Rudy Martzke profiles Greg Gumbel who will work long days this weekend in the CBS Studio during the NCAA Tournament. He along with analysts Clark Kellogg and SI’s Seth Davis are all burning the midnight oil throughout the weekend, but Gumbel says it’s worth it. He does a very good job. Gumbel and Kellogg have a very good chemistry, but since Davis was hired last season, it has cut down on the time Kellogg has in responding to Gumbel’s questions. I’m not a fan of Davis’ and I wonder what it would take for him to leave the CBS Studio.
Over to the Boston Globe, Bill Griffith talks about the Hockey East tournament which culimates this weekend at the Fleet Center. Also for HD viewers, Comcast and UPN38 of Boston are trying to come to an agreement to bring the Red Sox home opener which will be against the Yankees in HD.
In Chicago, Herb Arkush is out of the broadcast booth for the Bears. Arkush has been known for some malapropisms and come under criticism from fans for not being critical of the team. Ed Sherman has more. It’s not known if flagship station WBBM will replace Arkush with another analyst or leave listeners with a two man booth of Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer.
The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick is perpetually in a bad mood and he never has anything nice to say about anyone. This is especially true today. He spreads the hate to college basketball and the baseball players who testified in front of Congress yesterday.
Mike Forde has a couple of stories in today’s Post. He has five questions for AARP spokesman Billy Packer. Forde has has a brief feature on ESPN’s Jay Bilas doing games for CBS this year during the NCAA Tournament.
For fans of wrestling (and we all know it’s fake), the WWE and Spike TV have reached an impasse in their contract talks. Programs like “Raw” and others may be moving to another outlet.
Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News watched the Steroids Hearings yesterday was not impressed.
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times complains about C-Span’s production values during yesterday hearings. To be honest, C-Span should not be the issue here, it should be the embarrassing performances by Mark McGwire and several Congressmen who appeared uninformed and in some cases, asskissers.
Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle does have some legitimate criticism of ESPN for staying with coverage of the Steroids Hearings.
Acording to Sports Business Daily, “CBS earns 4.8/10 overnight Nielsen for opening day of NCAA men’s basketball tourney, down 5.9% from a 5.1/10 last year.”
David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says there are many ways to enjoy the NCAA Tournament in other ways than the traditional over the air TV set.
Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune has a story about CBS not wanting too many upsets for the Tournament.
Larry Stewart of the LA Times has a story on the possibilities for the NFL in regards to the primetime packages on Sunday and Monday nights. There’s a big question whether ABC wants to keep MNF. Also, will ESPN take MNF and who will be the rightsholder for Sunday night? The NFL will hold its annual meetings in Maui and may decide the fate of Disney then.
Lots of links. Back to the NCAA Tournament for me.
I’ll have reviews of CBS’ weekend coverage.
