Let’s give you an afternoon update. First, let me thank Neil Best of Newsday for putting Fang’s Bites on his Blogroll. It’s much appreciated. Neil has been prolific since starting his Watchdog blog back in May which is about when I re-launched this site after being dormant for two years. Since then, this blog has grown as has Neil’s so it’s nice to get recognition from one of the best sports media writers in the country (and that’s not blowing smoke).
We start with Neil who writes that the final ratings are in for Patriots-Colts and it amounted to a 20.1 rating translating to over 30 million viewers. That means the game hooked casual fans of the NFL. For CBS, it has the two highest rated games of the season, Pats-Colts and Pats-Cowboys which garnered 29.1 million viewers. Best also has a preview of one of the stories on tonight’s E:60 magazine which airs on ESPN tonight at 7.
And if you want a full rundown of the stories on E:60 tonight, here’s the press release from ESPN.
Mike Reynolds writes in his Multichannel News blog that if the Patriots are 15-0 going into their last game against the Giants, the NFL can use it as leverage against the cable companies. You see, the Patriots-Giants game is scheduled for a Saturday night in Week 17 …. on the NFL Network.
Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner regurgitates a press release from Versus on the premiere of Dennis Miller’s new show. As much as I have grown tired of Miller (I saw him open for Louie Anderson at a nightclub at Misquamicut Beach in RI in the late 1980’s), I will take a gander at this show tonight.
David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes in his Four DVRs, no waiting blog about the joke Keith Olbermann made at the expense of the Texans-Raiders game on Football Night in America.
More reason to hate ESPN. Yesterday, we told you about the behemoth teaming up with Microsoft to provide content to Xbox Live. Now, it’s hooked up with ticket broker StubHub to provide tickets to fans through the ESPN.com website. StubHub will be integrated all throughout the website. Great.
Although I’ll give praise to ESPN when it does something good and College Gameday will be on site for its first Division III game. Steven Dravis of the Berkshire (MA) Eagle reports Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso will host the show from the site of the Amherst-Williams game this Saturday. The show marks the 150th edition in its history.
Usually, I won’t link to news about local sports anchors, but here’s one that caught my eye. The first female sports director on a local TV station, Heidi Soliday has been let go by KCCI of Des Moines, IA. She had been with the station for 31 years. According to reports, she had not been on the station in recent weeks leading to speculation that she was no longer employed there.
Continuing in Iowa, the Big Ten Network has picked up another small cable company, this one is called Long Lines. Dave Dreeszen of the Sioux City Journal has the story.
Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post says a contest held by WUSA TV in DC to choose the top Washington Redskin legend is flawed.
Adrian Peterson, the Hollywood Writers’ Strike and a peace offering to Patriots fans are among the items touched upon in Gregg Easterbrook’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
Len Ziehm of the Chicago Sun-Times writes about Comcast SportsNet’s plans to air what he calls the “Magnificent 7” home Blackhawks games starting next Sunday. Carol Slezak writes in the Sun-Times that the plans by new Blackhawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz got off to a good start by allowing home broadcasts.
That will do it.
