TVSquad

Now that the Democratic party has decided to present the final night of their convention from Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium in Denver before as many as 80,000 enthusiastic voters -- a venue that will underscore Senator Barack Obama's skill as a speaker -- the networks are deciding how they want to cover the event. Will the big three give the Democrats the entire night? One hour, two hours?

Will ABC and CBS be compelled to cover the night, when NBC and Fox have the option of using their cable outlets and keep entertainment on the broadcast side?

Even as fear grips the business that there'll be another strike that will lead to a work stoppage, there are some who can look back on the Writer's Strike and actually find a silver lining in that dark cloud. At a recent at the ArcLight Cinemas, sponsored by the L.A. Times, the folks who bring us House, including creator David Shore and director Katie Jacobs, revealed that the strike actually was beneficial for them in a strange way.

Since Fox had the Super Bowl last season, House had been given the plum spot following the game. That always means a huge audience will be watching, and even a show as successful as House wouldn't mind a boost in the ratings.

As Bob Sassone wrote in his report about Inside the NFL ending its HBO run last February, the NFL was reporting that the show would find a home on another network. It has. And I can tell you now that Inside the NFL will be appearing weekly on Showtime. It'll be a collaboration with CBS Sports and NFL Films. That said, I think we can expect to see CBS talent on the show.

In its most recent edition on HBO, Inside the NFL was hosted by Bob Costas, with expert input by former players and current broadcast analysts Dan Marino, Cris Collinsworth and Cris Carter. Costas and Collinsworth are NBC employees, and Carter is part of ESPN. That leaves Danny Boy. And yes, he is a CBS guy, a regular commentator on The NFL Today every Sunday during football season. I'll bet you right now that Dan will be on the show.

Inside the NFL is a unique weekly highlight show -- one of the best ever -- because shows the games up close from the viewpoint of NFL Films. Those cameras get inside of the game more than TV cameras. They're films, not TV and the production values are like a documentary film. As a longtime football fan, I'm really glad that Inside the NFL will go on. This year will be its 32nd on the air.

With the help of solid hits such as American Idol, The Super Bowl, and House, FOX has won the ratings battle for the TV season, which just concluded.

This is the first time the network has won the season in it's 21 year career. CBS had the title last year but came in second in this 2007-08 season, with an average of 10.5 million viewers. ABC was third with 10 million viewers. NBC was fourth 8.9 million viewers. The CW only had an average of 2.9 million viewers, which I think is less than the number of page views my nephew gets on his MySpace page every month.

Every single network was down in viewers this year (ABC -7%, NBC -9%, CBS -16%, and The CW -19%) except FOX, which was actually up 7% from last season. They average 11.1 million viewers. CBS just won the May sweeps period in total viewers, but even there FOX beat them in the 18 to 49 demographic.

Invented a new product that you'd like to pitch to millions of sports fans? Think you could pack all your thoughts into one second? Got a hundred thousand dollars kicking around?

Didn't think so.

According to Reuters, NBC (they're airing Super Bowl XLIII in Jan. '09) is expected to announce that the starting rate for a 30-second spot during the big game will be $3 million. Wow. That factors out to a hundred grand per second. Last year's going rate was a mere $2.7 million.

While I'm sure this comes as no surprise (I mean, c'mon - the rates jump every year, don't they?) to the big companies known for their Super Bowl commercials (think Budweiser, Coke, Pepsi, Fed Ex, etc.), it still makes you wonder how some of these smaller random companies can afford it. Every year there's some new Internet start-up you've never heard of and they'll end up having one of the most talked about commercials - like GoDaddy.com from a few years ago. It just seems like a real gamble. Rather than put all of your footballs in one field (eggs in a basket, get it?), I would think that spreading your money over numerous smaller ad campaigns would make more sense.

Oscar turned 80 last night. For eight decades, Hollywood has been handing out gold statuettes for the best in motion picture arts and sciences. Sadly, last night's show will not have to worry about winning an Emmy. Not only was the show pedestrian, long and uninspired, it was also a bomb in the Nielsen overnight ratings. In fact, it was historically disappointing: averaging just 32 million viewers to become the least watched Oscar telecast ever! EVER, people!

Of course, if you're worried that with ratings so bad, some day the Academy Awards won't be broadcast -- don't. The Oscars, like the Super Bowl, make a fortune for the network broadcasting it. ABC made an average of $1.8 million for each 30-second spot.

Yesterday, Amani Toomer and Michael Strahan of the World Champion New York Giants (boy, it feels great to write that) stopped by The View to talk about fitness equipment. During the segment, Whoopi Goldberg, who is such a self-proclaimed Giants fan that she spoke during the team's post-victory-parade ceremony at New York's City Hall, asked Toomer about the miracle catch he made late in the game, where he pinned the football to his helmet before being tackled.

There was just one problem: Toomer didn't make the catch. David Tyree did. Video is after the jump, thanks to our friends at BestWeekEver.tv

There are probably two reactions to that headline:

1. No big deal, I didn't really watch that show anyway.

2. There's a show called Inside the NFL?

Actually, there's a third reaction possible, when you realize that the show has been on for 31 years! I had no idea the show was on for that long, nor did I know that HBO has existed for that long. I wonder how many people had cable in 1977?

Here are the weekly TV ratings, by number of viewers.

I can't remember the last time that one network had the first seven spots in the Nielsen ratings. FOX got the number one slot with the Super Bowl (of course), but then got the next six spots too, with the post-game, the episode of House that followed the post-game, the two American Idol episodes (again, of course), the other episode of House, and the new game/reality show Moment of Truth. And if you extend it to the top 20, FOX also had Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? and Don't Forget The Lyrics. Good week for them.

1. Super Bowl (FOX)
2. Super Bowl Post-Game (FOX)
3. House (FOX)

Well, it wasn't halftime, but Paula Abdul did "rock" the Super Bowl. Somehow, when I sat down in front of my TV for a second before heading out, it was just at the moment when Ryan Seacrest was introducing the Abdul performance. This was about two hours or so before the game in the middle of FOX's fifty-six hour long pre-game coverage, so it was sheer luck that I saw it at all.

That said, I don't know what I think about it. The song is nice enough, and it was fun seeing good old Randy Jackson jamming out behind her on bass guitar, but it sure seemed like she was lip-synching. I even feel pretty damned confident I saw her out of synch with the track at a few points. That said, my girl can still dance and proves that over forty can still be hot.

My roommate is incredibly upset about what happened to The New England Patriots on Sunday night. He now has to get his "19-0" tattoo removed via laser, and that's going to be painful.

But I'm not here to rehash the game and what happened and what should have been done, I'm here to talk about the ratings for the game. The FOX broadcast actually garnered the highest rating for the Super Bowl ever. 97.5 million watched the game (a 37.6 rating), according to Nielsen. This makes it not only the most-watched Super Bowl game, but also the second most watched show in TV ever, just behind the M*A*S*H finale in 1983.

Every year Budweiser puts together an uplifting commercial about some animal who strives to achieve his dreams and with hard work and perseverance, achieves it. This year's installation involved a Clydesdale who didn't make the cut to pull the Budweiser wagon. "Maybe next year, Hank." This leads to a very fun montage of training clips set to the Rocky theme as a dalmation takes it upon himself to get the Clydesdale into tip-top shape. Shots of the horse starting off pulling a little wagon mixed with jogging in place in the rain, running around trees in a snow-covered obstacle, lifting bales of hay until finally he has grit to pull an entire train! Not funny like the Bud Light commercials, but these Bud spots are always feel-good fan favorites. And this one was just as good as any of them.

Oh, and of course Hank makes the hitch team the following year. The high five at the end between the dog and the horse was just perfect. I don't know what it is, but Anheuser-Busch simply has one of the best advertising and marketing teams as they virtually never miss when it comes to their Super Bowl ads. Another banner year for them it looks like.

Doritos this year turned their 60-second spot into a competition. The winner, voted on by fans before the game, gets their video aired in the Doritos commercial slot and a record deal with Interscope Records. And the winner is: Kina Grannis (Mission Viego, CA), who performs her song "Messager From Your Heart." She has a Michelle Branch sound to her, but I like her. A very clever idea by Doritos and a huge opportunity for Grannis, but I only worry that people will forget Doritos' connection to the spot.

Took awhile to get there, but nevertheless a squirrel in the middle of the road, having just chased a nut there, screaming as a car is barreling down on it, followed by various other animals screaming in the forest until we ultimately get to the female passenger of the car screaming. The driver, however, simply maneuvers around the small animal and carries on his way. Good tires give you that kind of control. Great commercial, gets your attention, screaming animals are always funny and you'll remember it's all about the tires.

Video coming soon after the jump...

"We started this thing. It's us vs. them." This commercial was a bit of a mess for me. A bunch of shots of people training as if for various summer olympic events. Setting it up like there's some epic battle looming; a competition. But who are they competing with? Nike, I guess. Honestly, I think it was a bit of a mess. Way too long on a bunch of people grunting and posturing and way too little time showing me the product they're supposed to be promoting. You know ... the shoes.