ABC-TV's Super Bowl Nightmare

[PublicRef2 <norwood@mln.lib.ma.us>]

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ABC will televise this Sunday's (January 30th) Super Bowl.

For the network, it may end up being the lowest-rated Super Bowl since
the big game's kickoff time moved to aproximately 6 P.M. (this year's
kick-off, by the way, is scheduled for 6:18) some two decades back.

Why?

The (# 21st market) St. Louis Rams face the (# 30th market) Tennessee
(Nashville) Titans!

ABC probably now wishes that the Rams hadn't left # 2 market Los Angeles
and the Titans were still the # 10 market Houston Olers.

While in years past, Super Bowl ratings weren't really affected by
market size (After all,. Green Bay is the smallest market to have a team
in any of the four major professional sports), this year will probably
be different. Green Bay had a long-term winning tradition. Neither
Tennesssee nor St. Louis do. A couple of years hence, either team might
have more of a national following.

For this reason, I think market size, for the first-time ever, will play
into this year's Super Bowl ratings. ABC's best hope lies in an exciting
game, but if the NFC championship game was any indication, the Mouse wil
have to keep dreaming!

Incidentally, the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl will probab;ly be the end
of the road for Boomer Esiason as an analyst. I even think Al Michaels
and some key producion team members might be taken off "Monday Night
Football" for the 2000/2001 season since I think ABC may want a fresh
start and a new look.

Could both ESPN's Sunday night games and ABC's Monday night games next
year have the same announcing team---Mike Patrick, Joe Theisman, and
Pauil Maguire?

It wouldn't be unprecedented. In 1960, when ABC got the rights to both
college football and the then-new American Football League, Curt Gowdy
and the late Paul Christman were the network's lead play-by-play team
for both during the 1960 and 1961 seasons--often flying overnight
hundreds of miles from Saturday's college game to Sunday's AFL game.
Gowdy and Christman stayed with the AFL on ABC for 1962 mand 1963, and
then moved with the AFL to NBC in 1964 or 1965, whenever NBC started
doing AFL games. By that time, NBC has both college football and the
AFL, and Gowdy and Christman again were announcing team for both. After
the NCAA left to return to ABC in 1966, Gowdy and Christman remnained
together doing the AFL on NBC from 1966 and 1967. Gowdy remained NBC's
lead pro football play-by-play man
through 1978, paired with Al DeRogatis from 1968 through 1977, and with
Merlin Olson in 1978 and Super Bowl XIII, which was Gowdy's last
football assignment with NBC.

Joseph Gallant
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