Sunday, December 03, 2000
Sports on TV-Radio
Best sports drama is on Court TV
By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The best sports drama these days isn't on ESPN or Fox Sports Net or the networks. If you want a juicy story with plenty of twists and turns, tune into Court TV for the Rae Carruth trial Monday. The stakes in this game make the Super Bowl look trivial.
If Carruth loses, he could get the death penalty. And, after two weeks, it looks like it will take a miracle comeback for him to avoid the gas chamber.
Carruth was a wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers at the time of the 1999 shooting of Cherica Adams, who was eight months' pregnant with his child. Adams died a month later, after giving birth to their son.
The trial, which has dominated Court TV's daytime programming since it began, gives a glimpse into the world in which some pro athletes live. Carruth was a womanizer. He dated strippers. He ran with a crowd that included criminals.
Some of those people have turned on Carruth with damning testimony. Ex-girlfriend Candace Smith testified that Carruth confessed to her about planning the Adams shooting. Friend and co-defendant Michael Eugene Kennedy testified that Carruth came up with the plan to have Adams killed in a drive-by shooting in Charlotte.
Court TV does a great job of covering trial and giving instant commentary from its lawyers/analysts.
This isn't the kind of TV coverage the NFL wants its players to get, but it does make for compelling TV.
SPEAKING OF MURDER: How big is Jim Rome? My buddy Jim was having Thanksgiving dinner when someone mentioned O.J. Simpson. His aunt, a 70-year-old nun, said: “Do you mean Orenthal?”
Orenthal smack is the staple of the Rome show.
KUDOS: ESPN1160 did a moving tribute to Travis Alig, the Ryle star athlete who died in an automobile accident on Thankgiving Day. Doug Kidd wrote the piece.
JUST SUPER: CBS released its pre-Super Bowl coverage schedule last week. The network is giving us more coverage than ever. But is that a good or a bad thing?
CBS, in its never-ending quest to get younger and hipper, is handing over two hours of prime time on Super Bowl Eve to MTV. The Gen Xers will produce CBS Saturday Night Super Bowl Special and CBS Presents: MTV'S Super Bowl Uncen-sored. Hope they bring Beavis and Butt-head out of retirement to host.
BLACKOUT BEEF: A.R. Black of Sharonville wrote ripping Channel 19 for not showing the UC-Marshall game live: “If that's the best coverage the Bearcats can get, I suggest they look around for a more prestigious station.”
The reason 19 showed the game on tape delay was the station used up its allotment of pre-emptions. Pre-empting the network, in this case Fox, is getting harder to do. WXIX wouldn't even be allowed to carry all the UC games it does if it wasn't carrying UC before it was a Fox affiliate.
Pre-emptions are a huge deal. The lack of an independent station is why the Reds have not had an over-the-air carrier the last two years and won't have one next year.
No station with network affiliation can clear enough time to show enough games to make it worthwhile.
John Fay covers radio/TV sports for The Enquirer. He can be reached at (513) 768-8445.
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Best sports drama is on Court TV
