Sunday, March 12, 2000
SPORTS ON TV-RADIO
ABC will find it hard to revive MNF
BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Whom will ABC bring in for Boomer Esiason to put a little life in the Monday Night Football broadcasts? Jimmy Johnson? Dick Vermeil? Bill Parcells? Dan Marino? Steve Young?
Pass the No-Doz.
None of them alone is going to do much better than Esiason did. I didn't think Boomer was awful. But he wasn't reason enough to sit through a bad game, either. To hold him responsible for the ratings decline is short-sighted; all ratings are down in the 500-channel universe.
The two guys who could make it worth sitting through a bad game — Terry Bradshaw and Cris Collinsworth — are both under contract with Fox.
The ideal mix would be Bradshaw, Parcells and play-by-play man Al Michaels.
But because Bradshaw isn't available, ABC isn't likely to find a combination much better than Michaels-Esiason.
ABC Sports president Howard Katz wants to get back to the Howard Cosell-Don Meredith days of MNF. That's why he hired producer Don Ohlmeyer, who did MNF from 1973-'76. Ohlmeyer is also good buddies with O.J. Simpson.
Short of hiring Juice, it's hard to think of anyone available who would make much of a splash.
If ABC is looking for an outside-
the-box type, like Cosell, and looking for younger viewers, it should consider radio talker Jim Rome, ESPN's Dan Patrick and Fox Sports Net's Keith Olbermann.
Things may work out better if the new analyst gets along with Michaels better. Esiason and Michaels never got along, although it was kept quiet. Until the firing.
“It's hard to do your job when you're trying to offer humor and be provocative and the guy next to you isn't trying to bring it out in you,” Esiason told the New York Times. “Al could have been better for me, and I tried with him, but it never clicked with me because he never wanted it to click.”
Michaels wouldn't fire back.
“I will not join in this juvenile vitriol,” Michaels said in a statement.
HOARD TO HOST: Dan Hoard, the Channel 19 weekend sports anchor and UC TV play-by-play man, will co-host Real Reds with Jeff Piecoro this year.
Hoard was added because Real Reds goes from a weekly show to a half-hour show before every home broadcast this season.
Real Reds will debut Opening Day (April 3) with an hour show.
“I'm really happy about it,” Hoard said. “We're doing 40 half-hour shows, so we'll be able to do more in-depth stuff, interviews, features. As the time for sports on regular news shrinks, those kind of things just don't get done.”
Hoard is a good choice. He's talented, plus he spends more time around the Reds than any other local TV guy.
SAD NOTE: Al McGuire is finished as a commentator. He suffers from a form of anemia that saps his energy to the point where he can't work.
That's too bad. McGuire was one of the best. He used the perfect mix of light-hearted chatter and basketball X's and O's.
SORRY, DICKIE V.: Got voice mail from Dick Vitale the other day. He took exception to a shot I took at him in my column ripping Billy Packer for taking shots at Vitale.
The column started with: “Dick Vitale is the basketball analyst most Americans would like to tell to: "Shut up!'”
Vitale's voice mail covered everything from his travel schedule to Deion Sanders' chances of making the Reds. (Dickie V. says he will) “But what a cheap shot,” he said about the “shut up” line. “You've got to travel with me and read my mail to see the love I get from these people.”
Vitale is great for college basketball. He's knowledgeable and entertaining. But, like almost all TV guys, he talks too much and too loud on occasion.
So I probably should have written: “Dick Vitale is the basketball analyst most Americans would occasionally like to tell to: "Shut up!'”
John Fay covers radio/TV sports for The Enquirer. He can be reached at (513) 768-8445.
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