television Page 6 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
ESPN's Uncertain Future Is Already Here
The television industry is still working through the period of upheaval it entered during the mid- to late-aughts, when a variety of rival technologies all began to seriously affect business. DVRs achieved ubiquity, allowing viewers to skip commercials; streaming services like Netflix and Hulu grew ...
MLB's Blackout Rules Improved By Class Action Lawsuit Settlement
Major League Baseball’s antiquated blackout rules were rewritten Tuesday, after the league reached an agreement in a class action lawsuit that alleged collusion between teams and television networks in erecting boundaries around where certain games could be aired. The settlement resulted from a numb...
I'm Alan Sepinwall, Author of <i>The Revolution Was Televised.</i> Let's Chat!
We’re now joined by Alan Sepinwall, author of The Revolution Was Televised, a fantastic book about the origins of The Sopranos, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, and other dramas that laid the ground for the current golden age of television. It’s now out in a new edition, featuring new material on how...
<i>Empire </i>Is Back, And More Ridiculous Than Ever
The second season of Empire opens with a #FreeLucious concert staged as a show of support for incarcerated Empire Records CEO Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard). Bill Clinton is said to be in the crowd (“if he wants his wife to get elected”), Swizz Beatz is onstage, and Al Sharpton is backstage, along w...
Tracy Morgan's Emmys Speech Dusted Off One Of His Best, Bawdiest Jokes
At the 2014 Emmys, Jimmy Kimmel promised us that Tracy Morgan would be back onstage next year, and last night, Morgan made good on that promise, presenting the final Emmy of the night. Of course, his touching speech focused on the June 2014 car accident that put him in an eight-day coma, and the 15 ...
IFC's <i>Documentary Now!</i> Is A Serious Parody Of A Too-Serious Genre
Tonight, IFC premieres Documentary Now!, a new parody series from Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Seth Myers. Its first target? Grey Gardens, the 1976 classic about mother-daughter socialite shut-ins and Kennedy relatives. It’s pretty spot-on, as these things go....
Letterman Guests: "Top Ten Things I've Always Wanted To Say To Dave"
David Letterman’s final Top Ten list featured some of the late night host’s most legendary guests each announcing “something they’ve always wanted to say to Dave.” Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, Barbara Walters, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Peyton Manning, Tina Fey, and ...
"I'm Not Getting <i>The Tonight Show</i>"; Watch Letterman's Final Monologue
Tonight is David Letterman’s last show after 33 years of hosting late night television. Here’s his final opening monologue, in which he looks back on his decades of work. ...
<i>Game Of Thrones</i> Is Gross, Exploitative, And Totally Out Of Ideas
At this point, it’s disingenuous for anyone to complain about Game of Thrones being too violent or disturbing—the series’ five seasons have had a fair share of rape scenes and tremendous acts of violence—but the final frames of last night’s episode, “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken,” were emblematic of ev...
<i>Mad Men</i> With The Dialogue Removed: Episode Two
Just like last week, we’ve selected key scenes from last night’s Mad Men episode to illustrate the role sound design and music play in setting the tone for prestige TV (and because, well, it’s neat). Last night’s episode once again featured music by David Carbonara, with sound mixing by Peter Ben...
MLB's Awful Blackout Rules Are Finally Under Attack In Court
Major League Baseball's exemption from federal antitrust law may not be secure as we thought....
Pedestrian Mowed Down By Motorcyclist Behind Reporter's Live Shot
Tonight's ITV News in the U.K. featured bonus coverage of an accident outside St. Pancras railway station in London while reporter Ria Chatterjee delivered an unrelated story about Eurostar train cancellations. Chatterjee, a true professional, paid no attention to the chaos happening behind her....
Katie Nolan: NFL Won't Respect Women Until Sports Media Does The Same
Is there any real, tangible way female football fans can show Roger Goodell how grossly offensive his handling of Ray Rice's domestic violence was? Fox Sports' Katie Nolan starts out this video, posted today, with that tricky question. Then she diverges into deeper territory. ...
Fox Sports 1: Be A Cool Bro And Ignore Your Nagging Bitch Wife With Us
In case you had any doubt about the Fox Sports 1 worldview, they dropped this turd on us this week....
CBS Will Launch <em>The View</em> For Sports, Actually Sounds Proud Of Bad Idea
What is among the most pandering shows to women on TV? The View. What is one of the worst ways you can bring more female voices to sports commentary? Make a sports version of The View. That is exactly what CBS is doing. ...
How Rupert Murdoch Could Go To War With ESPN
The blockbuster news that Rupert Murdoch bid $80 billion for Time Warner—and was at least temporarily rebuffed—points to an impending seismic shift in the media landscape. And, as the New York Times points out today, nowhere would that shift be felt more than in the business of televised sports. A F...
Showing Attractive Fans On TV? That Was One Man's Idea
Originally published on Slate....
<em>Jeopardy!</em> Vs. <em>Wheel of Fortune</em>: Which One Makes You Feel Dumber?
I am a Thought Leader of Television, and so I've been asked to ruminate on the Big News that Jeopardy!—yeah! the exclamation point! is officially part of the title!—beat Wheel of Fortune in the ratings a coupla weeks ago, the first time in over a decade, and is this perhaps an indicator that maybe A...
Which Sports Network Wastes The Most Space With Its Scores Ticker?
When ESPN introduced the "BottomLine" as an experiment on its new ESPN2 channel nearly 20 years ago, few expected the feature to become as ubiquitous in sports broadcasting as it has. Today, nearly every cable sports net has its own version of the scores ticker, and in an industry that clings to con...