News: March Madness, Olympics, Emrick

Television windows for this year’s planned NCAA men’s basketball tournament have been announced. Plus: NBC intends to air the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics live in all time zones; NBC is set to air a special on Mike Emrick.

CBS, Turner, announce NCAA Tournament windows

CBS and Turner Sports released the telecast windows for this year’s scheduled NCAA men’s basketball tournament Wednesday. As previously noted, the tournament is scheduled to begin with all four “First Four” games on Thursday, March 18 — two on TruTV (5 and 8:30 PM ET) and two on TBS (6:20 and 9:50 PM) — followed by the first two rounds on March 19-22. Other than occurring one day later than usual, the telecast windows for the first two rounds are all-but-unchanged from a typical year. [Related: 2021 March Madness TV schedule.]

With the Sweet Sixteen scheduled for a Saturday and Sunday, all eight games are set to air in their own separate telecast windows. Half of the games would air on CBS in the afternoon and the other half on TBS in primetime. CBS would air the first set of Elite Eight games in primetime on Monday, March 29, and TBS the second pair on Tuesday, March 30.

The Final Four and National Championship remain scheduled for their original dates of April 3 and April 5. Notably, the first national semifinal is scheduled for 5 PM ET — earlier than the usual 6 PM start — presumably to provide greater time between games. CBS is scheduled to air a one-hour Selection Show on March 14. [CBS/Turner]

NBC plan to air Olympic Opening Ceremony live in all time zones

NBC Sports has announced that it plans to carry the Opening Ceremony of the scheduled Tokyo Summer Olympics live in all time zones on the NBC broadcast network July 23. Coverage would run from 6:55-11 AM ET, leading into a special, Olympic-themed edition of the network’s “Today” morning show. Sports Business Daily was first to report.

This year would mark the first time that the Opening Ceremony has been televised live since the Olympics was last held in North America in 2010. Even then, NBC only aired the Opening Ceremony live in the Eastern and Central time zones. NBC did stream the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics live, albeit a world feed sans-announcers.

The Opening Ceremony would begin a nearly-full day of Olympic coverage on NBC. The network also plans to air a three-hour block of Olympic competition at 1 PM ET — a first for the opening Friday of the Games — and encore presentations of the Opening Ceremony both in primetime and overnight hours. [NBC Sports PR; Sports Business Daily 2.10]

NBC to air Emrick special

NBC Sports said Wednesday that it will air a one-hour special celebrating the career of its former NHL play-by-play voice Mike Emrick, who retired at the end of last season. Titled “Doc Emrick — The Voice of Hockey,” the special would air February 21 at 2 PM ET, leading into one of the NHL’s scheduled Lake Tahoe outdoor games. Among those interviewed for the special is former NBC host Bob Costas, who has not appeared on any NBC Sports broadcast since his quiet exit from the network two years ago. [NBC Sports PR]

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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 2

Eddie says:

5 years ago

I don’t know if the Olympics will air on 13 different channels or not. I imagine that NBC will use all of the available networks to broadcast the different events.
including 2 Spanish networks are Telemundo and Universo. others are 12 Networks of English
NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, msnbc, golf channel, USA, bravo, Syfy, E,
Oxygen, Olympic Channel, and NBC Sports regional networks.
Nate Johnson says:

5 years ago

I remember posting a question and request once it was out there that the games would be carried differently for correct reasons as were in this pandemic. My request was for the Round two Monday games to all be played in Primetime. That was nixed. I was disappointed because while the chunk of games will be in Primetime, there’s still other games that will be conflicted on a new work/school day for a majority of people that would be interested in March Madness on that day. My only question was, would having a couple of games on CBS competing against a typical Monday afternoon be better than having the couple of games on TruTV competing against games on bigger stations? I understand that every year since the CBS/Turner deal, TruTV as only telecast one 2nd round game which would be in Primetime Sunday to help spread out the games on the networks and allow CBS to have 60 minutes. I also know that CBS for a long time has had the first two second round games on each day of the 2nd round be telecast nationally or solely by itself with no other Madness game on. So clearly, they sticking with tradition, but also they’re in position where they want to maintain the significance of the 2nd round game and teams advancing to the sweet 16 even in a time where they could’ve minimized just a few droplets by placing it on TruTV since that’s inferior to CBS, TBS, and TNT.

The big question I had was Sweet 16 Sunday and how would the games be telecast all on CBS? I felt at that moment maybe having the Sunday Sweet 16 version on a broadcast station and the Saturday one on Cable would’ve made the most sense for some reason. I even wondered if a Sweet 16 game would finally arrive on TNT. Inexcusable on my end to have any of those thoughts.

I also want to give an around of applause to the NCAA on adding an nearly an hour to the bridge of the Final Four games (typically it’s 40 minutes, looks like it’ll be 90 minutes). That gives me hope that they will allow fans in the stands during the Final Four. I plan on going there because I’m just interested. Not all the way 100% sure. I did sign up for updates though, but again I have no idea how things will look late March/early April. I’m sure they’re still working on how many should attend Lucas Oil Stadium. I’m sure they are also discussing if tickets will be packaged for one or both games during the Final Four (typically it’s for 2 games, but sense there will be a capacity limit and with the demand being so high I’m sure they are discussing options on that). Another one is will there be a way for cheerleaders and pep bands to attend? Wasn’t the case in the Conference Championship games, Bowl games, or the NY6. Pep bands do carry a much smaller number than marching bands so that is worthy of discussion among how to handle the cheerleaders since there’s more space on a basketball court in a indoor football stadium. More importantly though, where will the coaches and players family sit at. They are the VIPs, not the ADs, Mark Emmert, or Conference Commissioners. I hope everything comes together.