Sports Media Watch presents 20 notable sports media stories of the year 2010. Today, #15-#11, including a new head of FOX Sports, multi-year highs for hockey and basketball, a rough season for NASCAR, and a prominent sports pundit putting his foot in his mouth.
#15: Eric Shanks? New Ideas
DirecTV?s Eric Shanks was named president of corporate sibling FOX Sports in June, ushering in a new era of experimentation at a network famous for it. Since taking over, Shanks has made a variety of cosmetic changes to sports telecasts on FOX, including having all FOX sporting events air in widescreen on standard definition televisions (?It’s time to actually to start producing for the majority, which has invested in HDTV?), making the NFL on FOX theme the official theme music of all the network?s sporting events (?[T]here?s no better music than the FOX theme for NFL. ? It gives all of our sports that marquee feel and a more upbeat way to come on the air”), and perhaps most notably, adding musical cues to live NFL game action (?Just like music in movies, you have to use it at the right times?).
Shanks has displayed a willingness to take risks, which goes back to his first stint at FOX in the 1990s. He was involved in the development of two memorable innovations ? the now-ubiquitous first down line on football telecasts and the glowing puck on NHL coverage. With Shanks at the helm, perhaps FOX is on its way to creating the next successful sports TV innovation (ala the first down line) or perhaps the next infamous miss (ala the glowing puck).
#14: Kornheiser?s Suspension
Tony Kornheiser put his foot in his mouth earlier this year, or more accurately, Hannah Storm?s ?red go-go boots.? During a segment on his radio show, the Pardon the Interruption co-host criticized Storm for the ?horrifying, horrifying? outfit she was wearing on an episode of SportsCenter. Kornheiser: ?She?s got on red go-go boots and a Catholic school plaid skirt — way too short for somebody in her 40s or maybe early 50s by now. She?s got on her typically very, very tight shirt. So, she looks like she’s got sausage casing wrapped around her upper body? (sportsmediawatch.net, 2/18/10).
ESPN was not amused, suspending Kornheiser for two weeks. As ESPN Director of Communications Mike Soltys told Sports Media Watch in February, ?We made it very clear to everyone that works at ESPN, including our on-air people, that it’s important to show their coworkers respect? (sportsmediawatch.net, 2/25/10).
The Kornheiser saga attracted some attention from the non-sports media, getting discussed on cable news shows such as CNN’s Reliable Sources, FOX News’ Hannity and Headline News’ Joy Behar Show — and even on broadcast morning shows Good Morning America on ABC and The Today Show on NBC. Kornheiser was criticized, with FOX News’ Tucker Carlson calling the comments “vulgar” and “mean” (Hannity, 2/24/10), and The Today Show‘s Kathie Lee Gifford — wife of former Monday Night Football broadcaster Frank Gifford — expressing disbelief over Kornheiser’s tenure as an MNF analyst (Today, 2/24/10).
#13: Success of Olympic Hockey
Though the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics was the third-lowest rated in primetime over the past fifty years, the event did very well relative to today?s television landscape. Viewership increased for thirteen of the sixteen primetime windows compared to the 2006 Turin Olympics ? of course, the ?06 games set the bar low ? and the Olympics began the first program in six years to defeat FOX reality juggernaut American Idol head-to-head. One of the biggest successes of the games (at least from a ratings perspective) was the hockey tournament, which attracted massive audiences for both MSNBC and NBC.
The February 21 USA/Canada preliminary round game earned over eight million viewers on MSNBC, tying 2008 Election Night coverage as the network?s most-viewed program ever — but that was just an appetizer compared to the numbers for the USA/Canada Gold Medal Game one week later.
Canada?s overtime win earned a spectacular 15.2 rating and 27.6 million viewers on a Sunday afternoon, the highest rated, most-viewed hockey telecast of any kind in thirty years ? since the U.S. ?Miracle on Ice? team defeated Finland in the 1980 Gold Medal Game. The game even drew more viewers than all-but-two of the primetime Olympic windows. As with the World Cup and MLS later in the year, the expectation was that the success of Olympic hockey would translate into increased NHL interest. However, while the NHL did experience some of its best numbers in years during the 2010 postseason, that likely had more to do with the upward trend the league has been experiencing over the past three years, instead of an ?Olympic bump?.
#12: NASCAR?s Ratings Woes
It was a rough year from start to finish for NASCAR in the ratings department. The season began with the sport?s crown jewel event, the pot-hole marred Daytona 500, drawing its lowest rating since 1991 and its lowest viewership since 2000. That poor performance set a trend for the rest of the season, as NASCAR ratings tumbled on FOX, TNT and ESPN.
In particular FOX ended up with its lowest rated NASCAR season ever, with ratings in the key male 18-34 demographic suffering a much-publicized 29% decline. TNT had declines for five of its six races. ESPN suffered through the lowest rated, least-viewed Chase for the Cup in history, with six of the ten races ranking among the lowest rated Chase races ever, and all ten having declines compared to the previous year.
Overall, NASCAR races averaged a 3.6 U.S. rating and 5.992 million viewers on FOX, TNT, ESPN and ABC in 2010 (sportsbusinessdaily.com, 12/1/10), marking the sport?s fourth consecutive year of declines. Over the span of just four years, the sport has shed almost two million viewers.
#11: Celtics/Lakers Most-Viewed NBA Game Since ?98
The Celtics/Lakers NBA Finals did not receive nearly as much hype as their 2008 meeting. The novelty was gone, the series wasn?t the NBA?s best possible matchup from a ratings perspective, and most importantly, the momentum wasn?t there — while ratings throughout the playoffs were higher than they were in 2008, they were down from 2009, with ratings dropping for most of the games in the Conference Finals. In other words, one could not be blamed for having fairly low expectations for the rematch, especially after their 2008 meeting put up good, but not great, numbers.
But thanks to five close, exciting games (which made up for the series? two duds), Celtics/Lakers put up some of the best NBA numbers in recent memory ? culminating in the league?s best night in the ratings since Michael Jordan?s final shot with the Bulls.
Game 7 of the Finals, won by the Lakers 83-79, earned the highest overnight (18.2), highest final rating (15.6), and largest audience (28.230 million viewers) for an NBA game since 1998. The audience topped every Major League Baseball game since 2004, every college basketball game since the 1990s, and even beat the season finale of FOX reality show American Idol in ratings (15.6 to 13.5), viewership (28.203 mil to 24.215 mil) and the key adults 18-49 demographic (11.4 to 8.2). The game pushed the average for the series to a 10.6 and 18.144 million viewers ? making the finals the highest rated since ?04, and the most-viewed since 2001. Considering where the NBA was just three years earlier ? averaging a 6.2 and under ten million for Spurs/Cavaliers, with questions as to whether it could still compete on broadcast TV ? the results reinforced the league’s presence among sports’ top draws.
Eric Shanks quotes from jsonline.com, 9/2/10, mlb.com, 10/26/10, and USA Today, 12/16/10.
The top ten stories will be posted during the remainder of the week.
