NFL-related stories
Posted Oct 30th 2009 11:28AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Sports, TV on the Bigscreen, Reality-Free
Fox will use football this Sunday to help tall, blue aliens take over our televisions.
On November 1, Fox is shooting for the "world's biggest live trailer viewing" when it airs the new preview of James Cameron's
Avatar live on TV and in the Dallas Cowboys' home park on the world's largest video display -- the Cowboy Stadium's Diamond Vision Screen before the Lone Star State's heroes take on the Seattle Seahawks.
A Fox press release explains that the Fox Sports
NFL Sunday pregame show will present the new trailer live on the network. Meanwhile, those Cowboy fans still sober enough at noon to enjoy the brief glimpse of the sci-fi epic will take it in on a screen larger than some Far Eastern countries.
Putting the TV network's football viewing figures to work is the kind of bold step Fox needs to take to publicize Cameron's $300 million dollar movie. Though obviously ambitious and technically groundbreaking, special previews of the 3D fantasy flick left some viewers less than thrilled. While the film will be 3D in theaters, the trailer will stick to a simpler 2D TV image for the big event.
Continue reading Fox to air new Avatar trailer on NFL broadcast Sunday
Posted Oct 20th 2009 3:16PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Commercials, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Chevy must have focus groups and research that tells them that
Howie Long is a good spokesperson for their products. As a
Fox NFL anaylst, he's fine alongside the likes of Jimmy Johnson and Terry Bradshaw. That said, I can't stand Howie Long in his commercials.
Long is smug and arrogant in all of 60 seconds. He's supposed to be selling the advantages of Chevy products -- while dissing those of Honda in direct jabs at the Japanese company -- but he rubs me the wrong way. Perhaps it's his smile. He just acts like he has no humility. He's all confidence and self-assuredness. Those two qualities should make him an excellent pitchman. That's what Chevy is trying to project.
Continue reading Is Howie Long helping or hurting Chevy with those ads?
Posted Oct 7th 2009 12:27PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Ratings, NCIS, Reality-Free
It's bigger than the NFL. It's drawing more than celebrity dancing. It's the little show that could. In its seventh season on the air,
NCIS is the number one show according to the Nielsen ratings. Over 21 million viewers for the week of September 28 put the drama series on the top of the heap, and there's no sign that it was a fluke. This is the
second week in a row NCIS was the top show.
The question a lot of people are asking, especially those who don't watch or have never even checked out
NCIS is this: how did that happen? It's not normal for a show to get stronger after the five year mark. Some, like a
Seinfeld for example, start slowly and nearly are canceled, but then find an audience and remain secure for the rest of it's run. Before
Seinfeld,
The Dick Van Dyke Show had done the same thing.
Continue reading NCIS is number one again
Posted Sep 10th 2009 2:07PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Sports, American Idol, Celebrities, Judges, Casting
Now regular Squad hoppers know I'm no drooling
American Idol watcher, so maybe you think my opinions on this show are worth less than the U.S. dollar injected with swine flu.
But this move to bring in Ellen DeGeneres, a talk show host, actress and comedian, screams of another move in the world of TV commentating. A move that seemed well reasoned enough but went down in a glorious ball of blue and orange flames on live television.
Comedian and long time TV fixture
Dennis Miller's very short stint as the color commentator for ABC's
Monday Night Football screams of similarities louder than that guy in the Edvard Munch painting watching the Orson Welles sex tape. Great, Miller's voice is back in my head again. Thanks cha cha, I mean, Ellen.
Continue reading Idol's Ellen DeGeneres decision sounds eerily similar to MNF's Dennis Miller manuever
Posted Aug 30th 2009 12:08PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, OpEd, Reality-Free
You wouldn't know that
Fox football was ready for prime time based on the lame broadcast of the Tampa Bay Buccaneer-Miami Dolphin game the other night. The number one team in the booth --
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman -- seemed ill-prepared for the game. It was embarrassing to watch them call the game.
Listen, I know it's only pre-season and everyone -- including the networks -- are working out the kinks, but I expect Buck and Aikman to be on top of their game. They usually are, so I guess I was surprised by the sloppy effort.
Continue reading Fox preseason football flops big-time
Posted Aug 21st 2009 9:29AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Industry, Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
If there's one night of television that NBC has a handle on, it's Sunday. At least during football season.
Football Night In America works, and you know the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." That said,
NBC has renewed its NFL deal for two more years. The new deal – the extension – secures that NBC will be broadcasting NFL games through 2013, so there will be plenty of games for all those analysts to yap about.
NBC has nearly enough guys to field a team on the pre-game show: Bob Costas, Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, Tony Dungy, Tiki Barber, Rodney Harrison ... with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth calling the games. Will we notice that
John Madden is gone? Probably not, especially if the games are good.
Continue reading NBC renews deal with the NFL
Posted Aug 12th 2009 1:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
On Sunday,
Michael Vick will be interviewed on 60 Minutes in hopes of showing contrition, making a case for his
NFL comeback and generally doing as much PR as possible to rehabilitate his image. The former Atlanta Falcon quarterback and NFL poster boy is pretty desperate to get back into the league -- and the money that comes with it.
Michael Vick, as you probably know, was once the highest paid quarterback in the NFL. He was on the cover of magazines and was considered an unstoppable force on the field. Off the field, however, he was running an illegal dog-fighting business. He spent most of the last two years either in court or in prison for his involvement in a syndicate that promoted gambling and killed dogs.
Continue reading Will Michael Vick get the real 60 Minutes treatment?
Posted Aug 11th 2009 10:29AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Watercooler Talk
A week ago on the hit Bravo reality "thang"
Real Housewives of Atlanta, if you tuned in you got to see the ladies who lunch take it outside for a beat down, but you also saw one of the fakiest, mushiest love scenes yet on the
Real Housewives' franchise. Former, pro football player Ed Hartwell cooked a special dinner, spread rose petals to spell "I love you," played massage therapist, and finally took a bubble bath with his wife while murmuring the words, "Let's go make some babies."
The ick factor was set on 11 on the
Spinal Tap scale. That was then.
Ed and Lisa Hartwell have been foreclosed upon and now that bathtub for two is the bank's property.
Continue reading Recession and the Real Housewives of Atlanta
Posted Jul 24th 2009 6:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
Unless you're a National Football League fan like me, the idea of watching hours and hours of college players being selected one by one to potentially play for a team, is as boring as watching someone in fishing for bass. Well, it turns out there's an audience for both! No seriously, when ESPN began covering the NFL Draft in 1980, the network could have never anticipated that it would grow into a ratings draw.
Now, the draft has been supersized.
In 2010, the NFL Draft will be three days long and in mostly in primetime. The 75th annual National Football League Draft will commence on Thursday, April 22 at 7:30 - 11 p.m.. That'll just cover round one. Rounds two and three continue on Friday, April 23 at 6:30 - 11 p.m., with the final four rounds dominating daytime on Saturday, April 24, from 9 a.m. to whenever it's over.
Continue reading The NFL draft expands into primetime
Posted Jun 2nd 2009 2:04PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Programming, Music and Variety, Reality-Free
Oh my god, now I'm going to have to rearrange my entire schedule. I wanted to make sure and tell you all as soon as possible so you could do the same. Because of a football double-header on Sunday, September 20,
CBS is bumping the Emmy's up a week to September 13. I know, madness! I wrote it on my calendar in permanent ink! But I guess in the NFL's world, you shouldn't think of anything as permanent. Look at what they do to the prime-time schedule already.
Hell, the fall edition of
The Amazing Race traditionally runs 20 to 40 minutes late every week because of football. There's no DVR adjustments possible for this. They really should schedule a flexible news program in
60 Minutes slot that can be truncated as needed so the rest of the lineup can start on time. And now, out of fear that football will run long, they're bumping the entire Emmy ceremony with only three month's notice. Celebrity desingers are panicking as we speak, and those poor accountants are going to have to count a week faster. It's absolute chaos!
Posted Apr 16th 2009 2:24PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Sports, News, Industry, Interviews, Reality-Free
John Madden is done. NBC announced today that Madden, perhaps the most famous broadcaster in football history apart from Howard Cosell,
is retiring from the booth after covering the NFL for 30 years, winning 16 Emmys and the admiration of football friends everywhere.
Madden
addressed listeners this morning on KCBS in San Francisco about the decision, which was obviously not easy for him. "I decided to retire," he said. "Heck I can't even say it. It's tough, not because I'm not sure it's the right time. I really feel strongly this is the right time. I'm just going to miss everything about it because I enjoyed it so much."
Football is in Madden's blood. He's a Hall of Fame coach, winning the Super Bowl with the Raiders in 1977, a college stand-out offensive tackle from California Polytechnic State University, and his Madden NFL is a perennial best-selling video game on multiple platforms. He joined ABC's
Monday Night Football crew in 2002, and spent the past three years on
NBC's Sunday Night Football.Continue reading Ebersol says Madden retirement will stick; Collinsworth named as replacement
Posted Apr 16th 2009 12:29PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Reality-Free
Boom! Faster than you can say, "Tough actin' Tinactin," NFL Hall of Famer
John Madden, the legendary voice of
Monday Night Football and the creator of EA Sports video game Madden NFL Football, has decided to take himself out of the game.
Madden's retiring from broadcasting. He'll be leaving NBC's
Football Game of the Week as the color commentator; Al Michaels is continuing at the play by play voice.
The fact that Madden has retired at 73 is not really a surprise. This is the same guy that walked away from the Oakland Raiders head coaching position (when it still was a prestigious gig) after winning a Super Bowl and while he was still a young man.
Continue reading John Madden retires from NFL broadcasting
Posted Mar 11th 2009 7:05PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free, Celebreality
One of the biggest names and egos in the National Football League will try to cram his big life (and mouth) into 30 to 60 minutes of weekly programming for VH1.
Terrell Owens, the Buffalo Bills' new star receiver, will star in a new reality show called
Playing the Field.
The show will give one of the league's most vocal stars a chance to show his fans and haters what life is like on and off the field, and could start with his firing from the Dallas Cowboys.
Continue reading Uh oh... T.O. has a reality show
Posted Feb 3rd 2009 12:45PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Sports, Cable/Satellite, Reality-Free
So you've probably heard about the
30 seconds of porn (video is
unbelievably NSFW. You will be fired and embarrassed if you watch this video. Please don't show to your parents, kids, or clergy. Warning! Graphic!) that many Tucson residents saw during the Super Bowl. And if you lived in the area and actually saw it, you might be getting some money from Comcast.
The cable company has
decided to pay ten dollars to each person who was "affected" by the showing of porn during the game. I have no idea how you're supposed to prove you saw it or even what "affected" means. Annoyed? Ticked off? Embarrassed for your family? Aroused? Did it make you want to strangle a puppy?
Comcast, the nudity you showed on Super Bowl Sunday made me rethink my career path. I want my ten dollars!Comcast is still investigating what exactly happened, but they're pretty sure it was done by someone on purpose. Only people who didn't watch the game in HD actually saw it, which is a great ad for HDTV. Not sure if the spokesperson for the company helps by using the words "aggressively pursue" and "come to a resolution" in the statement.
Posted Jan 30th 2009 5:21PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Sports, Commercials, Super Bowl, Reality-Free
NBC is airing the
Super Bowl this year. Sunday's all-day telecast (several hours of pre-game and probably another four or so for the game itself) will feature a wide variety of guests. Which of these guests are not going to be seen during the broadcast?
Keith Olbermann
Sarah Palin
Tina Fey
Top Chef's Tom Colicchio
Matt Lauer
Al Roker
Bruce Springsteen
Bob Costas
Jay Leno
Conan O'Brien
Continue reading Everyone in the world will be on NBC this Super Bowl Sunday
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