News and Notes

Busy Day........

Colin Cowherd is leaving ESPN.  Ryan Glasspiegel, from The Big Lead,  broke the news this morning, with network's biggest radio star departing at the end of his contract and will likely land at Fox Sports.  He will be reunited with new FOX Sports President Jamie Horowitz, likely on Fox Sports 1.  The network later confirmed his departure in a statement by ESPN President John Skipper. Cowherd is the third major talent to depart Bristol, with network cutting ties with Bill Simmons in May and announcing the departure of Keith Olbermann just a week ago.

ESPN will air Saturday Night NBA games this coming season on ABC.  The World Wide will move their contractually scheduled Sunday games from doubleheaders and will air them on Saturday night games beginning January 23rd at 8:30 p.m.

FOX's coverage of the 2015 MLB All-Star Game drew a record low of 6.6 rating, lowest since 2012's 6.8 rating.  The 10.9 million viewers was down from last year's 11.3 million during with Derek Jeter's final All-Star appearance.

News & Notes: Super Bowl Rating (Update)

***UPDATE (7:12 p.m.) Per Nielsen, FOX has announced the final total viewership as 112.2 million viewers, still shattering the previous record of 2 years ago.  In addition, the final rating has been announced as 46.7, lower than ProFootballTalk's reported 47.6 and higher than the FOX released 46.4 overnight rating.

The overnight rating for Super Bowl XLVIII produced the highest TV audience in the events history. Sundays 43-8 Seattle Seahawks blowout over the Denver Broncos saw a record 111.5 viewers for the telecast on FOX, breaking NBC's Super Bowl VLVI (Giants vs Patriots) record of 111.3 viewers. It was the third time in the last five Super Bowls the viewership record has been broken. The overnight rating of the blowout was below last years game as the broadcast generated a 47.6 down from 48.1. Still, it is the 5th best rating in Super Bowl history.

The totals were aided by two surprising regional ratings, as the Kansas City area generated a monstrous 58.1 rating, the highest of any city. The Super Bowl team's home cities themselves placed in the top 10 with Seattle generating the second best rating at 56.7 and Denver finished 10th at 51.4. Also, surprisingly, the host city New York, generated the 11th best rating at 50.5, the highest since 1987's XXI Super Bowl (CBS - Giants vs Broncos). Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk speculates this as ample evidence the game will return to metropolitan area, despite months of speculation of the weather.

Per NFL release, FOX Super Bowl Sunday pregame show drew a 12.0 rating with 23 million views, the highest in 12 years, also surpassing last years CBS ratings of 10.0. The halftime show featuring Bruno Mars scored a record 115.3 viewers also surpassing the 2012 event featuring Madonna (114 million).

FOX Deportes had 561,000 viewers for the Spanish language telecast of the Super Bowl with a medium age of 36.1. 

News & Notes: Brent Musburger; NFL Ratings

• The dominoes are starting to fall with the reported changes in ESPN's College Football coverage. Based on reports from a week ago, it appears ESPN are looking to reshuffle the deck with its coverage with Chris Fowler and/or Rece Davis getting promotions. Sports Illustrated media critic Richard Deitsch is reporting Brent Musburger will be pulled as the #1 voice of ESPN/ABC Saturday prime time coverage and moved to the lead voice of their new SEC Network.  The move will also remove the veteran broadcaster from the upcoming college playoff coverage.  Its reported that Musburger is not happy with the proposal, but negotiations into a new contract is still on going.
  
  Musburger's alleged loss, could be a huge gains for Fowler (who's contract is also up this year) and Davis, two longtime ESPN talent looking to increase their profiles at Bristol.  Fowler will likely move to the top spot with Kirk Herbstreit, on primetime games and two playoff games, including the National Championship game.  ESPN producers do not want Fowler to work double duty on College Game Day, and would likely move Davis from Thursday Night Football coverage to host Saturdays.  This could move Joe Tessitore to Thursdays with Jesse Palmer and David Pollack, and away from the SEC studio show, which hasn't premiered yet.  It is also reported Todd Blackledge may get the analyst assignment for the second playoff game before the National Championship.  Blackledge has worked with veteran Brad Nessler the last few years, but there is no indication that will be the team for the 2014-15 season.

• NFL Ratings:  From CBS Press Release, Coverage of the AFC Championship game (Denver defeated New England) earned an overnight rating of 29.5/52, the second highest for an AFC title game in 27 years.  They are reporting a 6% increase from last years late title game that saw Baltimore defeat New England (27.9/42).
  
  No press release yet, but the NFL on FOX VP of communications Dan Bell tweeted, the NFC Championship game (Seattle defeated San Francisco) earned a 31.0/46 overnight rating.  That is 19% increase from last year's San Francisco's victory over Atlanta (26.1/48) for the Halas Trophy.

•  An AP Source reports, the bid for the NFL Thursday package have been sent for the 2014 season. CBS, NBC and FOX have all sent thier proposals for a share of the Thursday games that will be simulcasted on NFL Network.  ESPN's bid is for games to air on ABC.  Turner Sports submitted their bid, but it appears they are a long shot.  The league is expected to make its decision in the coming months.

News & Notes: ESPN, Tim Brando

• ESPN has announced a major organizational overhaul to this management staff.  John Whidhack has been named the new Executive Vice President of EVP Programming and Production and will report directly under ESPN President John Skipper.  This is in leau of Vice President and Director of News Vince Doira's announcement of early retirement in early 2015.  Rob King will move from the head of digital print media to SVP of SportsCenter.  You can see all the changes in the release and analysis from John Ourand at Sports Business Daily.

• In a stunning departure, Tim Brando has left CBS after 16 years.  Brando made the announcement on his Facebook account earlier today.  Brando's radio show on CBS Sports Radio was replaced with the simulcast of the New York syndicated Boomer & Carlton show and it appeared to not sit well with the long time CBS anchor.  Brando worked for CBS's college football and basketball coverage and appeared to be the heir to take over the booth from Verne Lundquist on CBS on SEC coverage.   Brando will remain on Sirius Radio, but is a television free agent.
  
  The move appears to put a lot of pieces in motion for CBS and ESPN.  With Brent Musburger's contract expiring, and Rece Davis and Chris Fowlers ambitions to move up the CFB broadcast both, CBS may make a major hire as a new successor for the 73 year old Lundquist.  Also, you will likely see the profile of two future stars in the CBS ranks in Andrew Catalon and Adam Zucker getting prime spots on CBS's college coverage.
  
• As noted in our previous post, NBC has made their Olympic talent roster in Sochi official in their release.  One notable omission: Michelle Beadle.

• NFL playoff ratings saw increases in three of the four games.  The Chargers-Broncos on Sunday easily had the best rating at 25.1, up 6% from the previous post season.  49ers-Panthers from earlier in the day was second with a 21.3 (+ 2%).  Saturday nights Colts-Patriots game had 19.4, up 4%, but the Saints-Seahawks from earlier in the afternoon had a 10% decrease from the previous years Ravens-Broncos classic.

World Series Ratings Lowest Ever

FOX's coverage of the 2012 World Series saw the Fall Classic's lowest recorded ratings ever. The Giants four-game sweep of the Tigers averaged a 7.6 rating with 12.7 million viewers. That is down 24% from last years Cardinals-Rangers seven game series, which average a 10 rating and 16.6 million viewers. These are the lowers totals for the series in final ratings (2008 and 2010 averaged 8.4) and viewers (2008 averaging 13.6 million). For 2012, these numbers trailed the NCAA tournaments Final Four weekend, the 5 game NBA Finals series between the Heat-Thunder and all five BCS bowl games including the championship.

And despite the spin FOX places in releases or media flaks in sugarcoating the news, the downtrend appears to get worse every year (8 record lows since the the strike of 1994). And doesn't appear to get any better in future years. It does appear that it won't be long before MLB joins the NBA and NHL and baseball become almost exclusively a cable sport with less over the air broadcast or promotion, which is the basis of the renewal of their contracts with FOX, TBS and ESPN in 2014.

World Series Ratings: Record lows

FOX's coverage of the 2012 World Series has seen record lows for both Games 1 and 2.  According to Nielsen ratings, Game 1 saw a 7.6 final rating with 12.2 million viewers, down 13% in ratings and almost 2 million viewers less from last years first game between St. Louis and Texas.  It is also down 15% from 2010's series between San Fransisco and Texas which drew an 8.9 rating with 15 million viewers.  The rating and viewership is the lowest for a non-Saturday World Series since 2008 (Phillies & Rays) and 2006 (Cardinals & Tigers) respectively.


Game 2 did not fare any better with an overnight rating of 8.8, the lowest for a World Series Game 2. The previous low was a 9.2 for Phillies/Rays in 2008.  CBS programming featuring the Big Bang Theory and Person of Interest will likely take the win for the night, based on the overnights.  NBC ratings may appear to be inflated due to covering the Vikings-Buccaneers simulcast on NFL Network, but overall may have cut into the Fall Classic's viewership.  This doesn't bode well for the weekend, which will feature heavy competition from major college football games on ABC/ESPN Saturday and New Orleans and Denver showdown Sunday night on NBC.


So, it appears another World Series without a major market (i.e. the Yankees; Red Sox), will see another drop in FOX's post season coverage.  This, after very solid ratings by TBS and FOX for the LDS and LCS.  They are going to have to hope for a 6th and/or 7th game to see increases in viewers, or maybe another classic like last seasons Game 6 to peak more interest.

The NFL: America's Television Show

From the NFL's Communications page: Here is the top 10 television programs of the television season or more accurately, since Labor Day, September 3rd of this year.

Program	Viewers
1. NBC Sunday Night Football (Steelers-Broncos), 9/9	27.6 million
2. FOX Sunday National (mostly 49ers-Packers), 9/9	26.4 million
3. CBS Sunday National (mostly Broncos-Patriots), 10/7	24.5 million
4. CBS Sunday National (mostly Texans-Broncos), 9/23	24.0 million
5. NBC Wed. Night Kickoff Game (Cowboys-Giants), 9/5	23.9 million
6. NBC Sunday Night Football (Giants-Eagles), 9/30	22.8 million
7. FOX Sunday National (mostly Saints-Packers), 9/30	22.3 million
8. FOX Sunday National (mostly Giants-49ers), 10/24	22.3 million
9. NBC Sunday Night Football (Lions-49ers), 9/16	21.3 million
10. NBC Sunday Night Football (Patriots-Ravens), 9/23	21.3 million

Let me repeat for emphasis:  These are the top 10 TELEVISION PROGRAMS.  Not just sports.  Not on the list:  NCIS, CSI, Nashville, 60 Minutes, the Good Wife, Revolution (just pay the damn light bill and roll credits) Reality TV fluff, fantasy mess or 6 hours of the Big Bang Theory.  Its just ALL football. 

Week 6 of the NFL saw 24 major US markets have an NFL contest as the #1 watched event.  Only three markets nationally had a MLB Playoff Game on TBS at #1.  Only one had SEC College Football game between South Carolina-LSU on CBS.

This is why television networks pay the NFL $3 Billion annually.