Your media leftovers, not on an NBC cable channel
Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times
Marcelo Balboa, left, and Matt Vasgersian offered men's soccer analysis on the Beijing Olympics from the NBC studios in New York.
The flap-to-do over NBC employing more than just a handful of broadcasters in New York to commentate on the Beijing Games events has plenty of merit. Viewers don't know any different -- just as they're not sure what's live and what isn't. Ethically, the NBC reporters freely admit they're not at the event. There's nothing hidden.
Matt Vasgersian shed some light on that, which we included in today's media column (linked here), saying that the biggest obstical is trying to keep up with a director picking pictures that don't necessarily match up with that the broadcasters want to discuss. That's the biggest problem.
The New York Times' Richard Sandomir did a piece on that aspect (linked here), able to go into the 30 Rock studios, which are home to "Saturday Night Live," and see first hand how it all goes down.
"For a former soccer player, it's difficult to do this off a monitor," Marcelo Balboa, who played in three World Cups, said during halftime of Nigeria's 2-1 victory over the U.S.. "You can't see plays developing. You want to be where everyone is screaming."
When asked via email for an explanation again of why NBC has stockpiled some 800 employees in New York, this paragraph was forwarded:
As part of our negotiations with the IOC in 2003 for the rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympics, we agreed to quickly move toward a 25% reduction in our on-site personnel and facilities for future games. That process began with the 2006 Torino Olympics. As our coverage plans for the '08 Beijing Olympics expanded to more than 3,600 hours, covering all 34 summer Olympic sports, we decided to develop a significant broadcast and digital operation based in (N.Y.) to handle cable and online coverage of 13 of those 34 sports. In those cases, our firm plan is and always has been to have our on-camera hosts identify their location as being at NBC's Olympic headquarters in (N.Y.), and to have our play-by-play commentators not only identify which Chinese city that each competition is taking place in, but also to say that they are broadcasting from our (N.Y.) Olympics headquarters.
Vasgersian, a huge fan of "Saturday Night Live," doesn't seem to have a problem with the fact he's stuck live in New York rather than on tape in China.
"I'm a complete SNL-file comedy geek, so I don't see going to work on the SNL set getting old any time soon," he said. "All the stage managers, audio techs ... they're all from SNL and have great insights. They're not dishing dirt on anyone, but for the history of the building and telling me about things that have happened there, it's great."
==Got your FOB T-shirt yet? That's in, Friends of Bob (Costas), through Awfulannouncing.com (linked here). It'll make the Olympic viewing go much better.
==And about this "LIVE" graphic that keeps showing up on NBC coverage, even when it's not: Why be lazy and continue to dupe viewers? An NBC spokesperson told the Hollywood Reporter this week to the "LIVE" tag: "The audience makeup of the Olympics is very much like that of 'American Idol' and 'Dancing with the Stars' which have 'live' season finales presented in much the same way. You assume there's a large amount of intelligence in the viewing audience, so when they see those twice-an-hour time stamps they'll understand what is being presented."
But that's a TV show. This is a sporting event, something people are used to seeing live 99 percent of the time.
CNET.com blogger Chris Matyszczyk wrote (linked here): "If you followed NBC's impeccable commercial logic, then surely Costas' favorite event, the World Series, should be on tape delay on the West Coast. Same goes for the Super Bowl."
More, more, more ...
==And the Olympic-related headline of the week from Onion Sports (linked here):
U.S. Men's Gymnastics Team: 'Win Or Lose, We Will Cry'
**BASEBALL
==ESPN is helping to facilitate a replay system for this year's Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., that will only be limited to possibility disputed calls on home-run balls. During the 32-game tournament, starting today, an off-field official and umpire will have a monitor below the stadium and alert the ESPN production truck if a review is needed. "We'll show them the normal replays that'd be showing on the telecast without coercing their decision," said Tom McNeeley, the event's coordinating producer.
The decision for Little League to ask for ESPN's assistance comes from a call during a California (Rancho Buena Vista)-Florida (Maitland) U.S. semifinal game in 2005 when a ball hit the foul pole, then struck the yellow line on the outfield fence, and the volunteer umpire (who was down the left-field line) ruled no three-run homer, but a ground-rule double for the Florida hitter. Replays showed it was the wrong call. Rancho Buena Vista won, 6-2.
Orel Hershiser, part of the ESPN and ABC broadcast crew, doesn't interpret this new twist as a way to take away more romanticism from a group of 12-year-olds just playing baseball. "In any human competition, you want people to get the call right," said the former Dodgers pitcher. "It's wrong if the only four people in the world who don't know the right call is the umpires on the field because everyone else has access to a replay. And in the long run, it will actually speed up the game, not slow it down after all the arguments and umpire gatherings are eliminated."
==Interesting that Fox sent lead baseball broadcaster Joe Buck to an exhibition football telecast (Thursday's Carolina-Philadelphia yawner) rather than, maybe, the Angels' game at Cleveland (12:55 p.m., Channel 11, with Kenny Albert and Jose Mota). That goes to 68 percent of the country (others see Seattle at Minnesota or Chicago White Sox at Minnesota). Jeanne Zelasko, Kevin Kennedy and Eric Karros are in the studio this weekend.
==MLB.TV (linked here) offers a five-day free trial of its service -- through Aug. 31 -- as long as you cancel before the five days are up (should you choose not to use it). The benefit: All MLB out of market games live videostreammed to your computer.
==TBS' Sunday national game, Milwaukee at the Dodgers, won't be shown in Southern California, so don't go looking for it on the cable channel (only on FSN Prime Ticket). ESPN's Sunday night game goes with Philadelphia at San Diego (5 p.m.).
==East Coast bias on MLB coverage by ESPN? The network ombudswoman, Le Anne Schreiber, says she has emperical evidence to say it ain't so (linked here). They can say what they want, and pull out charts (as they do here), but we continue to assume otherwise.
==Headline and story of the day from Onion Sports (linked here):
Manny Ramirez Likes Red Sox's New Blue Uniforms
LOS ANGELES--Dodgers left-fielder Manny Ramirez, sent to Los Angeles in a three-team trade two weeks ago, said Monday that he "really likes" the Red Sox's new blue-and-white uniforms. "I like it more than the red," Ramirez told reporters following the Dodgers' 8-6 win over the Phillies Monday. "I'm also happy that they shortened the Green Monster, and painted it blue, because that wall was too tall before. And I'm really enjoying the easy schedule we've been playing lately." Although Ramirez admitted he didn't appreciate having "that vampire from the Yankees" [Joe Torre] hanging out in the dugout all the time, he did say that he "completely approves of David Ortiz's new mustache" while gesturing towards Dodgers second baseman Jeff Kent.
**FOOTBALL
==For those who really, really, really need to see it, Brett Favre's debut with the New York Jets comes via NFL Network, which added the exhibition game against Washington to its schedule (Saturday, 4 p.m.)
"This is exactly what NFL Network was built for," said Charles Coplin, NFL Network vice president of programming. "Fans across the across the country now have a chance to watch all of Brett Favre's preseason action beginning with his debut live."
He left out the disclaimer: Those who have access to NFL Network get to see it. Those who don't, probably will live.
Fran Charles will handle the play-by-play with Marshall Faulk, Sterling Sharpe and Adam Schefter at Giants Stadium.
**COLLEGES
==CBS announced an unprecidented 15-year broadcast extension with the SEC that will expand past football and get into basketball and video streaming rights. The SEC is also apparently still talking to ESPN about a cable deal as he considers launching its own channel, a la the Big Ten and Mountain West. As part of the deal, CBS has the right to stream its games live on the Internet starting in '09. "That's possible, but we don't know yet if that's what we're going to do," Mike Aresco, CBS's VP of Programming, told the Sports Business Daily. "We have found that streaming has not cannibalized our TV programming."
**MISC.
==Has Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom been mailing it in during the Olympics? The Big Lead says it has the evidence (linked here). And it gets worse (linked here). At least he's not spending his off days comparing ox penis to sheep penis (linked here).
==Sirius XM Radio starts coverage of the English Premier League soccer season on Saturday with Arsenal-West Bromwich (4:45 a.m.), Everton-Blackburn (7 a.m.) and Sunderland-Liverpool (9:30 a.m.) on Channel 125. SIRIUS XM Radio is also the official satellite radio partner of Chelsea FC and will broadcast every Chelsea Premier League match live.
==Bill Macatee and Ian Baker-Finch are doing the CBS coverage of the PGA's Wyndham Championship in North Carolina on Saturday and Sunday (noon to 3 p.m. each day). Peter Oosterhuis, Peter Kostis, David Feherty and Bobby Clampett join the scaled-back party. CBS also replays the infomercial-like special, "The Best Shot in Golf," which takes viewers up into the MetLife blimp, on Saturday (11 a.m. to noon, Channel 2). It originally aired last May.
==ESPN's Sunday "Outside The Lines" (6:30 a.m. ESPN, 9 a.m ESPNEWS) gets into the MLB maple bat problem -- still unresolved since a late June/early July edict to start collecting broken pieces of lumber -- with a piece reported on by Bob Holtzman. "I try to get the smallest handle possible, with the biggest head and weighs the least, so I can get that bat speed," says Mets third baseman David Wright. "That's a recipe for broken bats, but you try to get every edge you can because it's a tough game. ... If they look into it and find a study that says that maple bats are more likely to injure somebody, then I'm all for the change."
==Doug Gottlieb, an Orange County native (Tustin High, '95) who has hosted his own later-night show for ESPN Radio, has been on a test run on KSPN-AM (710) as the station tries to figure out how it'll move forward after giving up on the Dave Dameshek experiment in the weekday drive spot. Expect a decision soon on whether the station will hire Gottileb to do a show for it (even if it's from a remote location) with a sidekick to be determined (Mark Willard? C'mon).
==In New York, more neurotic depression over the end of "Mike and the Mad Dog" (linked here).
==In Chicago, a backlash to journalist Mike Wilbon singing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" at Wrigley Field (linked here).
==Sean Salisbury catches Deadspin.com up on what he's been doing since ESPN dropped him from the roster last March (linked here). The former USC quarterback insists there's still nothing to the reports that his firing was a result of him taking pictures of his naughty parts and sending them over a cellphone. "It NEVER happened," he said. "And I have written proof at my house on an ESPN document that states that it didn't happen ... My departure at ESPN had nothing to do with that. As for speculation, they can say whatever they want, but I can tell you now, written proof, it never happened, and you're the first people I've spoken to publicly about this." Probably just as well, since Deadspin started the story rolling in the first place months ago.
**AND FINALLY:
==An Associated Press review of the new "Madden '09" NFL game (linked here) doesn't mince words -- the new announcing crew isn't cool.
In giving the game 3½ out of a 4-star rating, the review includes:
"As you'd expect, 'Madden 09' looks better than ever, with high-definition graphics that come awfully close to the level of a network broadcast. The audio has undergone the most jarring change: Al Michaels, the veteran TV broadcaster, is gone, and John Madden himself has been demoted to the halftime show and the training levels. Their replacements in the booth, the bland Tom Hammond and the insufferable Cris Collinsworth, are poor substitutes."
How does Madden get kicked off his own game? Because he didn't want to put the effort into taping new cliches?
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