ratings Page 12 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Another Reason For Stern To Fix The Western Conference Finals
At this point, the adage that "David Stern doesn't want a Spurs-Pistons final" has become so commonplace as to become tired. But if you live in a world that pretends that Nielsen boxes actually mean anything — because no one's ever met anyone with a Nielsen box and you could track actual viewing pat...
Media Approval Ratings: Mike Breen
Mike Breen, it seems, almost came out of nowhere to take over as the lead NBA broadcaster. It took an odd confluence of circumstances for the guy to go from ski jumping in 2002 to the NBA Finals in 2008....
Media Approval Ratings: Tim McCarver
We're not sure we're going to still be doing these Media Approval Things in October, which is why we have to do Tim McCarver now. Because fans' opinions of McCarver are never more polarized than in October....
Media Approval Ratings: Chris Berman
Even though we've been accused of having some sort of vendetta against Chris Berman in the past, we can honestly say that's not even close to true. We still (mostly) enjoy him on "NFL Primetime," or the "Blitz," or whatever the hell they call that now. He, during our first six months of existence,...
Media Approval Ratings: Woody Paige
We used to have a lot more fun with Woody Paige than we do now because, back when we first started this site, we felt compelled to write about "Cold Pizza" every day, because it was so ridiculous and because we were home all day and the only people watching. (We are certain we were the only people o...
Media Approval Ratings: John Clayton
In our book, we said this about John Clayton: "Often resembles the guy in RoboCop after he falls in the toxic waste just before he's squished by the oncoming car." Someone classified this as "mean." We prefer, as always, "cheeky."...
Media Approval Ratings: Jayson Stark
We miss seeing Jayson Stark on "Baseball Tonight," but all told, we think we probably miss the mustache more. Who wouldn't?...
Media Approval Ratings: Emmitt Smith
We're not sure if Emmitt Smith is going to lose any face time on ESPN now that Cris Carter is hanging around ... but we have our suspicions. Heck, they didn't even let Emmitt be a part of the draft coverage....
Media Approval Ratings: Peter King
We were fortunate enough to meet Peter King once. We introduced ourselves, and he looked us up and down, not malevolently, and said, "How did you end up doing this?" We think he was referring to life as a professional blogger, rather than the fact that we were juggling octopi at the time....
Media Approval Ratings: Tony Reali
We sometimes wonder if old-school on-air sports personalities resent Tony Reali. His "rise" from researcher in 2000 to host of his own show today was ridiculously swift, and, frankly, the type of thing that should scare them a lot more than some silly blog....
Media Approval Ratings: John Madden
Hey, when's a better time to take a look at John Madden in these rankings than the beginning of May? We can't think of a more apt moment in time....
Media Approval Ratings: John Kruk
We remember, when John Kruk left "The Best Damn Sports Show" to join "Baseball Tonight," we worried that it would dumb down the show. At the time, it was pretty much Tim Kurkjian, Peter Gammons, Jayson Stark ... a bunch of smart baseball people discussing the great game. Kruk was a different kind of...
Media Approval Ratings: Norman Chad
First off, don't get our own Rick Chandler started on poker analyst and "comedy" columnist Norman Chad. You really don't want to know....
Media Approval Ratings: Jay Mariotti
Of all the Jay Mariotti moments we've chronicled around these parts, our favorite was when he complained to Wikipedia about all those negative words about his page. He is a very sensitive boy....
Media Approval Ratings: John Salley
We felt a little bad about this, considering we were just on the show, but we don't watch The Best Damn Sports Show Period very often. We think it's because we're in New York. It's difficult to keep up with what channel it's even on; we have a lot of sports stations in NYC. But no Big Ten Network or...
Media Approval Ratings: Dan Patrick
Among the many pleasures of "Costas Now" the other night was Dan Patrick explaining how the old "Big Show" was actually named ironically by him and Keith Olbermann. They called it "The Big Show" because they assumed no one was watching and had no numbers or reason to think otherwise. But people were...
Media Approval Ratings: Jason Whitlock
It sure does seem like a long time since Jason Whitlock gave that famous interview to The Big Lead. He really worked for ESPN that long? Oh, ask him about Mike Lupica and Scoop Jackson....
Media Approval Ratings: Michael Wilbon
Watching the NBA Playoffs the last week or so, it's clear Michael Wilbon has appropriately recovered from his mild heart attack last January. And did you know that his wife gave birth just two months later? Nice work, Wilbon!...
Media Approval Ratings: Pam Oliver
We forget, sometimes, just how unstable the life of a broadcast journalist can really be. Witness the following paragraph from Pam Oliver's Wikipedia page....
Media Approval Ratings: Ernie Johnson (Update: Now With Actual VOTING)
After almost universal love tossed in the general direction of the TNT NBA crew, time to look at Ernie Johnson....