Let’s do the Monday links. Pretty eventful weekend. Conan O’Brien’s last Tonight Show on Friday night, Upset Saturday in college basketball and then NFL Championship Sunday which leaves Vikings fans with a very bitter aftertaste.
A couple of reactions before I go to the linkage. Conan O’Brien went out the right way. I saw David Letterman’s last Late Night on NBC before he went to CBS. He had Bill Murray and Bruce Springsteen and I thought it was the best last late night show on TV before Conan’s on Friday. Conan refused to bash NBC in his last comments and came out extremely classy. Then the final song, Free Bird led by Will Farrell with ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Beck and an all-star band including Conan himself playing a mean guitar gave the show the correct ending. And Will Farrell hitting the cowbell had many of us on Twitter calling for more. I edited down the original video from the Hulu site to show the last 12 minutes.
Yes, that is Will Ferrell’s wife. Great stuff.
And last night, Joe Buck’s overgushing on Brett Favre and Fox’s constant cutaways to his wife, Deanna, got to the point of sickening. I lost count how many times Fox cut to Deanna’s reaction. And Joe’s constant gushing got to the point of near-Thom Brennaman love of Tim Tebow in the 2009 Sugar Bowl.
Well, the gushing and the cutaways of Deanna went so over the top that I had had enough and wrote the following on Twitter.
The required cutaway to Deanna Favre and his daughter. I’m sure there are more coming.Joe Buck could make a Roman orgy sound extremely boring.And Joe Buck made that AP (Adrian Peterson) touchdown sound like a ground ball to Albert Pujols.Which is worse? Buck overgushing on Brett Favre or Thom Brennaman overgushing on Tim Tebow?Fox is officially enamored with Deanna Favre cutaways. Soon, they’ll show her reaction to the State of the Union address.As Brett Favre walked off the field gingerly after a New Orleans sack: Coming up next, Joe Buck asks Brett Favre to sit on his lap so he can rub the injured ankle.After a fumble on a handoff to Peterson: Joe Buck will now say that fumble wasn’t Favre’s fault and then give him a hug after the game.Joe Buck is hoping to massage Brett Favre’s bruises after the game.Fox is going to hire Deanna Favre to join Sarah Palin for Favre-Favre/Counter Favre on Fox News Channel.Joe Buck leads Troy Aikman with the question, “Don’t you think Brett Favre has tremendous eyes?”As the game ended: Coming up next, Joe Buck hosts a career retrospective for Brett Favre. Joe will be weeping constantly.
Yes, I was a bit angry watching the game.
Ok to the links now.
Michael Hiestand of USA Today says the Super Bowl is lining up for good ratings.
Dan Levy of On The DL writes in the Sporting News about the differences of a good storyline and a good story in the Super Bowl.
Bill Gorman at TV by the Numbers says the NFC Championship Game drew monster ratings for Fox.
Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News feels Brett Favre’s late interception in the NFC Championship might have cost the Super Bowl a viewing audience of 100 million people.
Beth Snyder Bulik of Advertising Age writes that Intel is returning to the Super Bowl ad roster after a 13 year absence.
Claire Atkinson of Broadcasting & Cable writes that local stations are selling Super Bowl ads with a vengeance as marketers are shying away from national ads.
Glen Dickson of B&C tells us CBS won’t be making monumental changes to airing the Super Bowl as compared with the last time it aired the game.
One more from B&C, Ben Grossman talks with NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson whose 24/7 series debuts on HBO tomorrow.
Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek says NBC is revising its revenue loss to $250 million for the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Anthony adds that TNT is seeing a sales ad resurgence for NBA All-Star Weekend.
Katy Bachman of Mediaweek says CBS Radio is expanding its FM sports radio station portfolio.
Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Jason Fry talks to a Twitter pioneer who gives some Tweeting advice.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell says a Super Bowl ticket should be cheaper this year.
Darren also gives us a sneak peek of his CNBC documentary on the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issie.
The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick is really reaching on his criticism of CBS’ Phil Simms.
In the New York Daily News, Bob Raissman is throwing stuff at the wall in hopes it sticks.
Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has the kickoff time for Super Bowl XLIV.
And Pete has the times for the Pro and Super Bowls over the next two weeks.
Laura Nachman shared her thoughts as she watched the NFC Championship.
Kevin Cowherd of the Baltimore Sun says Fox cut away to Deanna Favre way too much during the NFC Championship.
Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner breaks news that Anita Marks is leaving her Baltimore sports talk show after failing to come to a contract agreement with CBS Radio.
Tim Lemke isn’t sure that Super Bowl XLIV will be the most watched game in history.
Tom Jones in the St. Petersburg Times feels CBS and Fox got the job done in their respective NFL Conference Games.
David Barron in the Houston Chronicle says the failure of figure skater Sasha Cohen to make the U.S. Olympic team could cost NBC some viewers in February.
John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer talks with a former sports talk show host who returns to the air next month.
On his 92nd birthday, national treasure Ernie Harwell expresses some thoughts for the Detroit Free Press.
Ernie adds that writing the column was a victory over laziness.
Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Jounal Sentinel says the NFC Championship featuring former Packer Brett Favre drew extremely high ratings locally.
In Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman wonders if the Windy City could get a third sports radio station.
Michael Miner in the Chicago Reader says former Tribune and Rocky Mountain News sports columnist Bernie Lincicome is ready and willing to return to writing.
Dusty Saunders in the Denver Post feels Fox didn’t go overboard in gushing over Brett Favre. I disagree.
Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has the SoCal sports calendar for this week.
Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says the Vancouver Canucks are boycotting CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada as a show of support for Alex Burrows.
Chris Zelkovich in the Toronto Star isn’t a fan of CBS or Fox.
Michael David Smith at Fanhouse has the video of ESPN’s John Buccigross being insulted as a “jagoff” by Kentucky jagoff John Calipari.
Chris Byrne in the Eye on Sports Media has some funny tweets as people began to make fun of ESPN’s Chris Berman and Tom Jackson as they overgushed on Brett Favre last night.
Joe Favorito tells us why offseason baseball fan fests work in keeping fans close to their favorite teams and in keeping team brands active during the winter.
Steve Lepore of Puck The Media wonders if the NHL should forsake TV and stream all of its games on the internet. It’s going to happen one day, one sports league will shuck TV for internet rights.
Steve adds that the NHL on NBC held its own on NFL Championship Sunday.
And we’ll end with Len Berman’s Top 5 sports stories at That’s Sports.
We’ll have press release posts throughout the day so keep your RSS and Twitter feeds updated.
