Fang's Bites

Five Women Who Can Make Me Stop Flipping The Remote – 2009

It’s time for the 2009 edition of The Five Women Who Can Make Me Stop Flipping The Remote. It’s an annual tradition here at Fang’s Bites and one which I take time from providing the links to providing the list. No gratuitous photos, but I will provide a few pics where I can find them.

The 2007 List:
1. Giada De Laurentiis – Food Network
2. Erin Andrews – ESPN
3. Tina Cervasio – then at NESN, now at MSG Network
4. Nigella Lawson – Food Network
5. Stacey Dales – then at ESPN, now at NFL Network

The 2008 List:
1. Charissa Thompson – Big Ten Network/Fox Sports and now, Versus
2. Heidi Watney – NESN
3. Robin Meade – Headline News
4. Aida Mollenkamp – Food Network
5. Trenni Kusnierek – then Fox Sports Wisconsin, now MLB Network

If you notice, my lists are pretty good and some of the women have moved to better jobs. There’s no correlation to my list and their moves, but you notice I have a very good eye. Let’s move to this year’s list.

5. Lindsay Soto – Fox Sports West/Versus/NFL Network

Lindsay’s been getting some national attention thanks to her work during the 2008 Olympics for NBC, plus sideline reporting for the NHL on Versus. Lindsay got notice in Southern California for her work at Fox Sports West. She’s also getting work at NFL Network as both a fill-in host and reporter. It’s welcomed on this end. Here’s hoping Lindsay gets some more national exposure.

4. Olivia Munn – G4

The co-host of Attack of the Show on G4, she’s the subject of geeks’ and gamers’ fantasies since joining the Comcast-owned network in 2006. In addition, she’s done her share of modeling and acting. And lately, she’s been doing the talk show circuit promoting what I have no idea. Doesn’t matter. I love watching Olivia and she’s always Tweeting away.

3. Amber Theoharis – MASN

Whether she’s on the sidelines for Orioles games or does work for MASN’s Ravens postgame broadcasts, Amber is a very solid broadcaster. I saw her for the first time in 2007 and I was going to lobby my friends at the then-790 The Score to bring her to Providence to work, but alas, the Score fell by the wayside. She can talk sports with the best of them and here’s hoping she can get some national work over the next 12 months.

2. Trenni Kusnierek – MLB Network

The only holdover from last year, Trenni jokingly complained to me during the weekend that she was left out of the MLB TV Awards. Well, I do pledge that I’ll try to fit her in next year, but she does move up from 5th place to 2nd in this year’s list. Trenni did a tremendous job in hopscotching across the country for the new MLB Network. One day she would be in Anaheim, the next, Milwaukee, and then flying back to New York at a moment’s notice. She was all over the place and Trenni handled it extremely well. In addition, the Milwaukee Brewers fans constantly lament about her departure from Fox Sports Wisconsin. Milwaukee’s loss is the nation’s gain and I’m not talking Red Sox Nation here.

1. Bridget Regan – Legend of the Seeker

(courtesy ABC Studios)

Yeah, I became enamored with Bridget last year after watching a free preview of very first episode of the syndicated Legend of the Seeker series on iTunes. If you’re a regular visitor to Fang’s Bites, you’ll know that the show has been a regular recommendation in my Weekend Viewing Picks. And I’ll plug the fact that show returns this weekend for a 2 hour season premiere! Bridget did a great job in the show acting as Kahlan Amnell the Confessor in the series based on Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth books. Bridget just has this look that makes you want to watch her and I do every week.

And that is the list for 2009.

Wednesday Late Linkage

Time for a few links this afternoon.

Newsday’s Neil Best wonders who will have the last laugh, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen who says Giants QB Eli Manning will miss up to a month with an injured right shoulder or the Giants who say he may miss one or two games at the most. Manning had said he’ll play this Sunday, but that’s up in the air at this point. And Best tells us that he was on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” as the “Phone a Friend”. Neil is on ESPN, Millionaire, what’s next? The Amazing Race?

In his Four DVRs, no waiting blog at the Houston Chronicle, David Barron says that the Texans’ victory over the Chiefs on Sunday registered quite well with viewers.

Andy Baggot of the Wisconsin State Journal writes that the Big Ten Network is still not an option for a majority of the Dairy State’s residents. He notes that Charter Communications is still in talks with BTN. The Lansing (MI) State Journal in an editorial says fans are being abused in the BTN/Cable standoff. From the Community Common (OH), Time Warner Cable says eight or more Ohio State football games will be carried on its systems either through ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. No word on the games to be shown on BTN.

Mike Shields in Mediaweek writes that Yahoo! Sports beat ESPN.com in unique visitors for the first time last month. ESPN.com is usually the number sports website. This is considered an upset. I will say Yahoo’s NFL fantasy leagues are run very well so it could very well be people visiting to sign up.

Mike Mulhern of the Winston-Salem (NC) Journal writes that the folks at ESPN/ABC couldn’t be happier with the ratings for the NASCAR race from Saturday that aired on the alphabet network.

It seems Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun shut down in August, but he’s back now with a column about the new Monday Night Football booth and Bob Costas showing up on Fox NFL Sunday. Also from the Sun, blogger Roch Kubatko wishes MASN’s Amber Theoharis (a Fang’s Bites fav) a happy 29th birthday. If you’re in the Baltimore area, send Amber a nice E-card. And to prove I can play the same game as Neil Best, I’ll post Amber’s picture here.

Ryan Sharrow of the Baltimore Business Journal says North Carolina officials are targeting Suddenlink Communications to get MASN carried on its cable systems. MASN is also battling Time Warner Cable in the Tar Heel State.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times recaps an interview of SNY’s Mets analyst Ron Darling conducted by John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal. Darling goes over his first year of TV analysis for the Washington Nationals on MASN.

Chris Pursell of TV Week has a new entry in his Pressbox blog regarding the most obsessed NFL cities. The results may surprise you.

John Ryan in his Morning Buzz blog at the San Jose Mercury News says the 49er opener on Monday Night Football was the highest rated Niner game in the Bay Area in four years. And from the same Morning Buzz blog, Ryan posts a screengrab of Mike Ditka grabbing his nether regions on ESPN. I kid you not. Look at the picture.

CBS Sports’ Lesley Visser writes about her experiences on the NFL sidelines. Good article. You may not know that Lesley was once a writer for the Boston Globe sports department when it had the all-star lineup of Peter Gammons, Will McDonough, Bob Ryan, Bud Collins to name a few.

CBS also gives us some advance notes from Phil Simms for NFL Week 2 as well as the announcer assignments for the next two weeks. I notice Jim Nantz and Simms will be covering games involving the NFC North in Weeks 2 and 3 as AFC teams visit Green Bay and Chicago.

The Colorado Gazette picks up an Associated Press story on Tiki Barber’s new TV career.

Phil Swann at the TV Predictions website says the NFL Network won’t have HD capabilities for 24-72 hours because of a fire at a Stamford, CT broadcast facility that also affected the YES Network and A&E.

From the AfterEllen lesbian news website, Ace14 blogs that ESPN will have coverage of the US Women’s Open over the next five Sundays. Which US Women’s Open? Golf? No, that was back in July. Tennis? No, that was just completed last weekend. Which sport you ask? Why it’s bowling!

I think that will do it for now. Primetime and Late Night Viewing Picks coming up.

More Friday Stuff

A few more links for you today.

The Oakland A’s moved to an FM station this year to satisfy fans who were complaining about a weak AM signal at night. The problem was the talk lineup that was a bit extreme for some listeners. The Contra Costa Times reports that Free FM in San Francisco is flipping to music and that should be better for A’s fans.

Joe Davidson of the Sacramento Bee profiles Rick Barry who’s been co-hosting a show on Sirius Satellite Radio.

This weekend marks the beginning of the Women’s College World Series. ESPN will have Beth Mowins as the lead play-by-play announcer and Eric Collins being the other announcer. Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman writes that the Alleged Worldwide Leader had to scramble this year to find analysts after Lisa Fernandez and Stacey Nuveman left for various reasons.

The Boston Herald profiles the General Manager of ESPN Radio in Boston, Jessamy Tang, one of the few women leading a sports radio station in the country.

Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin reports on a new play-by-play voice for the town’s Minor League Baseball team nicknamed …. the Honkers. Doncha love Minor League Baseball?

Laura Nachman of the Bucks County Courier Times has a story on ESPN’s Jayson Stark who has a new book just out. She also gives her overrated and underrated list of Philly sportscasters.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star has a look at HBO’s documentary on Barbaro. You may recall NBC aired one after the Kentucky Derby last month. HBO’s effort will air next Wednesday night.

Doug Nye of The State (SC) has a quick blurb on Yankees-Red Sox on Fox tommorrow. Nye has also has a story on how the NBC station in Columbia isn’t thrilled about having the Stanley Cup Finals in primetime.

Rob Brodie of Slam! Sports in Canada writes about how TV crews go conservative when it comes to broadcasting the Stanley Cup.

Tom Hoffarth of the LA Daily News says it was All-Kobe Bryant All The Time on Wednesday when he kept going on various radio talk shows in New York, LA and nationally to announce he wanted to be traded from the Lakers, then recanted, then said he wanted to be traded again, then to say he wanted to retire as a Laker.

A Fang’s Bites fav, Amber Theoharis of MASN, is the subject of another feature, this time in the Frederick News-Post.

We’ll have primetime and weekend viewing choices coming up.

Thursday’s Links

Still buzzing over the Lost finale from last night. And checking the blogs, there’s a lot of positive feedback, but let’s go to the main focus of this site.

Yesterday it broke that NFL receiver Keyshawn Johnson retired and signed with ESPN to become a studio analyst. Let’s check the fallout. The New York Post’s Pat Reichart has some quotes from Key stating that he’ll do more than just the NFL. Neil Best from Newsday has an article on Keyshawn as well. New York Daily News Jets beat reporter Rich Cimini has a story on Key.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News has some harsh words for Mike & the Mad Dog of WFAN for saying the report of Yankee Jason Giambi testing positive for amphetamines is no big deal. Are Francesca and Russo high?

As far as the Stanley Cup Finals are concerned, the matchup between Ottawa and Anaheim is not attractive for networks on either side of the US-Canada border. Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says the CBC is facing low ratings. William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail reports that CBC is putting analyst Greg Millen into the booth with Hockey Night in Canada’s A-team, Bob Cole and Harry Neale. In the same story, Houston says there will be two Saturday night games which benefits the CBC.

Fox Sports has signed a multi-year deal with XM Satellite Radio to carry the Bowl Championship Series starting in January.

Do you care that FSN has signed a deal to carry the Triathlon World Cup? Me neither.
Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram-Gazette writes about ESPN analysts giving the Celtics a lot of grief.

Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the worst thing for the NHL was to dump ESPN for Versus. I gotta agree. The NHL has not been served well. And Smizik gives an update on the Mike Lange situation. Apparently he’s talking about staying on with the Penguins.

Are you a tennis fan? Maybe not, but I enjoy watching it. This blog has the schedule for the Tennis Channel’s coverage of the French Open which starts this Sunday.

If you live in the Maryland area or have MASN on your sports tier on DirecTV or the Dish Network, you may have seen Amber Theoharis. She works Orioles telecasts as a sideline reporter. She does a very good job and is a rising star. Here’s a profile of the Maryland native.

Speaking of DirecTV, several Regional Sports Networks will be part of its 100 HDTV channel lineup which launches this year.

More links later as they warrant.