TallySaint

From Pro Football Weekly....



New-look TV Landscape Features Sunday Night Showcase


Are you ready for some changes? You certainly better be, with the transfer of pro football's major prime-time bill of fare from Monday night on ABC to Sunday night on NBC topping a lengthy list of viewing adjustments in the offing come September.

There will be "Monday Night Football", but after a 36-year run on ABC, it will be moving to ESPN, which paid a whopping $8.8 billion over eight years for the rights to televise the second-longest-running prime-time network series, exceeded only by CBS' "60 Minutes."

Despite the cable giant's gigantic investment, which constitutes the biggest chunk of change paid by the parties involved in the NFL's eye-popping new TV contract worth $3.735 billion annually, the league now considers its Sunday-night package, which was previously on ESPN, to be its marquee attraction.

A "Murderer's Row" of broadcasting talent - featuring the likes of John Madden, Al Michaels, Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth and newcomer Jerome Bettis - will enhance the NBC offering, as will the flexibility to select more attractive games seven of the last eight weeks of the season with advanced notice.

With Madden and Michaels abandoning their longtime Monday-night gig to do battle with ABC's "Desperate Houswives" on Sunday evenings, the new "MNF" broadcasting team becomes Mike Tirico, Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser, with Michele Tafoya returning for her third season as a sideline reporter and Suzy Kolber added as a second sideline reporter.

Another major change will be an eight-game prime-time package on Thursdays and Saturdays, beginning with a game on Thanksgiving night, which will be broadcast on the league's two-year-old NFL Network. Those games will also be shown on free local TV in the cities of the visiting and home (if not blacked out) teams.



Here are some more pertinent TV tid-bits in advance of the 2006 campaign -

TV ratings leader Fox, which upped the ante from $550 million per year to $712.5 million to keep NFC games on Sunday, has lost its studio anchor the past 12 years, James Brown, who jumped ship the day after Super Bowl XL to take on the same role for CBS, where he replaces Greg Gumbel.

CBS, which went from paying $500 million per year to $622.5 million to keep AFC games on Sunday, is pairing Gumbel, who wanted a return to a play-by-play role, with Dan Dierdorf on its No. 2 broadcasting team behind Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. Gumbel replaces Dick Enberg, who drops to the No.3 team alongside Randy Cross.

NBC, out of the loop since losing the AFC Sunday-afternoon package to CBS after the 1997 season, returns to the fray after doling out $3.6 billion the next six years. The peacock network reportedly landed pop-culture icon Madden with a six-year, $24 million deal and was able to lure Michaels in a quirky trade with ABC in exchange for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a bunny created by Walt Disney in the 1920's before he invented Mickey Mouse, plus coverage of the next four Ryder Cups through 2014 and increased usage of Olympic highlights through 2012.

--- Dan Arkush


8)

My Guardian Angel wears a hard hat.

TallySaint

I'm not all that crazy about Theismann.





8)

JimBone

Theisman is aweful...he never has anything to say that isnt painfully obvious. I will never forget this conversation he had on Sunday night football...it went like this:

Theisman: I sat down with Gunther Cunningham and we got to talking defense and football, and i said Gunther, its good to have you back.
Theisman turns to Paul Maguire and says, "You know what Gunther said to me Paul?"
Maguire: "What did he say?"
Theisman: He said its good to be back.


Now that conversation was a waste of my time, and it was so bad hearing it, i had to tell the story of how bad it was...so it has wasted even more of my time.

Aaaaaayyyyyy!!
-The Fonz

NewMexSaint

LOL

Theisman: I sat down with Gunther Cunningham and we got to talking defense and football, and i said Gunther, its good to have you back.
Theisman turns to Paul Maguire and says, "You know what Gunther said to me Paul?"
Maguire: "What did he say?"
Theisman: He said its good to be back


You know why I dont like the rain?
Because I get wet