First, being home on this holiday, I’m able to watch Mike & the Mad Dog on the YES Network from New York. You can see why they’ve been together for so long and set the standard for other sports radio shows across the country. They have good chemistry. They mesh well. They do have a bad tendency to talk over each other and their interviews can be brutal at times, but when it’s just them going back and forth, they’re enjoyable to listen to. WFAN certainly lucked into radio gold when they put them together back in 1989 and they’ve been together ever since.
Some links now for you on this Monday update.
David Barron of the Houston Chronicle blogs that the Dolphins-Texans game has been chosen for NFL Network’s NFL Replay this week.
Neil Best of Newsday in his blog says if the Yankees-Indians go to a Game 5 in their American League Division Series, it will be played at 8:37 p.m. on Wednesday. And Best says Versus lucked into having the USC upset at the hands of Stanford on Saturday.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football was the ratings winner last night even beating “Desperate Housewives” on ABC. And here’s an hour-by-hour breakdown from zap2it.com. Paul Gough of the Hollywood Reporter expands on the story.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell suggests that you don’t necessarily follow the Vegas line when trying to decide on the winner of a game.
Jon Lafayette of TV Week tells us in less than a week, the NHL Network has picked up agreements with the major cable companies and satellite providers. The Tampa Bay Business Journal says the NHL is really banking on its new channel to launch in the US in a few weeks, but I did see it at a friend’s house on Cox Cable in Rhode Island on Saturday.
Also from TV Week, Chris Pursell in his Pressbox blog talks with Colonial Athletic Association Commissioner Tom Yeager about expansion and the role of digital rights for his conference.
Some college football game announcements for October 20. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has information on the start times for Penn State and Pittsburgh. ABC will pick up Ohio State-Michigan State according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The Big Ten Network will take the Purdue-Iowa game reports the Indianapolis Star. The Huntsville (AL) Times tells us that ESPN will air the Auburn-LSU game in primetime.
Good article by Kevin Benz of Poynter Online, part of the Poynter Institute, on why local news directors should not eliminate sports from their TV newscasts. You may have noticed your local newscasts cutting the length of sports reports or even eliminating them.
Dish Network has made it official that it’s picked up TBS HD as of today. Ben Grossman of Broadcasting & Cable says Ron Darling will be added to the TBS studio for tonight and the entire National League Championship Series.
Something that came out Friday, Maury Brown in the Biz of Baseball tells us that the TV ratings for MLB were a mixed bag this season.
Primetime Viewing Picks coming up.
