Time to give you some links. With the Rockies sweep finishing late on the East Coast, there won’t be any final critiques of TBS’ coverage from the newspapers until tomorrow, but I’m sure there will be reviews of the NFL pregame shows from the weekend. Let’s check out the links.
First, John Molori of Boston Sports Media Watch is not a fan of either ESPN’s Keyshawn Johnson or Fox’s Terry Bradshaw.
The Sports Media Watch blog has a look at the League Championship Series ratings on both TBS and Fox and they’re aren’t pretty. And Paulsen looks at the weekend overnight ratings, but at the time of the post, the ALCS numbers weren’t available. And Michael Hiestand of USA Today analyzes the ratings of selected sporting events.
The Multichannel News says TBS isn’t doing well with the National League Championship Series. The State newspaper in Columbia, SC has a blurb on TBS’ low ratings. Jon Lafayette of TV Week says the short series in both the League Division and Championship Series have hurt TBS in both the ratings and in revenue.
Barry Horn on the Dallas Morning News writes that the Patriots-Cowboys game did well in the ratings for CBS.
Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner profiles Fox Sports Radio talk show host and DirecTV’s Red Zone Channel (from NFL Sunday Ticket) anchor Andrew Siciliano, a DC area native.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell has his choice for Best Sports Halloween Costume.
Patrick Kampert of the Chicago Tribune writes that the playoff chase helped midwest powerhouse radio station WGN Radio in the most recent ratings period. And the Trib’s Ed Sherman says this is the best time to be a Boston sports reporter or fan (isn’t that the truth?).
I hope you’re noticing that I’m making a conscious effort not to lead with New York papers as in the past. They seem to have their media columns every Tuesday like clockwork and Newsday’s Neil Best is no exception. Today, he writes about ESPN’s new E:60 newsmagazine which premieres tonight and about Versus getting two big Pac 10 upsets in the past two weeks.
Mike Battaglino of the New York Post talks with Jeremy Schaap who will be part of E:60. April Bethea of the Charlotte Observer previews one story on E:60 about the former University of North Carolina mascot who gave the gift of life in death.
Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News criticizes MLB and TBS for playing Game 3 of the NLCS on Sunday in horrible weather conditions.
The LA Times reports that the Los Angeles Dodgers have returned to KABC as its flagship station after being on KFWB for the last five seasons. Announcers Vin Scully and Charley Steiner have also signed contract extensions through 2009. Tom Hoffarth of the LA Daily News also has a story on the change in stations for the Dodgers. And the Ventura County Star picks up wire copy for the story.
With baseball over for Turner Sports, it now focuses on the NBA, its other signature sport and the Multichannel News writes that TBS/TNT wants to purchase NBA.com and get the rights to NBA League Pass, the PPV cable/satellite package.
Jim Carlisle of the Star writes in his regular Tuesday column that with all the ESPN hype surrounding the Patriots-Cowboys, you would think the Alleged Worldwide Leader was airing the game.
I’ll give you three press releases from ESPN. Former Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy has found a job for next season, as part of the lead broadcast team for the NBA on ESPN. Second, here are the features that will on tonight’s premiere of E:60. And ESPN will pick up three Pac 10 regular season games for its upcoming college basketball season.
Chris Pursell of TV has a story on the Pac 10 on ESPN.
Mekeisha Madden Toby of the Detroit News says the Frank TV promos on TBS during the MLB Postseason went beyond overkill.
George M. Thomas in today’s Akron Beacon Journal prefers Joe Buck and Tim McCarver of Fox on the ALCS over Chip Carey, Tony Gwynn and Bob Brenly for the ALDS. He might be the only one.
The Michigan-Minnesota game on October 27 will be picked up by ESPN Classic. Carter Strickland of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that the annual Georgia-Florida game will be in its traditional 3:30 p.m. ET spot on CBS.
Rick Maese of the Baltimore Sun spent Sunday at ESPN looking at what goes on with the Sunday NFL Countdown studio analysts off camera.
Bob Molinaro of the Virginian-Pilot laments the late starts for baseball playoff games. Unfortunately, it’s a reality. Live with it.
Rene Hurtado, part of Time Warner Cable’s public relations team, writes an op-ed piece in the Newspaper Tree of El Paso against picking up the NFL Network.
Bob Young in the Arizona Republic talks with FSN college football analyst Petros Papadakis.
This is like a Friday megalink update. Coming up, I’ll have Saturday Night Live’s spoof of those horrible Dane Cook/MLB Post
season ads.
