Keith Olbermann Dropped From Football Night In America

I guess we should be renaming today the day of sports media demotions? First, the announcement came that Pam Ward will be relegated to working with Danny Kanell on the afternoon ESPNU game. And now the announcement that Football Night In America kitchen has lost one of its way too many cooks. Per this report from Sports by Brooks, you can say goodbye to Keith Olbermann on FNIA!

Multiple media and network television sources confirmed to me Thursday that Keith Olbermann will not appear on NBC’s Football Night In America Sunday evening NFL broadcasts this season.

Some members of the FNIA cast and crew were made aware of the news Tuesday at a preseason production meeting in New York City. Afterwards, the cast and crew adjourned to Yankee Stadium to watch the Yankees-Blue Jays game.

I’m told that NBC News officials requested the move, citing Olbermann’s weekday commitment to MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann. During the 2009 NFL season, Olbermann periodically did not appear on Friday editions of Countdown.

Network television sources confirmed to me that Olbermann’s departure from FNIA was not due to any conflict with cast or production crew members. I was also given no indication that Olbermann’s politics had anything to do with the move.

All in all, this is a good move for NBC. There is no doubt that Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick were wildly popular and successful hosting SportsCenter together, and to an extent, NBC tried to re-create that past magic. There was just one problem with that line of thinking: Today's not the past, and we don't need to relive it. Repeating the same jokes over and over they coined a decade ago does not make for good television. Olbermann drew nothing but criticism, and when NBC brought in Dan Patrick to complement Olbermann on highlights only to tone down the highlights like they did last year, Olbermann became expendable for FNIA. It looks like NBC is finally taking steps to getting the too many cooks out of the kitchen. And that, my friends, is a good thing.

News That Is Sure To Surprise You: The NHL Favors NBC Over CBC

Stunning. I know. But it is quite clear that by what the NHL is doing on Saturday, they care much more about NBC and their American audience than CBC and hockey's Canadian audience, even though hockey is a much bigger sport in Canada than it is in the United States. So what has Garry Bettman done this time? Well....Hockey Night In Canada won't exactly be Hockey Night in Canada this Saturday. Instead, it will be Hockey Afternoon In Canada. From The Hockey News.

If there were ever any doubt the NHL has almost no regard for Canadians and the network that broadcasts games to them, let there be doubt no more. The league’s decision to cater to NBC by having Game 4 of the Montreal-Philadelphia Eastern Conference final at 3 p.m. Saturday is nothing short of an outrage.

You see, the Saturday night slot for Hockey Night in Canada is sacrosanct. The last time the league pulled this, in Game 2 of the first round series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Canadiens, CBC lost 800,000 viewers. There are those at CBC who reckon that number will be up well over one million for this one. That’s because Canadiens aren’t hard-wired to watch hockey on a Saturday afternoon and, as it turns out, they won’t all watch it regardless of what time it’s on.

Nice, eh? The league gives priority times to a network that would probably draw about the same numbers as it would if it showed old strongman competitions or tractor pulls at the same time. Meanwhile, people in British Columbia get treated to Hockey Morning in Canada, all in the name of catering to American viewers. To add insult to injury, NBC had apparently originally planned to not air any of the games in Montreal during the playoffs, but has since backtracked on that decision.

And don’t think the people at the CBC aren’t incensed at how they’ve essentially been told by the NHL they’re second-class citizens. You’d think the NHL would realize the CBC recoups that $110 million it gives the league with ad revenues, but again, you’d be wrong. Cutting out that many viewers by putting the game on in the afternoon puts a serious dent in the rates CBC can charge advertisers, so it makes far less money. And if you think the NHL will make that up with increased revenues from advertisers on NBC, you’re dreaming.

And when it comes to league-wide hockey-related revenues, something that should get the league’s attention, just how many more $10 beers does the NHL think it’s going to sell by putting a game on at 3 p.m. as opposed to 7 p.m.?

When games are played in Montreal, traditionally Reseau des Sports gets first priority in terms of camera positioning, intermission guests and access to the teams. CBC is second and NBC is third. In all other Canadian cities, CBC gets top priority and in all American cities, top priority goes to NBC, with CBC second in the pecking order.

Some at CBC are anxious to see what the pecking order will be for Saturday’s game. Chances are, though, they’ll show up at the rink on Saturday to find out the league is rolling out a red carpet and hiring a marching band for NBC and they’ll have to be pleased with getting Ryan O’Byrne as an intermission guest.

I can't say I disagree with anything here. CBC has been partners with the NHL since the days of yore and they completely disregard them for a network that has proven countless times that it does not give two shits about hockey. But alas, that is Gary Bettman and his hard on for the United States. After all, since when has Gary Bettman ever cared about that huge island landmass northeast of the United States?

Dan Patrick To Anchor NBC's Stanley Cup Final Coverage

2007: Bill Clement
2008: Bob Neumeier
2009: Darren Pang
2010: Dan Patrick

The above is a list of the people who have anchored NBC's Stanley Cup coverage over the past 4 years. Congrats on winning the annual lottery at NBC, Dan Patrick! From Puck The Media

Dan Patrick will be the studio host when NBC airs games 1, 2 and potentially 5-7 of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final, NBC Sports confirmed to Puck the Media over the weekend, though apparently it isn’t news, as Patrick’s been mentioning it on his syndicated daily radio show according to Ken Fang.

It’ll be Patrick’s first time hosting a Stanley Cup Final, and the fourth different studio host NBC has used in four years for the championship series (2007: Bill Clement, 2008: Bob Neumeier, 2009: Darren Pang). One presumes he’ll have Milbury and any of Pierre McGuire, Darren Pang or Jeremy Roenick beside him when he works the series.

Patrick joined NBC Sports in 2008 as a co-host of the network’s NFL studio show, Football Night in America. He’s also done some Olympic reporting for NBC during the Vancouver Olympics. Prior to that, he had been with ESPN as an NBA Host and, more famously, as host of the famed “Big Show” edition of SportsCenter with Keith Olbermann.

The way I see it this is both a good thing and a bad thing. It is good because Patrick has a wide appeal and can possibly draw in some more of the casual sports fans out there. And seeing as he was all over NBC's Olympics coverage, people might take kind to seeing a familiar face on hockey coverage. On the flip side, when was the last time Dan Patrick has ever given a flying fuck about hockey? I do not listen to the DP Show, but the last time he did hockey coverage was, well, aside from reading highlights on SportsCenter, there has never been such a time. If he was such a hockey aficionado, would have certainly had roles on the NHL on ABC and ESPN National Hockey Night and ESPN/ABC's playoff coverage, something he never had.

It's a good move because it could bring in people, but even though I like Dan Patrick, I fear he is going to be a fish out of water on this one.

The Legend Of Mike Milbury And Jeremy Roenick's Reactions

By stating that Mike Milbury is brought in for controversy is not exactly breaking any news. He is a poor man's Don Cherry. The fact that he has been making some rather questionable these Olympics should not come as a surprise to anyone.

It is not so much the remarks that have drawn me to put these videos up, but rather the reaction to the remarks by Milbury's co-analyst, Jeremy Roenick. Take for instance his comments on Wednesday that the Germans were fire hydrants and the Canadians were peeing on them (watch JR's reaction at the end of the video)



One day later Mike Milbury would decide to step up his game, as would the reactions from Roenick. After Canada throttled the Russians 7-3 yesterday, Mike Milbury took to calling the Russian hockey team "Eurotrash", which given the meaning of the term and the context he used it in, was really more of a nonsensical insult than something people should get offended over. Again, the reaction of JR to Milbury's comment is worth noting.



I am beginning to wonder if that laugh at the end by JR was the thought going through his mind that there was a chance NBC could pull that dunce off the air for a game or two.

Oh, JR. You truly have been the one and only bright spot in NBC's piss poor Olympic coverage. Not only have you braved Bill Patrick-otron and Mike Milbury, but you have somehow managed to fight them off and give a good, honest analysis backed up with actual fact and reason. While Milbury lives for the controversy, Roenick lives for telling the viewers what is really going on and his honest, well-reasoned opinions.

Seeing as it is doubtful that NBC will do anything to fine or suspend Milbury, one can only hope that some Eurotrash American walks up to him, whips out his dong, and pees on him.

Why Putting USA Vs. Canada On MSNBC May Just Be For The Best For Hockey Fans

The argument has been going on for some time now back and forth. The USA and Canada game is going to be on MSNBC while NBC decides to air ice dancing, which believe it or not, is the name of a figure skating event. James Craven feels that this is wrong, and while I can't blame him or any other hockey fan for feeling that way, sometimes the less-appealing option on the surface may be the better option for all involved.

Now I assume that everyone reading this gets MSNBC (if you don't then you have every reason to be as pissed off and irate as you have ever been in your life), and in making this argument, I am making it with the knowledge that I get MSNBC.

The fact of the matter is, as much as hockey fans are upset that hockey is being put down, things could be worse. Let's look at the positives of the game being on MSNBC: It will be live coast-to-coast without interruptions. Why do I say that? Because put this game over-the-air on NBC and that would not happen. From Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune

Christopher McCloskey, an NBC Universal Sports and Olympics vice president, said one benefit of putting the hockey game on MSNBC is that it can run there without being cut up into segments to accommodate other sports as NBC customarily does in prime time to cover as much ground and as many viewer interests as possible.

"The incorporation of cable platforms into Olympic programming allows for the avid sport fan to watch games the way they are used to watching them — with long-form coverage," McCloskey said.

TV by the numbers also points out what I stated above that this game would be on tape delay on the west coast if it were to be aired on NBC.

Now as a hockey fan, I would much rather watch a fully live, uninterrupted hockey game on a cable channel then watch it over the air on NBC with Bob Costas giving us ice dancing updates unbeknownst to the fact that just Patrick Kane scored a goal and we missed it because Costas was talking about the top ranked ice dancing team just wiped out. Now as a hockey fan who gets MSNBC, I can live with this just fine. Would I want to see hockey reach a broader audience? Sure. But at the same time, do I want to only see segments of the game with long, non-intermission interruptions by Bob Costas during the game? Heck no.

And is there anyone out on the West Coast that would not know the result of the game by the time it "started" if they were to air it on tape delay?

I know that putting this game on MSNBC is not the kindest thing that NBC Universal has ever done to hockey, but given the alternative of what putting this game on NBC would mean, isn't putting the game on MSNBC really the better deal in the end for fans that just want to watch the game?

NBC's "Boss Button" Fail And General Commentary On Their Horrendous Vancouver Performance Thus Far

It is well documented how awesome CBS incorporates the "Boss Button" when it comes to their NCAA March Madness coverage. The pie charts are exceptional and while I don't know how it looks to your boss if you are not supposed to be looking at a pie chart or your job does not involve pie charts or how your boss will follow up on you once they see the pie chart, it still beats the heck out of what NBC is legitimately giving you with their boss button for their Winter Olympics coverage.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, NBC's attempt to deceive your boss!

Ugh.........wow.

Let's dissect this now. It's a screenshot on Windows 7 of a blank Excel spreadsheet that is only covering a 3rd of the screen. Can you count the number of things wrong in that last statement?

First of all, how many offices have Windows 7? Secondly, doesn't a BLANK spreadsheet sort of defeat the purpose of the intention of the boss button, which is to, oh, you know, make you look like you are doing something productive! And lastly, the spreadsheet taking up a 3rd of the screen does a great job in highlighting the Windows 7 that your boss and company may or may not have. Sure if you are really savvy enough you can pass it off as Vista, but how many people even use Vista? It sucked monkey testicles so much that people in Vista's heyday, people were paying extra money to downgrade to Windows XP!

Alas, that NBC would throw up such a half-assed boss button is hardly describing. If I were to describe NBC's coverage in only one word.............DreadfullyPainstakinglyUnprofessionallyAwful.

From showing the death of Nodar Kumaritišvili over and over again in slow-mo in primetime the day that he died to spoiling its own events on Twitter before they are aired (even on the east coast) to the all-around awful announcers they hired to somehow thinking that we care about the words and reports of Cris Collinsworth on the Winter Olympics to only streaming hockey and curling on NBCOlympics.com while CTV is trying to stream every single and minute event to the complete debacle of their schedule (more on that in a bit), it has just been a complete disaster. An indefensible disaster.

Take last night for example. At 7:30 PM ET, the Canada-Norway hockey game was supposed to start on CNBC, however, a close women's curling match between the United States and Japan was going on. Now I understand not wanting to cut away from a close curling match featuring the United States and I am not going to complain about that. Too bad that was the only thing NBC did right in handling the situation.

I forget what USA was running at the time, but on MSNBC at the time of Canada's faceoff with Norway was a women's hockey game between the USA and Russia. Now, again, normally I would say don't cutaway from a U.S. hockey game, but when it is in the 2nd half of the 3rd period and the score is 13-0 USA, I think it is a safe assumption to make that a very small portion of the population will be pissed off if you cutaway from that blowout to show the men's Team Canada hockey team in action for the first time in the 2010 Olympics. You know, the same Team Canada team that was mentioned more during the U.S.-Switzerland game than the U.S. and Switzerland were combined.

Okay, so no TV channels available for them at faceoff. Even though it would be an inconvenience to some, NBC can just go directly to streaming the game online at NBCOlympics.com until the games on MSNBC or CNBC concludes, right? Well either they had technical difficulties with the system or the feed, the technology itself is bad (and I find that highly doubtful with Microsoft Silverlight), or the people at NBC are just incompetent morons, but whatever the answer is, NBC did not have a stream up until at least 5 minutes after the puck was dropped.

Now the U.S. women's ice hockey blowout is over and MSNBC does temporarily flip to the Canada-Norway game. At 7:58 PM ET, Mike Emrick announces that the game can now be seen on its originally schedules channel, CNBC. Thus the first thought that pops into my mind is that curling is over and CNBC is now showing the game.

Wrong. Some studio guy was still talking about the curling on CNBC followed by an extended 5-minute commercial break.

Does MSNBC stick with the hockey game until CNBC is finished with their required advertising (despite the fact that the time after a curling match and before you JIP a hockey match is never a good time for an extended commercial)? Of course not! This is NBC we are talking about people and you know what 8:00 on MSNBC means, don't you? It's Countdown with Keith Olbermann's Overblown Ego! Whoopee!

Whose decision this was, I have no idea. Is it possible that Keith Olbermann's ego got in the way and asked that his show not be preempted for 5 minutes so that MSNBC can satisfy a greater audience by airing a Team Canada men's ice hockey game? Absolutely, it is possible. Is it possible that it is somehow in his contract that his show is more important than the Olympics? Just as possible. Could it have just been awful communicating between the sister stations, MSNBC and CNBC? Probably the most likely of events, yes, but regardless, NBC morons made sure that it's television audience missed another 5 minutes of hockey in addition to the beginning of the game that was cutoff just in case the Russian women make one of those ever common 13-goal comebacks that you read about everyday in the papers.

Eventually with 2 minutes left in the 1st period, CNBC started airing Canada vs. Norway.

Again, I am not going to fault CNBC for sticking with a close curling match involving the USA, but something does need to be done about this. For the summer Olympics they had separate channels dedicated to just soccer and baseball, why not do the same here? Why not dedicate a channel just to hockey or a channel just to curling? That way you avoid compressing too much into too small a time frame and thus you risk having to join-in-progress pretty much every sporting event on cable which is what NBC-U did last night. It was just bad. And they even cutoff the first 2 minutes of the Russia-Latvia game for the conclusion of Finland-China women's ice hockey game. Get another channel, have the IOC space out games more, change something because this is the kind of Olympics coverage I would expect with a bunch of high schoolers running the show, not a major American broadcast network, even if it is NBC. This has been pathetic even for them.

What's my overall point in this post? Basically that NBC is a disgrace and should, by law, never be allowed to cover the Olympics again.

NBC Strikes Again; Relegates USA-Canada Hockey Game To MSNBC

Apparently Comcast has not helped NBC brass get their heads out of their ass. I'm in the process of writing a paper so I don't have much time to elaborate or go into much commentary, but the incompetent morons at NBC have struck again. Instead of putting the big February 21 showdown between USA and Canada on NBC, they have instead pulled their collective heads together and decided what on earth could be a bigger draw than one of the biggest hockey rivalries today. Their answer: Men's giant slalom, women's speedskating, men's freestyle skiing, and the ever popular ice dancing! THIS IS GENIUS! Puck Daddy actually got in contact with NBC and they gave him a couple of bullshit excuses explanations for dumping a huge hockey game for garbage, er, ice dancing.

So we reached out to NBC for comment and context, and found out who gets the blame for this malarkey: American women.

According to the network, there are three major sporting events that have more female viewers than male viewers: the Kentucky Derby, the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics. Turning three hours of prime-time coverage on the East Coast over to a hockey game isn't exactly catnip to those casual female viewers, despite Sidney Crosby's(notes) pouty lips.

Ice dancing, like figure skating, is a demographic draw; it's the hook for a night of coverage that appeals to a broader audience than hockey does. But it's not the only reason USA/Canada was shifted to the home of Keith Olbermann's foaming mouth.

In essence, committing to a hockey game is committing to a three-hour programming block that can't be interrupted. Imagine the outrage if NBC cut away during the second period of USA/Canada because someone was taking a historic bobsled run. Ice dancing allows for drop-ins at other events, which is another reason NBC believes it's the best option in East Coast prime time.

Now, aside from the indignation of having hockey shuffled off to cable, there's been some concern from hockey fans about the quality of that coverage: namely, that MSNBC may not have the HD hockey coverage that NBC would have had.

MSNBC's HD station was rolled out last summer, and one of the last major holdouts finally came around this week: Verizon FiOS, which added the network to its digital HD tier. Chances are the U.S./Canada tilt will be in HD in your area, if you have digital cable or satellite with an HD package.

NBC told us with pride that it's offering an enormous amount of hockey on its networks; a full schedule of games is here, and the majority of them are on cable – although the Russia/Czech game scheduled before Canada/USA will be on NBC that afternoon on the East Coast.

The bronze-medal game for men's hockey is scheduled for 10 p.m. EST on Saturday, Feb. 27, on MSNBC, with the gold-medal game on NBC the following day. (Keep in mind NBC told us there is some flexibility in moving games from network to network if there's a reason to – such as, perhaps, Team USA playing for the bronze.)

If you're interested in watching games on the Web, NBC is streaming hockey while dropping the hammer on sites that stream live TV.

Uhhh.....you do realize that while not a broader audience, that you would actually get more viewers with the USA-Canada hockey game? Right? Am I right?

Sigh.

Complete idiocy. And these idiots wonder why they are projecting a $200 million dollar loss. Frankly, Conan O'Brien described NBC brass better than I ever could, so I'll give him the final words, get back to my paper, and I'll talk to you later.

NBC Has High Expectations For The U.S. Men's Hockey Team

Believe it or not, we are just a month away from the return of the Winter games and NBC has their hype machine in full force. In fact, NBC is so excited about covering this year's Winter games that they are making some rather bold predictions about the U.S. Men's hockey team.

Bottom line: "Ryan Miller and U.S. men's Hockey team head into the semifinal round (live ET/CT) with a medal in sight."

Now that's confidence in a team! Mark it down, folks, the United States men's hockey team is going to the semifinals and will at least compete for a medal. And when it does happen, don't you forget that you heard it from their promoter NBC!

Aspeaking of NBC and medals, I really can't tell you how excited I am to hear that the olympics are introducing a 4th place medal in this year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver. What, you haven't heard about it? They are going to call it The NBC....

(Hat tip to Wyshynski and Twitter)

Jimmy Kimmel Would Like To Personally Give Jay Leno The Tongue Lashing Of A Lifetime

I am not sure what on earth Jay Leno was possibly thinking when he invited Jimmy Kimmel on his show after Kimmel spent a whole show earlier this week imitating Jay Leno with a wig and fake chin and all, but Leno did it. If there is one thing that Kimmel is good for, it is shock value. He is not afraid to give you a tongue-lashing right to your face and boy did he ever give it to Leno tonight. It's one thing to do what Conan and Dave Letterman, clearly still bitter after 18-years, have been doing and giving Jay lashings on monologues, but when Leno invited Kimmel on for an interview and Kimmel came up with this, it's a car crash that you gotta watch.



And that was before The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien where Conan came on and did arguably one of his best Tonight Show monologues ever! As soon as an embeddable video becomes available, I will put it right in this space. For now, you can click on this link here and you can scroll down and check out the Conan videos for yourself.

I really hope that Conan can get off of NBC as quick as possible and does make the move to Fox where he will become a star and NBC can rot in their own tears. And maybe then they will realize how much of a selfish douche bag Jay Leno (not to mention how unfunny he is) is when the storied Tonight Show can barely keep up with Letterman's Late Show and Conan's show on Fox. Keep in mind that it was Jay Leno who started this nonsense when in 2004 he said that he would retire in 2009, only to retract that and force NBC to move him to primetime as they already had a deal with Conan to take over The Tonight Show, thus forcing them to move Jay to primetime and thus dragging down NBC's abysmal primetime ratings even further down the toilet than they already were.

Conan >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Jimmy Kimmel >>>>>>>> Letterman >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Leno.

Fuck Leno.

Team Conan FTW!!!!

Fixing Football Night In America

Another season of FNIA is over and once again they fail to remotely touch upon the greatness that NFL Primetime had.

However, while nothing will ever be better than the original NFL Primetime with Chris Berman and Tom Jackson, there are ways that I think NBC can fix it so that it can at least be worthy pf being mentioned in the same sentence.

First things, first, NFL Primetime worked because it was simple, it was not over the top, and the stars were allowed to shine. It had just 2 people, Berman and Jackson doing highlights and analysis without any gimmicks such as Bob Costas freezing his tush off in the Meadowlands (would less people watch if they had the poor guy in a heated studio or booth?) Berman was very enthusiastic and his gimmick and nicknames and what not worked on this show. His schtick doesn't work for much else, but it worked on Primetime, and Tom Jackson was terrific complement to Boomer. People like to talk about the chemistry between Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick (more on them later) and granted they do have it, but nowhere to the level that Berman and Jackson had it.

Enough of the gold standard of highlight shows and more on something that would be lucky to win plastic an award show for highlight shows. Football Night in America does not work for multiple reasons, but the biggest one is there are way too many cooks in the kitchen. Now I understand how you may want more people for a Super Bowl broadcast, but do you really need 9 people appearing regularly on a 1-hour and 20 minute highlight/pre-game show? How many people do you need to preview the Sunday Night game while doing highlights and breaking down the games of the afternoon? NFL Primetime did it with 2, at the sacrifice of talking about the Sunday Night game during the hour (who cares about that, though, isn't that what pre-game intros are for?). So who should NFL Primetime get rid of?

1. Why on earth do you have 3 anchors? Football Night in America essentially has 3 hosts in Bob Costas (now on-site), Keith Olbermann, and Dan Patrick. And the fact of the matter is that you can get rid of 2. Who on earth cares if Bob Costas is even on site of the game period? What on earth does that add? Why can't Al and Cris just talk about the game in the booth, if they must talk about the game during that hour and 20 minutes. Back to Costas, though, what on earth does he add to the show, period? Costas is not a football guy, he's a baseball guy, so why on earth is he on a football show that he does not need to be on? He does not add anything and as he proved to us the first 2 years of the show, he sucks at doing highlights. Get rid of Costas on that show and you are down to two.

NFL Primetime succeeded in only 1 person doing highlights, so why does FNIA need 2? But who to get rid of? Olbermann or Patrick? If you know me, then you know what I am going to say, but just read my reasons as I am not going to make this about his horridness and constant lying as a political host.

When Olbermann first broke into the business, he was a sports guy and a highlight reader. He got on ESPN with Dan Patrick and they both became famous. For sports. Olbermann had a falling-out at ESPN, went to Fox Sports, had a falling out there, and eventually decided to get in the political TV business. Back then he was a sports guy doing politics. Now, enough time has passed where America no longer views him as that witty SportsCenter anchor, but rather as that left-wing political humorist on MSNBC. In other words, on Football Night in America, he is a politics guy doing sports. Would Katie Couric ever host the NFL Today? Then why on earth is Olbermann on FNIA? Well the only reason NBC ever brought him in the first place was to help promote his MSNBC political show Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Back then, his show was on the ratings rise and with his constant speaking out against the unpopular Bush Administartion, was gaining in popularity. They decided to bring him, and as a direct promotion for the show, they have him name every week "The Worst Person In The NFL" which may have been the least subtle, most horribly conceived, unfunny promotion that anyone has ever thought of for Countdown. I have not seen the numbers on this but I would be shocked if it had worked.

NBC had enough sense after 8 weeks to ditch it for good but Olbermann still remained on the show, spouting off the same tired old jokes every Sunday, and making obscure references that only people who watch his show would get and using words that only .1% of the population knows. And all he does is read highlights! He does not engage anyone in any discussions and I am not so sure he truly knows what he is talking about when it comes to football.

Let's face it, Olbermann does not speak to the average football fan. The obnoxious way which he said during last Sunday's FNIA that if he knew the schedule that he would tell us, was so obnoxious that obnoxious does not begin to describe how obnoxious it is. He thinks he is better and smarter than everyone when in fact everyone out there watching him sees him as either a horribly misguided political host or a pathological political liar. You see the common theme here? He is no longer a sports guy and is no longer considered as such. He's all politics all the time, going as far as to make Sarah Palin-Alaska jokes and making statements that at it's most literal, say the person is literally crushed in a bag. So why on earth is he on a sports show? His ratings are so far down that there is little hope for recovery for them and putting him on a sports show in an effort to help the ratings is only taking up a lot of space and time.

Now on to Dan Patrick. Dan Patrick does engage in conversations with the analysts on the show, he is charismatic enough like Berman to host a show and read highlights without being overly obnoxious like Olbermann is. Sure he is not perfect nor is he as good as Boomer, but he is the only one there that can carry a highlights show without putting everyone to sleep (Costas) or alienating his entire viewers with obnoxiousness (Olbermann).

2. Get rid of Peter King. What does he tell us that is not available on Pro Football Talk?

3. Get rid of Tiki Barber. His 30-second reports from New York or Dallas are about the most useless thing to hit sports since Fox's Glow Puck.

4. Fixing the analysts. You need someone who is both knowledgeable about football and has a personality to serve as a single analyst to the highlights. That's the best way this kind of thing works. Sadly for NBC, Tom Jackon has both and is the best at it. Sadder for NBC, no one else on their roster has that kind of combination. I'd say Cris Collinsworth, but NBC clearly sees him as the next John Madden or at the very least as a game-analyst, and not a studio analyst. I will assume that Cris chooses to remain in that position and will not go back to the studio, otherwise I would advocate for him to take the spot of Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison.

Don't get me wrong, I love Tony Dungy and he knows the sport better than anyone, but he does not have the personality needed to be a single analyst on a highlights show. And Rodney Harrison, while a little more opinionated and has more personality and charisma than Tony Dungy, is nowhere near knowledgeable enough to be like Tom Jackson. Get rid of Harrison and Dungy and find someone out there, anyone. Steal Tom Jackson or someone else from ESPN if you have to, just get someone you think can fill the roles of a Tom Jackson on Football Night in America.

5. Another thing they can do is get rid of the end of show recap of the games, once called The Little Big Show, now I could not tell you what they call it, but regardless, it's useless filler and needs to go.

Now I know what you are thinking, JFein, this is exactly like NFL Primetime! Football Night in America should be different! But, my counter to that is, Primetime sure as heck worked and what is Football Night in America now but the newer version of NFL Primetime seeing as ESPN no longer has access to the exclusive extended highlight package. They lost that to NBC when they lost Sunday Night Football to NBC.

Dan Patrick and a knowledgeable charismatic analyst like Tom Jackson. Alone. Doing highlights and analysis of a game. Now there is a show capable of surpassing NFL Primetime.

Marcelo Balboa May Now Be Available In Your Household On August 12 After All

We are just 1 week away from perhaps the biggest game the U.S. soccer team has played this whole crazy summer and now, we may have the biggest news of all about the game. Remember over a week ago when I posted the story of how the U.S. qualifying game next Wednesday at Estadio Azteca was only going to be available on mun2 and Telemundo with Marcelo Balboa making his return to broadcasting and analyzing (and I use those terms in the broadest sense possible), well, as it turns out, those that have DirecTV (that's me!), Dish Network, and (in some cases) Time Warner, will get their dose of awful announcing after all! How is that possible, you ask? Well, it has been decided that a "Free Preview" of mun2 is needed, and what better day for a free preview then on August 12, 2009, the same day that the United States is scheduled to take on Mexico in the World Cup qualifying game on mun2! Via Big Soccer.com

Various sources (not to be confused with Various Styles) are reporting this morning that on August 12, the day of the United States - Mexico game, Telemundo Soccer News Topics affiliate mun2 (mun dos) will be offering a "Free Preview" of their channel.

According to NBC Soccer News Topics Universal, mun2 has already received commitments from programming distributors that almost double their current 31 million household subscriber base.

DirecTV and Dish Network will both provide mun2 to their entire subscriber base that day free of charge.

Time Warner Soccer News Topics distributors will apparently make the decision on a case-by-case basis, so you might consider calling your local office and acting like a raving lunatic.

Furthermore, while mun2 is a Spanish language channel, for this game an English language "overlay" will be available through the SAP option on your TV. You now have one week to figure out how that works.

While I am excited that I won't have to scratch and claw for an online stream to see this game in any language, I am now somewhat disappointed that I will voluntarily subject myself to Marcelo Balboa's analysis (Phil Shoen will be working PbP). As much as I criticized NBC Universal et. al. for putting this game on mun2, a channel which most people in this country don't receive, I applaud them for giving some a free preview on the day of the game. Now if only they can somehow put it on Comcast as well, aside from the fact that they are actually paying Marcelo Balboa, there may not be too many complaints about this move. I know I'm excited.

USA! USA! USA!

(Big Time Hat Tip To James Craven!)

NBC-Universal Officially Hates Soccer Fans

Oy ve. I can't....I can't even.....oy ve.

And I thought that yesterday's CONCACAF Gold Cup Final was bad. That pales in comparison to what you are about to read. If you're a soccer fan (or just a sports fan in general), I would suggest you stop reading now and/or have a trash can right next to you as what you are about to read will utterly sicken you.

First off, Stupid Sideline Reporters sets the background better than I ever could so I'll use his blockquote to set the stage for the worst news you'll probably hear today.

NBC Universal had the rights to the upcoming crucial World Cup qualifier between the US and Mexico at the Azteca Stadium. Since NBC couldn’t care about what the viewer thinks (hence why their ratings suck), so they tried to sell it to good ol’ ESPN, who normally handle USMNT games. Sadly, ESPN wasn’t interested in paying a pretty penny for a qualifier that could see Mexico either extend their unbeaten streak in qualifiers against the US or be in grave danger of missing the World Cup altogether.

So NBC Universal stuck it on some digital channel that I bet very few people know even existed. No problem, you can watch on Univision right? Well it’s NBC Universal so they put the Spanish-language option on Telemundo.

So as of now it's still just a meh deal, right? Well The Washington Post has the kicker for you. But before you read anymore, please, make sure there is a trash can right next to you. I don't want to be responsible for any furniture damage. Via The Washington Post

The Insider has learned that GolTV's Phil Schoen and former USA defender Marcelo Balboa will form the English-language announcing team for the USA-Mexico World Cup qualifier Aug. 12 on mun2, the cable outlet operated by Telemundo. Andres Cantor and Sammy Sadovnik will do commentary on Spanish-language Telemundo. The Spanish duo will be on site in Mexico City, the English tandem will not. The English audio will be available on Telemundo for those who have Secondary Audio Programming (SAP) capability.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The good news is is that I don't get mun2. The bad news is I don't get Telemundo. I am hoping (probably against hope) that it will be picked up by GolTV and I can watch the game there (it'd be hoping too much that the Spanish broadcast to be the one picked up by GolTV). If not, I am at the mercy of what online streams I can find. On the plus side, if the game is another fail like yesterday and I'm stuck with the English version, I'll have a list of quotes I submit to AA, right?

Sigh.....hope springs eternal.

NBC Shocks The World: Gives Hockey A Bigger Priority Tonight Over Conan O'Brien

We all know about NBC's escapades in their not caring about hockey. So often, when a game goes deep into overtime and they have other important programming they would rather show, they move the hockey game to Versus. However, that won't be happening tonight! Nope. Conan O'Brien be damned tonight, NBC is going to stick with Game 7 until we have a winner and the Cup is raised! From Neil Best of Newsday.

Are the NBC entertainment types aware of the fact the hockey game could go deep into overtime and thus delay or even erase Conan O’Brien’s “Tonight Show?”

“They are well aware of it,” NBC Sports president Ken Schanzer said. “Everyone is very cool with it. We go until it’s over.”

This may be the first time that NBC has given hockey any sort of priority at all. And to think that it took a Game 7 for them to finally say that we are sticking with this until it's over. I am officially pumped for tonight!

NBC Promises: We'll show all of Game 7 (Puck the Media)

Football Night In America Would Like To Alienate Me Greatly

I think some people will like this move and others will absolutely hate it. Me, I'm in the latter category. This is about the worst thing that they can do, and believe me, with all the cooks that they have in the kitchen, to say that is saying a lot. From Dick Ebersol via Sports Business Daily via Awful Announcing (I think I have that lined up appropriately....)

NBC Sports & Olympics Chair Dick Ebersol yesterday indicated the net’s “Football Night in America” studio show will change its directional tone, cutting back on the amount of highlights from that day’s games to allow for more league analysis and previews of that night’s primetime broadcast. Ebersol: “We have failed to clear out enough time to discuss football, and we’ve been too locked in on highlights for every game.” While clips from each game will still be shown, Ebersol noted there will be “much more emphasis on the whys of what happened at that game than we’ve had in the past.” Ebersol: “I feel that we’ve been neglect in that area.”

Despite the fact that they absolutely over-loaded on bad analysts (Collinsworth was the only good one), the one thing that kept me coming back to FNIA week after week was the fact that they showed good, in-depth highlight packages with the funny lines from Keith Olbermann and starting last year, Dan Patrick joining him. And now, by cutting out a lot of the highlight segments, they are absolutely destroying the show, destroying what made the show great, and possibly losing my viewership.

It's bad enough for FNIA that the one good analyst they had, Cris Collinsworth, is now John Madden's replacement in the booth, but instead of doing what I think would be natural for them at this point and go to more highlights, they are going to less. Tiki Barber contribues absolutely nothing both as an analyst and an on-site interviewer (notice he was pretty much always with New York or NFC East teams). Jerome Bettis just is not cut out for an analyst's position and subsequently is no longer on the show. So now in the studio you have two unproven analysts in Rodney Harrison and Tony Dungy, none of whom really wowed me during their little stints they did for the Super Bowl pre-game show, will now in essence be carrying the bulk of the load for FNIA. Instead of putting all of the weight on the back of 2 unproven analysts, why don't you load up on highlights with Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick, 2 guys who have a chemistry together like none other and who work really well together.

And from a more personal stand point, I need the highlight shows especially seeing as I am in college during the football season and don't have access to my family's NFL Sunday Ticket. If I am lucky, I get to see 4 afternoon games (I get 2 different CBS affiliates which occasionally show different games at the same time) and that's it. Otherwise it's just I am stuck with what I get and you can bet your bottom dollar that I am not always happy with the game that I am stuck with! So when I first started college last year, seeing the in-depth highlights from FNIA was more important than ever before. And now by minimizing them, they have officially alienated me.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't ESPN have a 7 PM ET SportsCenter with Chris Berman and Tom Jackson (and a few others), that while although it does not have the highlights as quite as in-depth as only FNIA is permitted with those, at least it is something. Assuming that they do do that, I think I might be officially switching back to Berman. As annoying as Berman can be, him and Tom Jackson worked really well together and every Sunday I would look forward to watching NFL Primetime about as much as I looked forward to watching the Eagles every Sunday. So when NBC took over the rights to SNF, I needed a replacement show for that and started watching FNIA, as a replacement to Primetime which is now on Mondays and has since been thrown completely in the gutter by having Stu Scott host it. I did not think the show was great at the time, but when they brought in Keith Olbermann (I had not seen Countdown before that and any recollection I may have in the back of my mind of his SportsCenter and Fox Sports days are fuzzy at best and nonexistent at worst) a year later, everything turned around for them and the show instantly got entertaining and fun to watch again. But now that FNIA is essentially eliminating that part of the program, I think it's time to go back to ESPN.

Yep, I think it's time to start eagerly watching Chris Berman again on Sundays at 7. Fuck NBC.

Add The Pittsburgh Penguins To The List Of People Mad At NBC

GE, NBC, and MSNBC certainly have not been making any friends at all this year. Actually, that's putting it lightly seeing as they basically have been become a laughing stock of television. From Jeanine Garafalo's extremely idiotic statement last week on Countdown with Keith Olbermann which basically called over 40% of Americans racists (all those who were exercising their freedom of speech and protested Obama's tax policy) to the overload of liberal hosts (see addition of Ed Schultz) and rapidly declining ratings on MSNBC (damn, tvbythenumbers.com is down so I can't pull up the O'Reilly vs. Olbermann chart that illustrates this) to the loss of money they suffered broadcasting the Super Bowl to the occasionally laughable ratings of the NHL on NBC (although in defense of that, the NHL is currently seeing some relatively really strong ratings and the Pens-Flyers game on Sunday was the highest rated hockey game on NBC since the Winter Classic). But sticking on the subject of hockey, they slightly angered some Pens fans by not allowing Sunday's Pens-Flyers Game 3 to be shown on an outdoor screen. All year last year, they allowed games to be shown on gigantic outdoor screens in front of the Mellon Arena, which is why it came to such a shock to Penguins fans who may have taken this whole thing a bit too far. From Puck The Media (which is quickly becoming one of my new favorite blogs; check them out if you can and have not already).

The Pensblog have been waging a war against NBC since their decision to ruin the party outside Mellon Arena to watch the game. Now, we agree with them in principle. The 14 or 15 diehard Penguins fans and the 300 or so of their hangers-on since last year’s Cup run want somewhere to drink in public and watch the Penguins lose. But, they seriously took it to a new level. It was like the Parents TV Council after an episode of South Park.

It started with confusing outrage, and a list of people to contact. Then it went to reasoned pleading with the league, whom the guys and their homosexual friend felt abandoned by. Because as you know, the NHL is a business created to cater to the Pens fan, and no one else.

Finally (sort of), it exploded into an admittedly hilarious photoshop of a Penguin defecating on the NBC logo, and a list of NBC’s major advertisers. Really guys? Do you think Red Bull gives a crap moreso than NBC about hockey? Where is that getting you? It finally led to them recommending you watch on the web on one of CBC’s broadcasts.

It finished for now with Pensblog’s annoyingly narrow-founded recap of the game, where they made jokes about Pierre McGuire. Because that’s never been done before. Also made fun of: Harry Kalas. I’m done linking to these clowns, you can find that yourself.

That final post stated that “The war on NBC isn’t over”. C’mon guys, don’t you want people to think I came up with that headline myself? Lame.

But maybe the war needs to end after this news. A 33% share in Pittsburgh? 33%! So why did this happen? Maybe because most of the Penguin outdoor screen-watching fanbase went on with their lives after hearing this news, instead of wasting their time going all Rachel Dratch in 30 Rock about it? If the war isn’t over, then Round 1 most certainly goes to NBC.

Too funny! Like PTM, I agree with what the Pens fans are saying, but The Pensblog took this thing way too damn far.

However, while NBC came out the winners and unscathed in this battle, they really do need to lighten up. For the NBC Universal brand, this has been on of their worst weeks on record, as evidenced by everything linked to up top. In fact, the Garafalo statement was so bad that Bill O'Reilly actually aired bits and pieces of that segment of Countdown! And O'Reilly goes to great lengths not to say or give any direct mention to Countdown and Keith Olbermann (Olbermann's chime-ins were edited out by Fox News in the segment and the logo Countdown with Keith Olbermann was obsucred by a the bottom of a blue box and they only credited the clip as "MSNBC", and most hilariously of all in that Factor segment, the guests referred to him as "that on-air host"). Hopefully though, they'll be able to turn things around as no one wants to see an organization this bad in the dumps like this.

And now that I have pretty much thoroughly bashed NBC, I guess now is as good a time as any to announce that I will be "plausibly" live-blogging Countdown with Keith Olbermann over at JamesCraven's blog, The O Files, tonight at 10 PM ET, assuming that the Flyers game does not go into overtime, in which case, I'll do it from the Countdown website either later tonight or 11 AM ET Wednesday morning.