Sunday, February 18, 2001
Sports on TV-Radio
XFL is bad TV
By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A lot has been written and said about the XFL being bad football. No arguement here, but that's overlooking something more important: It's bad TV.
The on-field cameras make the action hard to follow. The games take too long.
And the XFL gimmicks — players introducing themselves, microphone in the locker room — all come off very lame, too lame even for wrestling-loving market the XFL is targeting.
The XFL should have done some interviews with these guys while they were testing their 40 times. They need to identify the guys who are glib and get the microphones in their hands.
The guys in the booth are universally bad. Gov. Jesse Ventura could be impeached for his awful analysis. The guess is he couldn't identify 11 players in the whole league.
NO DEAL: Bob Trumpy may or may not take over Sunday Morning SportsTalk on WLW (700-AM) for Andy Furman today.
“I haven't been able to work out a deal with (Trumpy),” Darryl Parks said Friday afternoon.
FAMILIAR VOICE: Marc Amazon, who lost his job in the HOMER shuffle, will fill-in for Wildman Walker 9 a.m. to noon on Monday.
HBO COSTAS: Bob Costas' new show on HBO, On the Record, made a strong debut this week. The Tom Hanks interview was so-so. But the NBA roundtable, which included Oscar Robertson, took an unexpected twist when commissioner David Stern got noticeably ticked off at something in a New York Times pieceCostas read. So much on TV comes off as scripted, it was nice to see something spontaneous.
The interview with Dennis Miller was strong, and Costas chided Miller afterward for not taking on more issues.
The hour-loing On the Record will air at 11 p.m. Wednesday. It's also repeated periodically.
TOO BUSY: To a non-NASCAR guy, Fox's coverage last weekend of Daytona looked very good. The commentators — Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds — are first-rate.
One complaint: The streamer at the top of screen with running standings is distracting. Dropping it to the bottom of the screen might help.
Fox sports czar likes his NASCAR team enough to compare them to his football star, John Madden.
“One of the things that's great about Larry McReynolds and DW and (prerace analyst) Jeff Hammond, is that they're all natural teachers. It's like Maddenesque NASCAR.”
Speaking of football, Fox is pulling out the star Fox NFL Sunday for the Daytona 500 prerace show today. Terry Bradshaw will take a few laps around the Speedway with Dale Earnhardt. That should be good for laughs.
MERIDITH IN SARASOTA: WCIN's Bill Meridith will begin reports from the Reds camp in Sarasota on Moday. The reports air each morning at 6:25, 6:55, 7:25, 7:55 and 8:25.
THE RATINGS GAME: Fox got an early payoff for forking over the big bucks for its portion of the NASCAR package a week ago. The Bud Shootout pulled a 4.8 rating and a 12 share. That's up 26 percent over what CBS did last year and the best in seven years.
The highest rated program of the weekend was the Buick Open, which got a 6.9/14. But the Buick was down from last year's 8.0/18. Phil Mickelson held Tiger Woods off in that one.
THE RATINGS GAME II: The Westminster Dog Show on USA hammered the ESPYs on ESPN, 3.9 to 2.0 in the ratings — proving once again that no one outside of the ESPN compound gives a hoot about the ESPYs.
DEMAND PERFORMANCE: NBA In Demand has slashed the price of its Elite Pass to $109. You can get it with a satellite if you have Time Warner Digital cable.
E-mail jfay@enquirer.com.
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XFL is bad TV