Archive for December, 2008

The biggest success story of 2008 occurred half a world away. The 2008 Beijing Olympics were a rousing success for NBC. Entering the games, expectations were not particularly high. NBC’s competitors “speculated that the [ratings [...]

The year in golf may best be summed up this way: Tiger Woods giveth, and Tiger Woods taketh away. Woods’ early season victories accounted for substantial ratings increases. Ratings jumped 43% for his win at [...]

Of all the times to get laryngitis. The voice of the Stanley Cup Finals will be silent during the Winter Classic. Lead NBC NHL play-by-play man Mike Emrick will miss the NHL Winter Classic on [...]

Mixed Martial Arts took two steps forward and one step back in 2008. In April, Pro Elite and CBS came to an agreement to have four Elite XC events televised on the network — marking [...]

Sunday Night Football was up in ratings and viewership during the 2008 season. The last SNF telecast of the year, Sunday’s Broncos/Chargers game, drew a 9.0 final rating and 14.9 million viewers on NBC, down [...]

Charles Barkley is in trouble with the law. The TNT NBA analyst was arrested on suspicion of DUI early Wednesday morning, after running a stop sign in Scottsdale, Arizona. Barkley “declined to submit to a [...]

Joe Buck audio, Cris Carter audio, Costas Now piece and Fantasy Sports Girl video all found on Awful Announcing.

The biggest question for NASCAR in 2008 may be whether the sport can survive in 2009. The answer to that question is most likely yes. But for a sport where “roughly 80 percent of the [...]

In 2008, the titan of television dominated in the ratings once again. Propelled by some of the biggest draws in the sport, ratings hit ten year highs during the NFL Playoffs. On the AFC side, [...]

The college football bowl season is off to a strong start in the ratings. Excluding the Motor City Bowl, five bowl games last week saw increased viewership from last year, including increases of over 100% [...]