News: Greenberg-Draft, NBA, Paralympics and more

Bristol, CT - June 14, 2020 - Studio F: Mike Greenberg on the set of a SportsCenter Special: The Return of Sports (Photo by Melissa Rawlins / ESPN Images)

ESPN is reportedly going with Mike Greenberg as its NFL Draft host. Plus: not much NBA on ABC in the second half of the season; the Paralympics is set for primetime exposure on NBC; and more.

Greeny gets NFL Draft gig, per NYP

ESPN “Get Up!” host Mike Greenberg will anchor the network’s NFL Draft coverage starting this year, the New York Post reported Thursday, filling the vacancy left by ex-ESPN anchor Trey Wingo. Greenberg, who from 2007-09 called the back half of ESPN’s annual Week 1 Monday Night Football doubleheader, has held no previous role on ESPN’s NFL studio roster.

Per the report, Greenberg is scheduled to work only the first two nights of the draft. [NYP 2.25]

Few NBA games on ABC in second half schedule

The second half of the NBA regular season schedule, which was announced Wednesday, includes just five additional games on ABC. After this weekend, when it is scheduled for a pair of games, the broadcast network is not scheduled to air another game until Lakers-Clippers on April 4 — a layoff of more than a month. If all games are played as scheduled, ABC will end up having carried 15 for the season, the minimum under ESPN’s contract with the NBA.

With ABC mostly absent, ESPN is scheduled to ramp up its weekend NBA offerings with eight weekend afternoon games in April and May. That includes back-to-back daytime doubleheaders on April 24 and 25. [NBA]

NBC to air some Paralympics in primetime

NBC Sports announced this week that it plans to air some Tokyo Paralympics coverage in primetime on the NBC broadcast network, a first for the event. Per the Associated Press, NBC’s primetime windows will total four hours spread over multiple nights.

In addition, NBCSN is scheduled to air live coverage of the Paralympics daily from 9 PM-9 AM ET. The NBC streaming service Peacock is also scheduled to carry portions of the event, including the medal round of the basketball and volleyball competitions.

The 1,200 total hours of Paralympics coverage compares to 70 hours five years ago and six back in 2012. The Paralympics is scheduled to take place from August 24-September 5. [NBC Sports PR]

Plus: Gannon, Women’s Frozen Four, Inside the NFL/NBA

CBS Sports has parted ways with NFL analyst Rich Gannon, the New York Post reported this week. … ESPN announced that it has reached a multi-year agreement to carry the Women’s Frozen Four, with ESPNU set to carry a semifinal and the national championship of this year’s event. … Showtime’s Inside the NFL is moving to the CBS streaming service Paramount+, it was announced this week. … The four-part TNT Inside the NBA documentary “The Inside Story” is now scheduled to run on consecutive nights over All-Star weekend from March 4-7. It was originally scheduled to air during last year’s Western Conference Finals before the season was halted. [NYP 2.22, ESPN PR 2.23, Awful Announcing 2.24, Turner Sports PR]

Ratings: College hoops, NBA, PGA Tour and more

Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 6

esl says:

6 years ago

Terrible job by ESPN giving the job to Mike Greenberg as host of NFL draft. This is a complete slap in the face to Samantha Ponder and Suzy Kolber. Both are terrific hosts for their respective NFL shows. One of them should be hosting this (or both cohosting). ESPN really goes out of their way to appease Greenberg. They screwed Mike Golic, and now their 2 regular NFL hosts. Greenberg is not going to move the ratings. HIs morning show is not pulling any terrific numbers. I dont understand ESPN’s constant insistence on putting Greenberg on a pedestal above all the other hosts.
Nate Johnson says:

6 years ago

I am pretty surprised by the amount of fewer games on ABC. While I understand March Madness and Masters weekend, there were still a few Saturdays and/or Sundays from the 2nd half of the season to the start of the playoffs I’m sure they could’ve put on ABC. It will be interesting to see how those voids will be filled until then.

Greenberg hosting the draft is a huge win for him. That is very good to have on his portfolio and possibly a way to expand his self beyond the grounds for ESPN or other stations if he heads that way. While I understand he didn’t end well with Mike Golic and that he perhaps looked out for his self more than others, or at least use others to help expand his persona, this simply shows the dog eat dog world that comes in Sports media. I would’ve never thought Greenberg would be in position to host a draft, but I can’t denied he worked his way up whether if we agree or disagree to how he did or support him or not. I guess what will be interesting now is that will the ESPN coverage again be simulcast on NFLN. I doubt that will be the case. I believe it was a year ago because the announcement of the simulcast occurred around a month following the start of the pandemic. At that time, an event as large as the NFL Draft having to adjust virtual wasn’t quite equipped with having to simulcast that with multiple networks. At least NFLN took the sacrifice and allowed ESPN and ABC to work on that under the same umbrella. I believe now that’s no longer the case since staff members are back in the studio these days and people are well equipped now than then. So obviously, Greenberg will have to compete against Rich Eisen and the NFLN coverage unlike Trey Wingo did last Spring.

Rich Gannon no longer on CBS is pretty tough, though there is small attention on it. I’m not sure what the motive behind his decision is, but he has put in over a decade and half work for that station only to see Tony Romo barely out the waters jump him to the top spot and to see Charles Davis go from FOX #2 to CBS #2 to fill in the void left behind Dan Fouts. As mentioned, sports media is a dog eat dog world so there’s that. Gannon was excellent at what he did and he worked well with Kevin Harlan throughout the years and did very good with Greg Gumbel last season. But as we know, status and opportunities matters so much in that business and it was challenging for him to get over the top level guys, but once they began fading out Trent Green was sought out greater than him until last season and then of course Romo and Davis. With all said here’s who I believe should replace Gannon at #3 :

– Nate Burleson. I believe his knowledge of the game has been very good over the years. Also, he has shown he can be a very entertaining media personnel. Working with Greg Gumbel could help enhance that pairing greater than the previous one that involved Gumbel as the play by play man. The challenge would be would Burleson leaving GMFB and the NFL Today be a wise exchange for calling NFL games on the 3rd level? I would say, absolutely. I’m sure GMFB could have an in-season (or permanent) replacement for Burleson and Burleson could help the NFL Today crew during the postseason if that option is there. On top of that Burleson could be working his way up the latter for CBS or other networks.

– Gary Danielson. This could be controversial, but I believe he could be a fit. He’s done College Football throughout his analyst career, but I’m sure he could fit easily in to replace Gannon. We have to remember that the SEC deal with CBS ends in 2023 and we are not sure if ESPN will takeover that deal prior to the expiration date. So to keep Danielson secured, bringing him to the NFL would help out at this current moment. I can only remember 1 NFL game Danielson did in his career which was the Colts/Jets Wildcard game way back in the 2002 Playoffs with the legendary Brent Musberger. So I’m sure he would be way behind on what goes on a week to week base in the NFL. I believe he watches the NFL and follows the news and reports from the NFL, but that only take cares of a portion compared to how he knows SEC Football in tremendous details dating back to the 2006 season. Another issue could be is would the Gumbel/Danielson team be too old school? I remember one time hearing Pro Wrestling announcer, Jim Ross, acknowledge something like this when mentioning how the WWE wanted to “look younger” in their announcing crew. It is a thing, it really is.

– Dan Fouts. I see no issue in bringing back Fouts. I guess the bigger question would be would Fouts want to be downgraded from his old position? That depends on his passion of calling games. But I wasn’t a fan of Fouts being dealt out of CBS. It was also tough he had no other gig to fall under. I believe this could be a good way to bring him back if I’m CBS.
Aaron Michaels says:

6 years ago

Why is abc making that decision is that because of poor ratings or what’s the idea
- Paulsen says:
  
  6 years ago
  
  Ratings could be a factor, though ABC was scaling its NBA coverage back to the bare minimum even when the numbers were much stronger 10 or so years ago.
  - Aaron Michaels says:
    
    6 years ago
    
    Why do they do that? I’m just curious to the reason?
    - Samuel says:
      
      6 years ago
      
      More weekend games on ESPN instead of ABC means more reason to charge higher rates on cable bills. Even though Disney/ESPN is starting to put more events on ABC, the NBA isn’t getting a bump. Makes you miss the NBA on NBC days even more.