Final Four Will Be In 3D
Get Your Eyes Ready
CBS announced that it will produce 3D coverage of the Final Four of NCAA men’s college basketball tournament that will be carried in more than 100 theaters.
Sean McManus, who oversees the network’s sports and news divisions, says the 3D coverage will be a “separate production” from the regular TV coverage.
McManus says CBS first 3D coverage, which will be distributed to movie theaters by Cinedigm Digital Cinema, will be “more of an experiment than anything else” and is the “only” sports event that CBS now has definite plans to cover in 3D.
Fox has produced a 3D BCS game that was carried in theaters and plans to cover this season’s MLB All-Star Game in 3D in coverage that will be carried by DirecTV.
ESPN produced an Ohio State-USC game in 3D last season that was available to the public in a handful of theaters and plans to launch a 3D channel in June in time for the World Cup.
President Obama Gets Offer To Join CBS For NCAA Tournament
One Shinning Moment
U.S. President Barack Obama has a “standing offer” to join CBS for its telecast of college basketball’s men’s tournament, network executive Sean McManus said.
The CBS Corp. network contacted the White House to ask whether Obama would fill out a 65-team bracket or otherwise participate in coverage of the NCAA tournament since he isn’t busy with anything.
Obama, an avid basketball fan and recreational player, sat in with CBS commentators Clark Kellogg and Verne Lundquist for six minutes of commentary during a game between Georgetown University and Duke on January 30.
After Obama described one player’s spin move and score, Kellogg, the network’s lead basketball color analyst, said Obama could have a career in broadcasting.
“After retirement, I’m coming after your job, Clark, just letting you know,” Obama responded. “So you only have three more years or seven, I’m not sure which.”
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said at a briefing today that the president liked his short stint as a broadcaster.
Last year Obama went out on a limb and picked correctly that the University of North Carolina would win the national championship.
Jennifer Hudson To Perform ‘One Shining Moment’
TALENT
Jennifer Hudson will have her “One Shining Moment.” The Grammy and Oscar winner will perform the song that plays each year at the end of the CBS broadcast of the NCAA men’s basketball championship game.
Hudson will be the first woman to sing it. Teddy Pendergrass and Luther Vandross have performed previous renditions. Hudson recorded the song in Los Angeles on February 13 and her producer, Harvey Mason Jr., played for the Arizona team that reached the 1988 Final Four.
The tune by folk singer David Barrett has been a March Madness staple since 1987, played over highlights of the tournament.
Hudson, who won an Academy Award in 2007 for her supporting role in “Dreamgirls,” performed at last year’s Super Bowl.
Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony Draws 32.6 Milli
32.6 Milli
The Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics drew a 17.3 final rating and 32.6 million viewers on NBC Friday night, up 35% in ratings and 47% in viewership from Turin in 2006 (12.8, 22.2 mil), but down 32% and 29%, respectively, from Salt Lake City in 2002 (25.5/42, 45.6 mil).
This marks the highest rated, most-viewed non-U.S. Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics since Lillehammer in 1994 (20.9, 33.8 mil, CBS).
The Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics drew an 18.8 and 34.9 million.
Super Bowl XLIV Most Watched TV Event EVER With 106.5 Milli
Surpasses "Goodbye & Amen" Episode
For 27 years M*A*S*H finale was the most watched TV event until last nights Super Bowl XLVI dethroned it. The previous record was of 106.0 million for the finale in 1983.
The Saints 31-17 win over the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV drew a 45.0 national rating and 106.5 million viewers on CBS Sunday night, up 7% in ratings and 8% in viewership from Pittsburgh Steelers/Arizona Cardinals on NBC last year (42.0, 98.7 mil), and up 4% and 9%, respectively, from New York Giants/New England Patriots on FOX in ‘08 (43.1, 97.4 mil).
Additionally, the 45.0 rating is the highest for any television program since Dallas Cowboys/Pittsburgh Steelers drew a 46.0 in 1996.
To put the numbers in perspective, the Super Bowl drew over 70 million more viewers than the top non-NFL sporting event of the past 12 months — the Texas/Alabama BCS National Championship Game (30.8 mil).
This is the third-straight year the Super Bowl has drawn record viewership, and the fifth-straight year that viewership for the game has increased. Just five years ago, Super Bowl XXXIX drew only 86.1 million viewers on FOX. From 1999-05, the Super Bowl drew less than 90 million viewers each year.
The record for the Super Bowl is the capper to a highly successful season for the NFL. The regular season was the most-viewed since 1990 (16.6 mil), the Wild Card round was the most-viewed since ‘95 (29.9 mil), the Divisional Round was the most-viewed since ‘94 (33.0 mil), and the Conference Championship games were the most-viewed since ‘82 (52.9 mil).
Your 2010 All Day Super Bowl Schedule
New Orleans Saints By 14+
Super Bowl XLIV is here and here is the full broadcasting schedule for CBS, ESPN and NFL Network.
CBS
- The Road To The Super Bowl (11am-Noon) CST
- Phil Simms All-Iron Team (Noon-1pm)
- Studio Show: Super Bowl Today (1-5pm) – James Brown, Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, Shannon Sharpe and Bill Cowher, Charley Casserly; Reporters: Lesley Visser, Sam Ryan, Steve Tasker, Solomon Wilcots, Dick Enberg and contributor Katie Couric
SEGMENTS:
- THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS: James Brown takes a look at New Orleans four-and-a-half years after one of the nation’s worst natural catastrophes, Hurricane Katrina
- PLAXICO BURRESS: Plaxico Burress sits down with Bill Cowher for his first interview since being sent to jail in September of 2009.
- DREW BREES: Katie Couric sits down with the Saints quarterback.
- REGGIE BUSH: Bush is interviewed by NFL Today analyst Shannon Sharpe.
- NEW ORLEANS DEFENSE: Lesley Visser sits down with Darren Sharper, Jonathan Vilma and Will Smith as they prepare to face the Colts high octane offense.
- PEYTON MANNING: Dan Marino visits with him and talks about Manning’s first Super Bowl win three years ago in Miami, the Colts’ decision not to go for a perfect season, and facing the team that his father Archie played for, the New Orleans Saints.
- DWIGHT FREENEY AND ROBERT MATHIS: Boomer Esiason sits down with Freeney and Mathis as they get ready to take on Drew Brees and the Saints.
- INDIANAPOLIS RECEIVING CORPS: Sam Ryan visits with the Colts’ receiving corps and discusses the role Peyton Manning has played in the quartet’s success.
- WYNTON MARSALIS: Jazz impresario Wynton Marsalis pays a special tribute with music and words to his beloved city of New Orleans.
- BARACK OBAMA: Katie Couric interviews the President before the game.
- GUY FIERI: Will prepare the “perfect tailgate food.”
- MUSICAL PERFORMANCES: Steve Winwood & Daughtry
SUPER BOWL XLIV (5:28pm Kickoff CST)- Jim Nantz, Phil Simms, Steve Tasker, Solomon Wilcots
ESPN
- SportsCenter live from Sun Life Stadium (ESPN, 10am)- Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden and Ron Jaworski
- Sunday NFL Countdown (ESPN, 11am-1pm)- Chris Berman, Tom Jackson, Mike Ditka, Keyshawn Johnson, Cris Carter, Steve Young, Trent Dilfer, Tedi Bruschi, Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski, Jon Gruden, Chris Mortensen, Adam Schefter, Suzy Kolber and Ed Werder
Special Guests:
– Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade and Rob Schneider, stars of the upcoming movie Grown Ups (10:30am)
- Celebrity chef and television personality Emeril Lagasse, who lives in New Orleans, will discuss Cajun Super Bowl cuisine (11:30pm)
– Grammy Award-winning musician Kenny Chesney, a close friend to Saints head coach Sean Payton, will appear on the show (Noon)
NFL Network
- NFL GAMEDAY MORNING SUPER BOWL SUNDAY PREGAME FROM SOUTH FLORIDA (8am-4:30pm)- Marshall Faulk, Steve Mariucci, Warren Sapp, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, Stacey Dales, Rich Eisen
- From the Sun Life Stadium booth: Fran Charles, Rod Woodson
- From NFC and AFC hotels- Scott Hanson, Kara Henderson
- From South Beach set- Alex Flanagan, Jamie Dukes, Tom Waddle
SEGMENTS:
- A look inside the Indianapolis Colts defense with Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis and Gary Brackett.
- How Colts WR Pierre Garcon and Saints LB Jonathan Vilma are bound together by the disaster relief effort in Haiti.
- A closer look at what the Saints organization and players mean to the city of New Orleans, straight from the fans.
- Steve Sabol gives his take on how the legacy of Colts icon Peyton Manning now includes taking on his father’s team in Super Bowl XLIV.
- Super Bowl Journey – Saints DT Anthony Hargrove visits the Miami rehabilitation facility that he was in a year ago.
- In Memoriam – A reflection on the NFL icons that were lost in 2009
- Sabol chronicles the best decade of Super Bowl matchups
The Best Super Bowl Commerical You’ll Never See
With all the talk being centered around the Tim Tebow and Mancrunch Super Bowl commercials what about the commercials you never have the chance to talk about on the Monday after?
Here’s a clip one one that just didn’t make the cut thanks to some recent CBS guidelines, I still blame Justin Timberlake for allowing Janet Jackson titty to take the fall.
It’s a shame too, Budweiser is known to create some iconic commercials and I believe this would have been one.
The Gay Ads Rejected By CBS
CBS has recently caused a controversy by agreeing to accept the finances of the Christian group Focus on the Family to air a pro-life Tim Tebow ad, to air during the Super Bowl.
But what you probably unaware of is the two ads that CBS has rejected and they both involve gay content. The first ad is from Mancrunch.com a gay dating site but was told that CBS was sold out of all its spots, even though that is not the case.
The other ad comes from GoDaddy.com about a retired football player named “Lola,” who is very flamboyant that launches a lingerie line and Web site in his retirement. Go Daddy race car driver Danica Patrick also appears in the ad in a narrator role.
Do you think CBS is playing moral god with its Super Bowl ads?
HUGE TV Numbers For AFC & NFC Championship Games
Est. 1920
The NFC Championship game on FOX was of blockbuster magnitude as the New Orleans Saints thrilling overtime victory over the Minnesota Vikings drew a 33.3 overnight and approximately 57.9 million viewers, which would be the second best NFC Championship average viewership of all time, behind only 1982’s Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers (“The Catch”) matchup that produced a 68.7 million viewers.
The NFC Championship game on FOX Sunday night was well above last years Arizona Cardinals/Philadelphia Eagles game which only produced 38.4 million viewers and it 33 o.3 overnight is up 5% from New York Giants/Green Bay Packers on FOX in 2008 (31.7) and . Ratings peaked at a 39.4 from 10:00-10:30 PM.
The Vikings/Saints is the most-viewed television program of any kind, excluding Super Bowls, since the series finale of Seinfeld in 1998 which saw 76.3 million.
The game did not dominate in all markets though, in Buffalo the NFC Championship game was actually outdrawn head-to-head by Extreme Makeover Home Edition on ABC, with Extreme Makeover drawing a 35.8 and the game drawing a 32.1.
CBS on the other hand did not post as great as number compared to FOX however did draw the highest overnight rating for the AFC Championship game in 16 years and saw 46.9 million actual viewers.
The Indianapolis Colts come from behind win over the New York Jets drew a stellar 28.4 overnight rating on Sunday afternoon, up 4% from San Diego Chargers/New England Patriots on CBS in 2008 (27.4).
The 28.4 overnight is the highest for the AFC Championship Game since Buffalo Bills/Kansas City Chiefs in 1994 (29.5) on NBC. Additionally, the 28.4 is the highest overnight for any NFL telecast on CBS, excluding Super Bowls, since the network resumed airing NFL telecasts in 1998. Ratings peaked at a 32.0 from 5:30-6 PM.
Cost Of Super Bowl Ads Down
Don't Forget You Can Win A Chance To Go "Bowling" In Miami On SGE
Ad rates for the Super Bowl have declined for only the second time in the history of the event. According to TNS Media Intelligence, CBS is charging $2.5 million for a 30-second ad during the February 7 game, down from $3 million for last year’s game on NBC and has only sold about 90 percent of the game’s commercial time.
This is comes on the heels of that PepsiCo will not advertise at the Super Bowl 2010 after a 23-year run. Ads for the drinks won’t appear in the Super Bowl instead, the company plans to shift ad dollars to a new marketing effort that’s mostly online. Pepsi spent $15 million last year.
FedEx also has said it will not advertise again in the Super Bowl due to costs.
Most advertisers these days do not have a long history with the Super Bowl only averaging three to four years in a row before dropping out.
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I Wasn’t Only One Bored With The Fiesta Bowl
I love college football so it pained me to watch last nights game, I was probably let down more by expectations than the game itself, but I was bored. I even caught myself being more in tuned to the Big Bang Theory on CBS than the Tostitos. Come to find out I wasn’t the only, just watch the chick in Boise States band, it explains it all.
Also am I the only one that felt that TCU, who ranked fifth in the country in rushing, abandoned the run early? I mean how is Andy Dalton lead the Horned Frogs with 9 carries, draws and pressures shouldn’t have been the main rushing attack. Where was the use of Joseph Turner and his 11 scores or Matthew Tucker and his 8, these are guys who have carried the ball over 100 times each and last night failed to touch the ball 10 times combined. I’m just saying.
WTF: Ryan Lilja
Any Guesses?
We can agree to disagree till we are blue in the face about whether the colts leading the New York Jets 15-10 with about 6 minutes left in the third it was a wise decision for Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Caldwell to cheat the fans and his players, we already know Michael Irvin would give up rings for perfection, by removing his starters. One possession lead I say no, two possession lead either way I say yes but I digress.
Well one of those starters pulled was Colts offensive guard Ryan Lilja and while CBS was scanning the sidelines to catch various Colt players expressions of watching the second team lose perfection, they caught this little gem. What would you call that behind Lilja ear?
Talk about six degrees of separation, it was two months ago that Mark Sanchez was caught eating a hot dog on the sideline in Oakland. Makes you wonder what else is there on an NFL sideline.
San Diego Padres Hire Broadcasting Great Dick Enberg
"Oh My"
Dick Enberg is coming back to call the sport he loves, baseball. Enberg is leaving CBS to call the San Diego Padres. He’ll get time off to keep calling ESPN’s Wimbledon and hopes to work CBS U.S. Open tennis.
But now, he’ll focus on the sport he played, briefly coached and sees as the best to broadcast. Growing up in Michigan he hoped to be a Detroit Tiger, but only made the college JV at Central Michigan. He then moved on to teach coach baseball at what is now Cal State-Fullerton, until he landed local TV work for teams including the California Angels.
Padres team president Tom Garfinkel took a leap of faith a few months back when he asked the broadcast legend if he would want to call baseball games again, specifically Padres games. After working out details with Enberg’s other employers, ESPN and CBS, the two sides agreed to a multi-year deal for the 74-year-old.
Enberg will call between 120-125 games next season as part of the Padres television team. He will be the lead broadcaster. The rest of the Chan. 4 television crew, Mark Grant, Mark Neely and Tony Gwynn, will also return.
In his career, Enberg has earned 14 Emmy Awards as well as nine Sportscaster of the Year Awards.
I can’t already wait to purchases my MLB package and to watch a Padres game and hear Enberg.
Tim Donaghy’s Book Will Be Published & Ready For X-Mas
Stocking Stuffer
Tim Donaghy will get his book published after all and it will be in my hands before the calendar year says 2010. It turns out that the former NBA referee memoir will under go a title change and a new publisher after Random House balked under pressure, either from within their house or outside. The new name of his book is “Personal Foul: A First-Person Account of the Scandal That Rocked the NBA” and will be published by VTi-Group, and will be pre-released to select outlets this Friday, December 4th and will be available in book stores nationwide for Christmas.
It also appears as Donaghy was interviewed by 60 Minutes that will air this Sunday, December 6th on CBS.
As a book lover, I can’t wait till it hits Borders here in San Antonio because on the first day of release I promise you it will be in my hands.
FOX, CBS & NFL Network Give Thanks For The NFL
Est. 1920
I don’t know why the ratings for Thanksgiving to forever to get in but they finally are here and once again the Dallas Cowboys draw in the large numbers.
Overnight ratings were up double-digits for both Thanksgiving Day NFL games.
Thursday’s Green Bay Packers/Detroit Lions game on FOX drew a 12.1 overnight rating, up 11% from Tennessee Titans/Detroit Lions on CBS last year (10.9). They are however down 13% from the Green Bay Packers/Detroit Lions in 2007 (13.9).
The 12.1 overnight is tied as the second-lowest for the early Thanksgiving Day game since ‘01.
Later in the day, Oakland Raiders/Dallas Cowboys drew a 12.6 overnight on CBS, up 11% from Seattle Seahawks/Dallas Cowboys on FOX last year (11.4), and up 2% from New York Jets/Dallas Cowboys in 2007 (12.4).
The 12.6 is the third-highest overnight for the late Thanksgiving Day game since ‘01.
The NFL Network saw it’s second-most viewed game in it’s history with the New York Giants/Denver Broncos.
The New York Giants/Denver Broncos drew 6.1 million viewers on NFL Network Thursday night, up 61% from 3.8 million for Arizona Cardinals/Philadelphia Eagles last year.
Thursday’s game ranks as the second-most viewed NFL telecast ever on NFL Network, behind only Green Bay Packers/Dallas Cowboys in 2007 (10.1 mil).
In related ratings news the SportsBusiness Journal shows the Cowboys have been the NFL’s biggest draw in primetime over the past four seasons.
Since 2006, primetime regular season Cowboys games have averaged 19.2 million viewers putting the team comfortably ahead of the second-place Colts (16.7 mil) and the Giants (16.6 mil). The Bears (16.3 mil), Patriots (16.0 mil) and Eagles (16.0 mil) round out the top 6.
The 49ers averaged the fewest viewers of any NFL team with more than 1 primetime appearance, with just 9.9 million.
PETA Wants Uga To Be Replaced With A Robot Dog
this is for my dogs, this is for my dogs
PETA is not at all happy and has some ideas for the University of Georgia in the aftermath of the death of Uga VII. PETA wants the university to stop “relying on inbreeding to preserve bloodlines, which creates genetic defects and makes dogs susceptible to congenital illnesses.” PETA wants to put an end to the genetic manipulation by replacing the next Uga with an animatronic dog or solely using their costumed mascot Hairy Dawg.
Can you imagine turning on your TV on a Saturday to CBS and seeing a pile of plastic powered by double AA batteries patrolling the Georgia sidelines.
Pau Gasol To Be A Guest Star On CSI: Miami
Which One Is Pau?
CSI: Miami producers have tabbed Los Angeles Lakers Pau Gasol, who missed the season opener with a strained hamstring injury, as a suspect for an episode that will air next month.
“It was a very attractive opportunity. I play Victor, a normal person who is involved in a car accident and police are suspicious that I am responsible for what happened. I have good, meaty dialogue with an officer,” he told daily newspaper El Pais.
The episode will air on the CBS network in the United States next month. It will be one of the first episodes of the ninth season of the series about a team of South Florida forensic experts who probe mysterious or unusual deaths.
“I have always had the acting bug inside me. What this city gives me are opportunities. I’m in the best team in the league, I’m one of the best franchises and this is the city where it happens all the movies,” he said.
I appreciate his quote about the city of Los Angeles and the benefits of playing in that city, as it’s always talking point in discussions and often assumed but is rarely ever mentioned directly from an athletes mouth.
This isn’t the first time Gasol has made it onto a CBS show. Last year, he was on an episode of Numb3rs with teammate Jordan Farmar.
Letterman Admits Sex With Staffers & Reveals Extortion Attempt
How Bizarre
Here at Sports Grind Entertainment we normally don’t get into the business of Leno, Letterman or O’Brien business unless they have a particular guest or something. Let’s face it they are on another level in the game and whether your a fan or not, you know the names.
But if you happen to be a fan of one and not the other two, you normally don’t hear the news of the disliked competition. In an uncharacteristically personal revelation for David Letterman, the host took to his “Late Show” stage Thursday to admit that he was the victim of an extortion attempt and acknowledge that he has had sexual relations with more than one staff member.
Media reports named the man in the alleged extortion case as Robert Halderman, a producer for CBS. In a statement, The Eye confirmed that it “was made aware of an ongoing police investigation involving David Letterman and an employee at ‘48 Hours,’ who was subsequently arrested on charges of attempted grand larceny in the first degree. CBS is cooperating fully with the authorities and the employee has been suspended pending the results of the investigation. Mr. Letterman addressed the issue during the show’s broadcast this evening, and we believe his comments speak for themselves.”
On the show, Letterman sat down behind his desk and asked his audience whether they wanted to hear a story — and the crowd enthusiastically cheered, not knowing what they were about to hear.
“I get to looking through it and there’s a letter in the package and it says, ‘I know that you do some terrible, terrible things. And I can prove that you do these terrible things.’ Sure enough, contained in the package was stuff to prove that I do terrible things,” Letterman said on Thursday’s edition of CBS’ “Late Show.”
The host said the alleged extortion suspect claimed he planned to write both a movie screenplay and a book based on what he knew — that Letterman had engaged in sex with staffers.
“He’s going to take all the terrible stuff he knows about my life — and according to this packet, there seems to be a lot of terrible stuff he knows about — and he’s going to put it into a movie unless I give him some money,” he said. “That’s a little hinky. I just want to reiterate how terrifying this moment is. Because there’s something very insidious about, is he standing down there, is he hiding under the car, am I going to get a tap on the shoulder?”
Letterman said the individual threatened to go public with the allegations unless Letterman paid the person $2 million. A meeting with the D.A. led to a sting operation, in which Letterman met with the individual and handed the person a fake $2 million check and Halderman was arrested.
Letterman admitted that he had engaged in sexual relationships with staff members. Letterman has been married to Regina Lasko, the mother of his child, since March but have dated since 1986. This wasn’t the first time Letterman has been the victim of an extortion attempt. Police revealed a plot in 2005 to kidnap Letterman’s baby son, Harry, for a $5 million ransom. House painter Kelly Frank was later charged with the crime.
Mo Money Moen Problems
