TVSquad

Anyone who's followed the NFL over the last fifteen years knew what Michael Strahan's plans were going to be after retirement: TV, TV and more TV. It was a given; during most of his career with the Giants, Strahan loved to be in front of the camera, and often did commentary and studio gigs on his off-weeks or during the playoffs.

Now, with a Super Bowl ring in-hand, the newly-retired defensive end is making his move. Not only has he joined the FOX NFL pregame show, but he also just completed filming a cameo on the NBC geek adventure comedy Chuck. He plays Mitt, the manager of the sporting goods store that's in the same shopping center as Buy More, the store where Chuck works. He and his crew take over the home theater portion of the store during lunchtimes, playing Madden '09 and making a mess. My guess is that we'll set up a geeks vs. jocks scenario with retail being the venue, instead of the locker room.

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.

Let me start this rant by saying that I like sports. No, I love sports. I'm a fan. I get the DirecTV NBA package and the major league baseball games. I can talk to you for hours about stats and players and great games. That said, I hate the way Sunday sports programming drifts over into primetime. This happens primarily on CBS and Fox with the NFL games in the fall and winter, but the other networks have been guilty of staying with the game and then still insisting on showing the primetime schedule after the game is over -- even if that means that an 8 o'clock show begins at 8:45 and your DVR gets all screwed up and you wind up with only 15 minutes of a show you wanted to see!

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.

For the last three weeks I've been wondering what was going to win the title of "Super Ad" for this year's Super Bowl.

Personally, I thought Matt Hasselbeck's commercial was a little bit more entertaining, but Chester Pitts commercial wins in the inspiration department hands down.

How often do you hear a tale of a normal person getting plucked from a dead-end, everyday type of occupation and becoming an elite athlete in what is arguably the most prestigious professional sports association in this hemisphere?

FOX is hoping you like a little politics with your football coverage.

On Super Bowl Sunday (that's this Sunday), FOX News anchor Shep Smith will host a two hour political show on FOX from 10am to noon. The show will not only have news about the election (Super Tuesday is next week), but they'll also feature a story on what it takes to put the Super Bowl together and will include comments from the candidates and other politicians about the game and politics in general.

Advertisers still spend a ton of money on the Super Bowl. They use it to launch new products, advertise new movies, and convince guys that only one special beer will make us irresistible to scantily clad models. We'll have full coverage of the Super Bowl ads again this year, but maybe we can go one step further. The New York Times reports that there's still one ad slot left for the game, and FOX is only asking for $2.7 million for the 30 second ad.

So how about we all pool all of our money and buy the spot for TV Squad?

The move by the NFL to exclusively air this weekend's game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants on their own NFL network, which reaches only 40% of US households, was met with much criticism and frustration. With a win this weekend, the Patriots would become the first team to go undefeated in a 16-game season (the Dolphins did it in the 14-game '72 season).

Now it looks like pressure from Washington has changed their mind and suddenly the game is airing on NFL Network and both NBC and CBS. Of course, several local affiliates to the two teams had already negotiated exclusive rights to the game and sold ads at inflated rates, so they can't be too happy about having to share the game now with CBS and NBC.

I haven't Googled it, but I'm just going to assume that this is the first time a major TV network has opened a restaurant with a major sports franchise.

CBS and The New England Patriots (that's football for those readers who don't watch sports) have announced that they are joining together to open a new restaurant/bar called CBS Scene, and it will be one of the major attractions at the new Patriot Place entertainment and shopping complex in Foxboro, MA. The place will be 15,000 square feet and have tons of televisions, all showing CBS programming.

Hey football fans, how about games streamed directly to your computer?

Yeah, well, don't get too excited yet, cause it'll cost you. The streaming is part of DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket Package, so unless you already have that, you're out of luck. And, if you do have the $269 Sunday Ticket package, upgrading to the SuperFan package that includes the online streaming will cost an additional $99. Also, it only works with Windows XP and Vista and Internet Explorer.

Now how do you feel?

You know how CBS Sunday football games often run long and it delays the start of 60 Minutes and Cold Case and Without A Trace and other shows that rhyme with "ace?" CBS feels your pain.

They're starting a new service called CBS Eye-Alert. You can sign up to be notified by text message or e-mail when football games are going to run long. This would supposedly help people who set their DVRs for those shows. Though I don't really see how. You can't go in and reset your DVR for another time (like you can with a VCR), can you? Or do I not understand the technical capabilities of DVRs? CBS is working with TiVo to see if the company can reprogram their customer's boxes if games run long.

No word on whether or not FOX is going to do this too.

[via TV Tattle]

Keith Olbermann has a new gig.

Or should I say "another gig," as he'll still be host of MSNBC's Countdown. But he's going to add a co-hosting position on NBC's Football Night In America, the pre-game show that airs at 7pm on Sunday nights before the NFL game that NBC telecasts.

Olbermann has a long history in TV sports, having hosted ESPN's SportsCenter with Dan Patrick years ago (he was one of the models for the characters on Sports Night) and his own show on FOX Sports Network that was good but didn't last too long. This will be his first job in network sports in several years, other than what he does on Dan Patrick's radio show. Olbermann will join Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth, Jerome Bettis, and Tiki Barber, who started on NBC this morning.

[via TV Newser]

Remember that potentially homophobic Snickers ad that aired during the Super Bowl? The one where two guys are so enamored with a candy bar that they start eating it from opposite ends, Lady and the Tramp-style, and wind up accidentally kissing? They're so concerned that they just kissed that they decide to do something really macho to affirm their heterosexuality, so they start pulling out their chest hair. Because that's apparently what straight men do all the time.

Anyway, now that you're up to date, you won't be seeing that commercial on television anymore. Snickers got complaints from the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Apparently they thought the ad was homophobic. Who knew, I thought it was just anti-gay. Oh, right.

This was the spot from the NFL Superad contest. Gino Bona, from Portsmouth, N.H. won the contest after making his pitch to make the fans the stars of the ad. You can get more background on Gino and what led to the spot at the NFL.com page.

As far as the ad itself goes. It was solid. Kudos to Gino for a job well done. I liked all the scenes with the fans, but what really sold it was the end. After flashing "It's hard to say goodbye" on the screen they cut to Bret Favre. Then they flash, "for some, it's even harder." That's a nice tie-in to the fact that every year it becomes a major question whether or not Favre will return. Good stuff.

When we reported on the NFL's crackdown on Super Bowl church gatherings a few days ago, many of you commented that the league's policy -- no large gatherings to watch the game if the screen is 55" or above -- was a bunch of what Col. Potter used to call "horsehockey," especially when it came to places of worship.

It seems like the league got the message... sort of. According to WorldNetDaily, the NFL has no objections to churches holding these large-screen gatherings, as long as no admission is charged (because you know how those little churches like to make wicked profits from games like this).