln Financial Sports at 12:30 p.m.
Some more college football scheduling news for October 27, this time from the Big 12. J. Brady McCullough of the Kansas City Star reports that Kansas will play Texas A&M on ESPN2 at 7 p.m.
Over to the Big Ten, the Green Bay Press-Gazette reports the Northern Illinois-Wisconsin game this Saturday and the Indiana-Wisconsin game next Saturday will be picked up by the Big Ten Network. Ohio State-Penn State on October 27 will be shown in primetime on ABC. Nathan Greenhalgh of the Reedsburg (WI) Times Press says local residents want their Big Ten Network.
Also from the Kansas City Star, Jeffrey Flanagan says Chiefs fans were treated on TV or the radio as former Chiefs radio voice Kevin Harlan and Chiefs QB Rich Gannon did the Chiefs-Bengals game for CBS and the radio team of Mitch Holthus and Lenny Dawson were at the mike for KCFX.
Jon Lafayette of TV Week says NBC is looking to sell sponsorship for Sunday Night Football’s post-game show.
Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel says ESPN’s E:60 newsmagazine will talk with Cecil Fielder, former Detroit Tiger slugger and father of Brewer Prince Fielder, about the estrangement with his son and why he won’t attend any of his games. And Wolfley has a critique of Kenny Albert and Troy Aikman working their first game together on Fox in Green Bay yesterday.
John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News says CBS’ Jim Nantz and Phil Simms must be wondering why they’re being sent to Oakland this Sunday after doing the New England-Dallas game yesterday.
The New York Post has an article on Round 2 between the NFL Network and the big cable companies. If you thought Big Ten Network vs. Cable was interesting, wait until we get closer to Thanksgiving and fans can’t watch the slate of Thursday and Saturday night games on the NFL Network. The El Paso Times had an editorial stating that politicians should have better things to do than worry about whether fans can see the Dallas Cowboys on the NFL Network.
That’s it for now. Primetime Viewing Picks coming up.
