Now that I’m back at work, I’ll finish the megalinks plus some other stuff. We left off in the South. Let’s now head to the Midwest.
Midwest
The Chicago Tribune’s Ed Sherman spoke with ESPN’s Dick Vitale about this vocal cord surgery and his return to TV next week. And here are Ed’s weekend viewing picks.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley talks about how Fox Entertainment, Fox News and Fox Sports are all tied in on Sunday.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Judd Zulgad tells us that the Twins have bought a very expensive ad during the Super Bowl as it airs in the Twin Cities. Here are the ratings in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region for last week.
Paul Christian in the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin writes about Fox Sports’ Troy Aikman doing his second Super Bowl as an analyst.
West
Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) Morning News will start watching the Super Bowl at 4 p.m. local time and will skip the pregame show.
John Maffei of the North County Times writes that Fox executives do not think Super Bowl XLII will hit a 50 rating which would mean half of the nation’s TV sets would be watching the game.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune, Jay Posner says maybe it’s not a bad thing to have Ryan Seacrest at the Super Bowl. In his media notebook, Posner reports that a producer of Padres game will be leaving for ESPN. And here are the ratings for last week in San Diego.
The Ventura County Star’s Jim Carlisle says despite their portrayals by the media, Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Giants coach Tom Coughlin are really softies.
Christine Daniels of the Los Angeles Times in her Sound and Vision column says Fox is going to promote itself quite a bit during Super Bowl Sunday. Steve Harvey of the Times looks at some of the announcer gaffes over the last few years.
Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News looks at the initiation of the red carpet at the Super Bowl. And Tom has his extensive media notes in his Farther Off the Wall blog.
John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News is enjoying the NFL Network’s replays of the original Super Bowl broadcasts this week.
Canada
William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail says glitz is taking over the Super Bowl.
The Toronto Star’s Chris Zelkovich says fans will be hit hard by the hype for this Super Bowl. And Zelkovich follows that up with a story on Fox and CTV raking in the cash for Super Bowl ads.
Blogs
Newsday’s Neil Best doesn’t feel a buzz from Patriots or Giants fans in Arizona as of yet. And right when Bill Belichick was about to answer a question about Spygate during his press conference, the NFL Network cut away. Best answers the question if there’s any conspiracy there.
The Sports Media Watch says the Winter X Games outrated the NHL All Star Game last weekend, but again, Versus is not on all cable systems whereas ESPN and ESPN2 have a wider distribution.
Awful Announcing says bloggers have been shut out of the Super Bowl. And AA has a sneak peek at a Joe Buck commercial that’s will run during the Big Game.
Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media blog looks at how the NFL is feeding the ever-growing media monster at the Super Bowl.
Joe Favorito talks about how difficult it can be trying to find information online.
The Big Lead looks at how New York Daily News columnist and hatchet man Mike Lupica screwed over fellow columnist Lisa Olson who quit the paper this week. And TBL has a follow up. There’s a whole thread at SportsJournalists.com on Lisa’s sudden departure from the Daily News.
That’s it for now. More later.
