Fang's Bites

Bringing You Sunday Linkage

I’m at work again, but I’m trying to cope by flicking on the Watch ESPN for the Women’s World Cup game against Brazil. I’ll give you what linkage I can find today.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today says Turner Sports has reportedly hired Shaquille O’Neal for its NBA coverage. Still no official comment from Turner.

John Eggerton of Multichannel News reports on an FCC Enforcement Bureau recommendation to an administrative law judge about carriage for Tennis Channel.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel recaps YES’ special postgame show on Yankees shortshop Derek Jeter after he achieved baseball immortality on Saturday.

Mike writes that YES saw a ratings season high for the Jeter 3,000th hit game.

From Advertising Age, Brian Steinberg asks if Wimbledon is willing to put its matches all under one TV roof, will other sporting events follow its lead?

Yahoo Sports’ Michael Silver talks with NFL Network’s Rich Eisen about how the channel is handling the lockout.

Stephen Douglas at The Big Lead wonders if the LPGA should be selling sex to help market its stars.

Marcus Vanderberg at SportsNewser says Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson has issued a statement about berating a caller with a gay slur late last month.

Marcus points out that CNN is no longer into sports.

Jesse Sawyer from the Avon (CT) Patch notes that ESPN’s Kenny Mayne will be hosting a football skills clinic this week. Before ESPN, Kenny was the starting quarterback at UNLV. The story also reveals that Kenny is moving back to Seattle, WA where he lived before hitting it big with ESPN.

Newsday’s Neil Best has the transcripts of both the radio and TV calls of the Jeter 3,000th hit.

Neil talks about a new era of TV coming into Wimbledon for next year.

George Vescey of the New York Times says the best way to view the Tour de France is from your TV.

Karen Crouse of the Times talks with an LPGA Tour rookie Ryan O’Toole who prepared for life on the tour through Golf Channel’s Big Break reality show.

Brent Briggeman of the Colorado Springs Gazette also spoke with O’Toole about her time on Big Break.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says ESPN2 will have the replay of today’s dramatic USA-Brazil Women’s World Cup game which had a lot of twists and turns.

Adam Sichko of the Albany (NY) Business Review notes that a local company will help produce live horse racing from nearby Saratoga for NBC.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks about Showtime getting into the sports reality TV realm with the new MLB TV series, “The Franchise”.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks with ESPN’s Nomar Garciaparra about the Home Run Derby.

From the Dallas Morning News, Barry Horn discusses the Longhorn Network making some on-air hires.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle tries to reassure readers about the availability of the Longhorn Network.

Kevin Benz at Culture Map Houston wonders if ESPN is making the Longhorn Network all about ESPN instead of University of Texas sports.

Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Bengals talks with ESPN Monday Night Football analyst Jon Gruden about the NFL lockout.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says TBS and MLB Network analyst John Smoltz still has a dream to be a professional golfer.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks with Fox’s Joe Buck about his recovery from an ailment that affected his voice. And many of you have either tweeted or e-mailed me about this and have noticed how he has sounded since the Super Bowl. Dan’s story pretty much explains what happened.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Joe Buck didn’t mince words when it came to the Dodgers ownership debacle.

That’s going to do it for today.

Some Quick Thursday Links

Trying to squeeze linkage in while I can. This won’t be a full set of links. I will do the megalinks tomorrow, but today will be a quickie links day.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today reports that the ratings for the USA-North Korea game in the Women’s World Cup drew decently for ESPN.

Todd Spangler of Multichannel News says industry analysts expect 3-D TV sales to be very slow this year, but eventually ramp up by mid-decade.

Edmund Lee of Advertising Age talks with the publisher and co-founder of The Awl, Bill Cho, who’s leaving to go to join Captain Blowhard’s Grantland site.

Phil Swann at TV Predictions explains why the sales of TV’s in the 3rd dimension are tanking.

David Goetzl from MediaPost says NBC Sports is raising its profile for the Tour de France which begins this weekend.

The St. Petersburg Times’ Eric Deggans writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says David Tyree’s anti-gay stance brings some strong challenges for journalists.

This story has been burning up the sports blogosphere since Wednesday afternoon. A.J. Daulerio of Deadspin says Hollywood movie producers are thinking of making a movie from the tome, “Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside The World of ESPN”.

Alexandra Kuczynski-Brown of SportsGrid says the BBC has developed a product that will reduce the grunting and shrieking at Centre Court in Wimbledon.

Andy Blesser at Beet TV talks about the Watch ESPN mobile app.

Brandon Costa of the Sports Video Group discusses ESPN 3D going live from Wimbledon this week.

Dave Nagle of ESPN’s Front Row PR blog talks with ESPN2′s Chris Evert on her return to TV at SW19 for the fortnight.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell looks at what lies ahead of NBA Communist China Sympathizer David Stern as the lockout is now in full effect.

Kurt Helin of NBC’s Pro Basketball Talk has the organizers of last year’s “The Decision” starring LeBron James and his talents, surprised by the backlash against the made-for-TV event. Really? C’mon, man.

All Access reports that personalities from Philadelphia’s sports radio WIP will guest host Comcast SportsNet’s Daily News Live starting next week.

The Around the Rings blog says BBC Sport has been named as the UK rightsholder for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir writes about General Electric’s increased sponsorship of the Olympics.

Newsday’s Neil Best wonders why NBC did not air today’s Maria Sharapova-Sabine Lisicki Wimbledon semifinal match live.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has the MLB Network live game schedule for July.

The Centre Daily (PA) Times previews tonight’s ESPN presentation of Penn State coach Joe Paterno and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

From Capitol File magazine, ESPN’s Erin Andrews answers a few questions.

KIMT-TV in Mason City, Iowa says a local cable company will pick up 16 extra Minnesota Twins games ending a dispute with Fox Sports North.

Jay Heater of the Idaho State Journal says a Pocatello radio station is changing its affiliation from ESPN Radio to Fox Sports.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News previews tonight’s ESPN program with Penn State’s JoePa and Duke’s Coach K.

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area notes that Bob Costas and Al Michaels will make a guest appearance on its local broadcast of July 8th’s New York Mets-San Francisco Giants game. The pair will call most of the game on MLB Network, but will slide over to CSN Bay Area for a half inning.

The Maui News says NBC golf reporter Mark Rolfing will no longer be the organizer for a PGA Tour event.

Marty McGee of the Daily Racing Form talks with NBC’s horse racing reporter Donna Brothers.

Noel Murray at the A.V. Club looks at the ESPN book.

The Football Girl is not a fan of a full NFL Thursday Night Football schedule.

Stars Entertainment speaks with Tennis Channel anchor Angela Sun. The story mentions that she worked for ESPN, but I have never seen her on ESPN. Yahoo, yes. Tennis Channel, yes. ESPN? No. I’ve never seen her there. Maybe you have.

Sports Media Watch notes that the U.S. Open’s ratings were down for all four rounds.

SMW has some various ratings news and notes.

And SMW has some news and notes on some coming attractions.

Barry Janoff from The Big Lead speaks with prolific reality TV producer Mark Burnett.

Dave Kohl at Major League Programs reviews the latest in sports media.

And I found more links than I thought and that’s a bonus for you. Back later tonight.

Bringing Out The Tuesday Linkage

Again, I’ve been all over the place and can’t really blog like I want to, but I do what I can. Some links while I’m free and not committed to anything.

The Pac 12 media deals with ESPN and Fox will be made official later this week, but we do know some details. First, it’s a $3 billion deal over a span of 12 years meaning the Conference will get $250 million a year to distribute to its member schools. Second, both ESPN and Fox will air primetime games on over the air TV. Third, it increases the amount of games shown on television.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says one part of the new TV world for the conference will be a new Pac 12 Network that will be fully owned and operated by the league.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News writes that NBC/Comcast was shut out of obtaining any rights at least on the cable and network deals.

Jon also has some details from the new deal.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune says the new TV contract will give the University of Utah much more money than it would have made in the Mountain West Conference.

George Schroeder of the Eugene (OR) Register-Guard writes that Pac 12 schools will start to see a financial windfall thanks to increased revenue from the new TV contract.

Jon Weisman of Variety says the new contract is now the most lucrative in college sports.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the Pac 12 contract proves that sports is the engine that drives TV ratings.

To other stories now.

Brian Lowry of Fox Sports says small market teams are doing their best to play with the big boys.

Eriq Gardner from the Hollywood Reporter says Miami Heat star Chris Bosh is suing the mother of his child and the producer of the VH1 reality show, “Basketball Wives” for infringing on his “life rights” and using his “mark” illegally.

Tim Baysinger at Broadcasting & Cable discusses the Sports Emmy Awards which were handed out on Monday.

Tim also looks at Fox Soccer Channel rebranding its MLS coverage.

The Nielsen Wire blog notes that the number of TV’s have dropped since its last survey.

R. Thomas Umstead from Multichannel News says the Manny Pacquaio-Shane Mosley fight will be made available online for the same pay per view TV price.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel writes TNT saw a record audience for the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

Current’s Keith Olbermann writing in his MLB.com blog takes ESPN.com’s Fantasy Baseball to task for not updating its stats quick enough and throws some shots at the Mothership in the process. Thanks to The Big Lead for the link.

The Big Lead notes that noted FoxSports.com basketball writer Drew Goodman could be headed to CBSSports.com.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid says NBA fans get angry when Ernie Johnson, Jr. takes a day off from Inside the NBA.

At ESPN’s Front Row, Sheldon Spencer profiles the network’s Senior Coordinating Producer of the NFL Draft who got his baptism-by-fire this past weekend.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred looks at new media and how the rules of covering established events apply to it.

To Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union who notes a local reporter gets a minor league baseball announcing gig.

In the New Jersey Newsroom, Evan Weiner notes that sports leagues, sports organizations team owners and athletes don’t have their priorities straight.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that a trio of CNN reporters were watching or attending Game 2 of the Tampa Bay Lightning-Capitals series when they were notified to get to work to report on the Osama bin Laden story.

Cindy Boren from the Post’s Early Lead blog says Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall tweeted about Osama bin Laden’s death and 9/11.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says the Capitals are back in action tonight with an early start on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic.

Iliana Limon of the Orlando Sentinel has Conference USA rejecting ESPN’s argument that it ventured into a media rights agreement.

John Kiesewetter from the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that NBC’s Cris Collinsworth has now won an even dozen Sports Emmy Awards.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says viewership for the NFL Draft was down from last year.

Diane Pucin from the Los Angeles Times talks with ESPN’s Dan Shulman about him addressing the Osama bin Laden story on Sunday Night Baseball.

Sports Media Watch says NASCAR on Fox’s overnight ratings were flat compared to last year.

SMW notes that the opening game of Celtics-Heat scored for ABC on Sunday.

SMW says the series clinching win for the Memphis Grizzlies over the San Antonio Spurs did not resonate with viewers as much as last year’s comparable game.

And SMW writes that the Mavericks-Lakers opener on Monday did very well for TNT.

Ed De Rosa of the Thoroughbred Times says NBC is tapping Sunday Night Football producer Fred Gaudelli for this year’s Kentucky Derby broadcast.

Puck The Media’s Steve Lepore is happy to see Mike Emrick win the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Play-by-Play.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog feels TSN Radio should avoided politics on Election Day.

Cork Gaines at the Business Insider’s Sports Page wonders if sports leagues can survive Detroit’s declining population.

And that will conclude the links for today.

Shuffling Some Thursday Links Your Way

With the NCAA Tournament having started in earnest, I’ll do my best to give you links now. Let’s get cracking.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today has ESPN’s Erin Andrews denying that she’s interested in being on ABC’s “The Bachelorette”. This whole thing started when Erin, appearing on KNBR in San Francisco, said she wanted to be on the show. However, Erin is now saying she was joking.

At SportsNewser, Marcus Vanderberg says this would not have become a story had Erin not put it out there.

David Ubben of ESPN.com says the Big 12/Fox deal could be richer than originally thought.

George Winslow at Broadcasting & Cable says Sports Illustrated is launching new mobile apps called “Front Row”. These should not be confused with ESPN’s new public relations blog also to be called, “Front Row“.

Keach Hagey of Politico notes that the Washington Times will be relaunching its sports section come this Monday.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News notes that March Madness has officially begun today.

Bill Cromwell of Media Life says the New York Times has finally set the date for putting up its dreaded paywall.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life Magazine gives media buyers what they need to know about March Madness.

Steve Smith of MediaPost looks at the new NCAA Vault unveiled this week that has archived NCAA Tournament games dating back to 1982.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell talks with CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus and Turner Sports president David Levy about their new 14 year partnership for the NCAA Tournament.

Darren feels ESPN should up the ante for its NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge.

Darren wonders if we’ve reached our Bracket limits.

Robert Andrews at paidContent says ESPN plans to unveil a new web-only post soccer match show for the UK as well as develop new apps for the iPad.

Andrew Brady of Connecticut Magazine notes that while ESPN is encouraging millions of people to participate in its Tournament Bracket Challenge, it doesn’t allow its own employees to fill out their own brackets for any office pools. Seriously.

Speaking of that dreaded New York Times paywall, publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. explains why the paywall is going up.

Until it goes up on March 28, we’ll try to link to as many Times articles as we can. Note that we can still have access to 20 stories a month, so I’ll do my best to keep our limit to that every month.

Bob Tedeschi of the Times says the March Madness on Demand mobile apps provide you with opportunities to watch the NCAA Tournament without a TV.

Richard Sandomir of the Times looks at NFL Network’s coverage of the lockout, but does not mention reporter extraordinaire Albert Breer who’s been keeping vigil at the negotiations and has been covering the story extremely well for the channel.

Newsday’s Neil Best explains why Monday’s Yankees-Red Sox game on ESPN2 was blacked out in New York despite YES not airing the game locally.

Amy Anderson at Manhattan Blockshopper notes that ESPN’s Rachel Nichols and her husband have bought a really nice townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner says the ESPN family of networks will be all over the NCAA Women’s Tournament starting on Saturday.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that people did manage to find truTV in time for the NCAA Tournament.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business says the college basketball scene in the Windy City is a rather sorry state.

Ferd Lewis of the Honolulu Advertiser notes that ESPN’s new Hawaiian soccer event will have an international flavor to it.

Chris Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media has some thoughts on truTV’s coverage of the NCAA FIRST FOUR^®.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media looks at the local NHL on NBC ratings from last Sunday.

I’ll end it there for now. I might add a few more links here so check back while you can.

Doing Some Mid-Week Linkage

Here are some Wednesday links today.

Maury Brown from the Biz of Sports Network writes in Forbes about a Federal judge ruling in favor of the NFL Players Association in its fight to prevent the league’s owners from taking TV rights fees as lockout insurance.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand says ESPN will be unveiling a new way we look at sports statistics.

Armen Keteyian of CBS News and formerly of Sports Illustrated writes about how the collaboration between the two entities resulted in the college football criminal investigation that was published in today’s issues of the weekly sports magazine and aired today on the network.

Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter says MLB and reality TV producer Endemol are teaming to do a web series involving one person getting his/her dream job with the league.

Multichannel News says ESPN has named the executives for the new Longhorn Network.

Anthony Crupi at Adweek says the NCAA Tournament is still a prized advertiser’s showcase.

Briain Steinberg of Advertising Age writes that NCAA Tournament commercials are almost sold out.

Dan Levy at Press Coverage wonders what is the deal with the new Fanhouse?

Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal continues to look at what’s right and wrong in sports coverage. First, he examines sports radio. And Keith looks at game coverage and we disagree on the horrible Joe Buck and the great Gus Johnson.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the NFL owners lost some big leverage against the players in the courts.

Mat Schaffer from the Boston Herald says the wife of Celtics star Ray Allen has her own cooking show on Comcast SportsNet New England.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times talks about the Federal ruling against the NFL owners that occurred last night.

Jonathan Tannenwald at Philly.com’s Goaltender blog notes that long-time ESPN soccer voice JP Dellacamera has left the network.

Michael Klein at the Philadelphia Inquirer says NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger gets his own daily show talk show.

Dave Hughes from DCRTV.com writes in Press Box about a Baltimore sports radio host who will be giving up his show.

George Diaz from the Orlando Sentinel says a new face and a familiar one are helping the ratings for NASCAR and he also tackles the issue of cheering in the press box.

Robbie Neiswanger in the Log Cabin (AK) Democrat has ESPN’s Doug Gottlieb speculating on Arkansas coach John Pelphrey’s unstable future with the school.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says ESPN is sending some heavy hitters to Texas to run the Longhorn Network.

Jeff Mosier of the Morning News writes that Fort Worth wants ESPN to return to cover more events.

Scott Nishimura from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says city officials plan to make a pitch to ESPN for a long-term relationship with the network.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a look at the NCAA Tournament TV schedule.

At Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman talks to a former counsel for the NFL Players Association regarding the ruling that went in favor of the union last night.

Over to the sad McCourt divorce saga that has the Los Angeles Dodgers in limbo, Bill Shaikin of the Times reports that Jamie says ex-husband Frank endangered the value of the team by negotiating a secret deal with Fox Sports Net.

Bill Plaschke of the LA Times says it’s one thing for Clippers owner Donald Sterling to honor Black History Month a month late, but another to ignore his history on race.

One more from the Times, Will Richmond writes an Op-ed piece stating that the Lakers deal with Time Warner Cable will hurt non-sports fans in the pocket.

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail says NHL Trade Deadline coverage went at a snail’s pace on Monday.

The Big Lead discovers that the Perpetually Angry Doug Gottlieb got pulled over for speeding in Oklahoma yesterday.

Sports Media Watch says TNT is picking up a New York Knicks game for next Thursday.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says Versus is picking up some NHL Network programming to fill voids after NHL games and to lead into NHL Overtime.

Steve talks with ESPN’s NHL maven John Buccigross.

Joe Favorito wonders if the average fan can make an ownership stay or go or even sell.

Cork Gaines of the Business Insider’s Sports Page accuses MLB Network of big market bias.

And we’ll end it there.

Early Wednesday Links

I was going to go to bed, but there are a couple of items that caught my eye so instead of waiting until the morning, I figured I would give them to you now.

The Sports Media Watch reports that the NL Wild Card Playoff game got a pretty decent rating for TBS Monday night, this despite having the Patriots-Bengals as competition. Multichannel News says this was the 5th highest watched program on TBS this year.

Neil Best in his Newsday Watch This! blog reports that ESPN and MLB have resolved their silly little dispute and the network will have a presence at the World Series in exchange for promoting the postseason on TBS and Fox.

Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that the MLB playoffs on TBS are part of philosophy shift for baseball on the channel. Danielle Sessa of Bloomberg writes that TBS is putting as many League Division Series games closer to primetime in an attempt to maximize the viewing audience. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Judd Zulgad says TBS is going beyond the Atlanta Braves to bring the MLB postseason to viewers, and he notes that Comcast, Charter and Mediacom have yet to come to an agreement to carry TBS HD. But in Milwaukee, Tim Cuprisin of the Journal Sentinel writes that Time Warner Cable will pick up the HD feed of TBS. David Brooks of the Nashua (NH) Telegraph reports that Comcast will feature TBS HD for its customers, but not for former customers of Adelphia Cable, at least not yet. Still no word on TBS HD for Chicago, Detroit or Denver.

John Consoli of Mediaweek talks about the TBS Hot Corner site.

Cubs WGN and Comcast SportsNet analyst Bob Brenly refuses to pick a winner a winner in the Cubs-Arizona series. You remember that Brenly used to manage the D’Backs and won the 2001 World Series with Arizona.

Alex Weprin of Broadcasting & Cable magazine says ESPN is ready to air a four part reality series on a Louisiana high school football team.

Five years ago, CBC tried to drop Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean after a contract dispute. Only after advertisers intervened and a public outcry was he brought back. Well, CBC must have done right by MacLean in the latest talks because he’s signed a new 7 year contract as the Toronto Star’s Chris Zelkovich tells us. William Houston in the Toronto Globe and Mail has another version of the story. And I would be remiss if I didn’t post the CBC story.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News writes that long time hockey analyst Harry Neale will be doing games closer to home as he trades the Maple Leafs for the Sabres this season, but Neale will still do games on Hockey Night in Canada as well.

For some hot pictures of the lovely Stacy Kiebler, click here. Don’t delay.

I’ll have more links later.

Monday Links

Let’s start with USA Today and Michael Hiestand. He writes about CBS focusing its PGA Championship coverage on Tiger Woods especially during the 4th round on Sunday. The man was leading and the margin did go from 5 shots to 1 at one point. It’s understandable.

In the New York Post, Phil Mushnick goes after the TNT and CBS announcers for not keeping things simple during the PGA Championship broadcast. I will have to disagree with that. I think Mushnick reads too much into it. But Mushnick does have praise for CBS’s pictures.

In the Toronto Star, Chris Zelkovich says CBS went overboard in its “cheering” for Tiger. Again, I’ll disagree with that. He’s leading, he has to be the focus of the broadcast.

And Tom Jones in the St. Petersburg Times says CBS made the PGA Championship boring. What do these media critics want?

Bill Haisten of the Tulsa World has a story on CBS cameraman David Finch who had the assignment of following Tiger this weekend. I’m sure Chris Zelkovich felt Haisten was rooting for Tiger by following him.

Neil Best in his Newsday blog says streaming records were set at PGA.com during the first two rounds of the PGA Championship.

In the San Francisco Examiner and the Watch This! blog, Jim Williams says ESPN will be doing live shows in the City by the Bay today.

Dusty Saunders in the Rocky Mountain News says ESPN is pulling out all of its publicity guns to promote Ron Jaworski on Monday Night Football. John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News also writes about Jaws’ debut on MNF tonight. The Charlotte Observer picks up Barry Jackson’s Miami Herald story on Jaws.

Subscribers to the NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTV will be able now be able to see live streaming games on the web. FINALLY!!! But you have to have DirecTV and subscribe to the additional SuperFan package.

The Houston Chronicle’s David Barron writes about sports radio station, KFNC, making some new hires.

Variety says the Harlem Globetrotters will be the subject of a new reality show.

Former Oklahoma University and Dallas Cowboys coach Barry Switzer joins XM Satellite Radio as an analyst.

Bob Wolfey in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel says the Brewers have hired a consultant company to measure the city’s radio market.

Paul Gough of the Hollywood Reporter while ESPN gets all of the headlines, Versus is slowly but surely carving out a niche of its own. I’m not sure about that. I don’t hear anyone talking about Versus on my block.

Kyle Nagel of the Dayton Daily News says the Big Ten Network may become an afterthought for Ohio State fans just like ESPNU has.

Those are your links for now. I’ll check back with you later.

Quick Thoughts on the Summer TV Season

In fear of sounding like a Larry King column or *gulp* Jay Mohr, I don’t give you links but a few thoughts on this summer’s TV.

First, too much reality TV on the networks. Yes, it’s cheap, but seeing silly premises like a tennis player choosing between 20 year old women and 40 year old women shows that even reality TV is running out of ideas. How many different varieties of dating shows do we need? And even NESN, the Regional Sports Network co-owned by the Red Sox and Bruins has gotten into the act with its stupid show, Sox Appeal. I don’t want to see couples trying to find love at a Red Sox game. Stupid. Silly. Sucks.

Second, the cable networks are taking risks. Shows like Meadowlands on Showtime and Damages on FX have come in and done pretty decently for their respective networks. Meadowlands, a British import may not be the best show that Showtime has offered, but it was fresh and gave viewers enough to come back every week.

Damages is in the midst of one of the more interesting storylines I have seen in a while. If the series keep up the quality of the first three episodes, then Damages has the potential to be one of the best shows in recent memory.

But this month brings us the Season Premieres of the groundbreaking South of Nowhere on The N and the always entertaining Weeds on Showtime.

For me, seeing these two series return is like seeing two good friends coming back from vacation. South of Nowhere picks up from the prom shooting of last season’s finale. We didn’t see much of Spashley together in S2, but from what I’ve already seen of the S3 premiere, we get more action between Spencer and Ashley than the entire 2nd season. As it stands, Ashley fucked up the relationship after not calling Spencer following the death of her adopted brother, Clay and she seemed to be intrigued by hanging out with her old boyfriend, Aidan. Where will this lead us? And I hear a new girl helps to throw a monkey wrench into the Spashley relationship. This should lead to fireworks. If you need to get up to speed on the show, the After Ellen site has a nice section on South of Nowhere with recaps of the first two seasons and yes, the show is available for download on iTunes. It’s how I managed to get hooked on the show.

Weeds left us off last season with Nancy’s pot deal going bad and Silas missing. This cast with Mary Louise Parker, Elizabeth Perkins, Kevin Nealon, Tonye Patano and Romany Malco is one of the best on TV. Last season was lots of fun and a breakout season for the series. Here’s hoping the new season which premieres on Monday will be just as fun.

These series will help tie me down until Prison Break returns later this month on Fox and Curb Your Enthusiasm premieres in September. In the meantime, Spashley will get me through very well, thank you.

Good Reality TV, Bad Reality TV

The Reality TV Genre is here to stay. Unfortunately, there’s too much of it. I enjoy shows like The Amazing Race, Survivor and Temptation Island. There’s a lot of bad reality TV out there. Of course, you can’t keep up with all of it. A well produced reality show can be very entertaining and enjoyable to watch. A poorly produced reality show will seem scripted, shaped and manipulated. So I’ll list some of all-time reality TV shows and some I feel are absolutely horrible.

REALITY TV HALL OF FAME
The Real World (New York, LA and San Francisco)
The Amazing Race
Survivor (S1 – S7)
The Osbournes

I’ll explain. The first three seasons of The Real World on MTV were absolutely fantastic. You had people getting together and thrown into a house to see what happens. The show peaked with Puck, Rachel and AIDS patient Pedro. You had it all, conflict, drama, sex and comedy all thrown into one. To me, the show never got back to its peak in San Francisco. New Orleans and Miami were close. Denver was pretty funny and Las Vegas had its own drama, but the subsequent seasons after SF fell into the same cookie-cutter formula. And the participants basically mug for the camera.

The Amazing Race has been consistent year after year. I love this show. There have been memorable teams like Jonathan & Victoria from Season 7 to the Beauty Queens of TAR 10 and All Stars to Team Guido in the very first season. The locales are tremendous and host Phil Keoghan helps to bridge key scenes. However, CBS treats this show like a bastard step-child despite the show having a solid fan base every season. Season 12 returns sometime in the fall and I’m looking forward to it. This show has almost been canceled several times, but it keeps coming back. I hope CBS gives it more support this upcoming season.

Survivor has not been the same after going to an All Stars format. It’s best seasons were Borneo, Outback, Marquesas, Amazon and Pearl Islands. We’ll all remember the first season in Tribal Council when truck driver Susan Hawk told Kelly Wigglesworth and Richard Hatch they’re “the snake and the raaaaat.” Classic stuff.

And The Osbournes on MTV featuring Ozzy, Sharon, Jack and Kelly Osbourne was the classic celebrity reality show. Ozzy was made to look human. Sharon spent Ozzy’s money, plus Jack and Kelly wondered how they were related to Ozzy and Sharon. The swearing is what made the show, but this was the first celebrity reality show. Every one that has followed uses the same formula of The Osbournes.

So let’s go over what’s been good and bad.

GOOD REALITY TV
Hey Paula – It’s fun to watch Paula go crazy.
Road Rules – Similar to The Real World. First two seasons were the best.
Top Chef – It’s fun to watch the chefs go down in flames. Literally.
American Chopper – Dad is always right. And funny.
Deadliest Catch – You want tough? The guys going into the Alaskan waters to catch crab are tough. Very dramatic show and done very well.
Curl Girls – I was flipping channels one night and happened upon this show. Then I read more on the After Ellen website. Now I’m hooked on Melissa, Jessica, Gingi, Vanessa, Michele and Erin and their surfing contest.
Temptation Island I – Man, this was fun to watch. So cheesy that it was good. Not quite in the Hall of Fame, but close. Four couples go to an island where the guys are tempted with hot chicks and the women are tempted with hot beef injection to stray from each other. It’s great. It was sexy and it was fun.
The Joe Schmo Show – If you didn’t see this on Spike, you missed a great show. The producers cast a person, told him he was in a reality game show, built it around him with actors playing the other participants and went as far as it could go. Matt Kennedy Gould turned out to be one of the most genuine people you would ever see on TV and his reaction to the reveal of the dupe was priceless. There was a Joe Schmo II (not as good as the first) which parodied reality dating shows, but one of the two “Schmos” (a man and a woman were brought in this time), Ingrid Wiese suspected it was a fake, so the producers scrambled and brought her into the cast and found another woman to take her place. This was a parody of reality TV done very well. Too well in fact. The first season is available on DVD.
Cathouse – This is on the Bunny Ranch in Nevada. I can’t get enough of this HBO show.

BAD REALITY TV
The Bachelor – The show’s creators should be run off the road.
Age of Love – Please. You have to pay me $30 million to watch this
Big Brother – I’ve tried. I can’t
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List – So bad.
Chasing Farrah – I tried to watch this for two episodes and had to stop.
Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels – A poor imitation of The Osbournes.

If I come up with more, I’ll add them to the lists. For now, that’s it. If you have some suggestions, leave a comment.