| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
4:00pm ET | |
| |
| • | Marion Jones Today Says She Wants Public Hearing On USADA’s Evidence |
| • | ABC Averages 11.5/20 Nielsen Rating For Five-Game Pistons-Lakers Series |
| • | SAP Today Inks Three-Year Deal To Title Sponsor ATP Event In San Jose |
| • | MLB, UEFA Experience Record Internet Traffic For A-S Game & Euro 2004 |
| • | Pistons G Chauncey Billups To Appear On CBS’ “Late Show” Tonight |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat |
MARION JONES SAYS SHE WANTS PUBLIC HEARING ON DRUG EVIDENCE
Marion Jones at a news conference in S.F. today addressed USADA’s investigation into her alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs, and called for USADA to publicly present its evidence against her. Jones: “I am more than happy to answer every question, but I am not going to engage in USADA’s secret Kangaroo Court. … I will not answer them in secret and behind closed doors. I will answer them in public, in the light of day, so the world can hear the questions, hear my responses, see the information and see for themselves that I am telling the truth” (THE DAILY).
ABC AVERAGES 11.5/20 NIELSEN RATING FOR PISTONS-LAKERS SERIES
ABC announced today that it averaged an 11.5/20 Nielsen rating for the Pistons-Lakers NBA Finals, up 77% from last year’s 6.5/12 average for Spurs-Nets. ABC earned a 13.8/23 national Nielsen rating for last night's Lakers-Pistons Game Five, up 123% from the 6.2/12 for Spurs-Nets Game Five last year, which was played on a Friday, and up 23% from the 11.2/22 for Lakers-76ers Game Five in '01, also on a Friday. The 13.8 marks the highest national rating for an NBA Finals game since a 14.7/26 for Pacers-Lakers Game Six in '00, as well as the highest for a Game Five since a 19.8/37 for Bulls-Jazz in '98. This year's Finals have ranked as the No. 1 program each night a game has aired (ABC). A 9.5 ratings guarantee was reportedly built into ad rates for this year's Finals (THE DAILY).
SAP INKS THREE-YEAR TITLE SPONSORSHIP OF SAN JOSE ATP EVENT
Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment today announced that SAP has signed a three-year deal to replace Siebel as the title sponsor of the San Jose ATP Tour event. The tournament, now known as the SAP Open, will be played February 7-13 at HP Pavilion. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed (Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment).
BUZZER BEATERS
Sporting News this week features a collision at home plate, with the header, “You Think This Is Easy? Catchers on Catching, A How-To From Five Guys Who Know Squat.”
Sports Illustrated this week features an action shot of Pistons C Ben Wallace, with the header, “How ‘Bout Those Pistons: Ben Wallace and Underdog Detroit Do a Number on the Lakers.”
NBC today launched its official Athens Olympics Web site – NBCOlympics.com. SBC is the presenting sponsor of the site, while other advertisers include AT&T Wireless, GE, GM, The Home Depot, Samsung, Sony Electronics and Tylenol (NBC).
As part of its global campaign around the Athens Games, Reebok will unveil sculptures of Andy Roddick, Yao Ming and heptathlete Carolina Kluft, mirroring the Parthenon Friezes, August 22nd at the Reebok Center in Athens (Reebok).
Diagnostic imaging company Shields MRI has been named the official MRI provider to the Patriots and MLS Revolution (Patriots).
MLBAM today announced that online balloting for the MLB All-Star Game has set a record for online balloting, surpassing last year’s 4.7 million ballots (MLBAM).
UEFA today announced that its official Web site for the Euro 2004 tournament – euro2004.com –generated 130 million page views from March 31-June 14, more than the total traffic for Euro 2000’s official Web site (UEFA).
Hunt Construction Group today announced the formation of a strategic alliance with construction management firm Bovis Lend Lease to pursue sports facilities, convention centers and potential 2012 Olympic venue construction projects in N.Y. (Hunt).
Greek Deputy Finance Minister Petros Doukas said that it could take Greece “over a decade to pay back a [$43.2B] deficit created in part by the ballooning costs of hosting the Olympic games.” The Greek government said that borrowing requirements had “overshot budget targets by at least [$7.2B] this year” (London GUARDIAN, 6/16).
EA Sports will offer a fantasy football component on its Web site beginning with the ’04-05 NFL season. The fee for one league is $99.99, while an individual fee is $9.99 (EA Sports).
Arnold Palmer has been named Honorary Chair of the ’07 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, PA (Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 6/16).
A LIGHTER BUZZ
NASCAR SCENE reports that Pamela Anderson wrote a “pleading letter” to Dale Earnhardt Jr. asking that he “help PETA’s attack on KFC,” which recently began supporting its sponsorship of Earnhardt by putting him on its chicken buckets. The letter read in part, “Little chickens need a big man like Dale to stick up for them!” (NASCAR SCENE, 6/17).
TONIGHT’S EVENTS
Retired NFL coach Dan Reeves is “launching a satellite-radio NFL show this week, and is close to signing on as an analyst for college games for a TV network. He doesn’t want to go public with details, because he’s still working out some details in his contract” (DENVER POST, 6/16).
CHANNEL SURFING
Sporting News radio’s Dave Smith will appear on FSN’s “I, Max” at 6:00pm local time.
ESPN will air Cubs-Astros at 7:00pm ET.
ESPN Classic’s “SportsCentury” will profile Andre Agassi at 8:00pm ET.
NFL Cardinals WRLarry Fitzgerald, Suns F Amare Stoudemire and actor Steve Schirripa and reality show star Nicole Richie are scheduled to appear on FSN’s “BDSSP.”
Travel Channel will air the World Poker Tour “Cruisin’ Mexico” at 9:00pm ET.
Chiefs TE Tony Gonzalez will appear on CNBC’s “Dennis Miller” at 9:00pm ET.
ESPN2 will air Yankees-D’Backs at 10:00pm ET.
Pistons G & NBA Finals MVP Chauncey Billups will appear on CBS’ “Late Show” at 11:35pm ET.
A&E’s “Biography” will profile the O.J. Trial: 10 Years Later at 8:00pm ET.
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:
| “The Late Show” | Chauncey Billups |
| “The Tonight Show” | James Garner |
| “The Late Late Show” | Peta Wilson |
| “Late Night” | Matthew Broderick |
| “Jimmy Kimmel Live” | Anna Nicole Smith |
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
USA TODAY’s Larry Weisman writes of the NFL’s player development program, “Some 200 players, current and retired, spend parts of the spring months in a variety of enterprises — such as banking, finance, hotel management and coaching — to help them prepare for when they must earn a living by dint of their wits and not their bodies” (USA TODAY).
The Long Beach PRESS-TELEGRAM’s Tony Jackson writes of Dodgers Owners Frank & Jamie McCourt, “They were steadfast through a stunningly hostile acceptance from a city that prides itself on its diversity and transience. They have yet to affirm the widespread speculation that they would slash the player payroll. They haven't changed the name of Dodger Stadium to that of whatever local corporation was willing to pay the highest price” (Long Beach PRESS-TELEGRAM).
See The Daily Insider’s Articles of Interest section for more sports business-related links.
TODAY’S TEASER…
Mindbenders: What are the only two words in the English language with more than two letters that both begin and end with the letters “he”?
IN OTHER NEWS……
A recent Nielsen//NetRatings report showed that eight of the top 20 Current Events & Global News Web sites or groups in the U.S. were affiliated with newspapers. The top sites were Yahoo News, CNN, MSNBC and AOL News. Three individual newspaper sites – N.Y. Times, USA Today and Washington Post – were in the top 20, while newspaper chains on the list included Gannett Co., Knight Ridder, The New York Times Co., Tribune Co., Hearst Corp. and Advance Publications (EDITOR & PUBLISHER, 6/16).
THE DAILY STAT: PRIMETIME NIELSEN RATINGS
The following lists the final Nielsen ratings for the top ten primetime broadcast shows for the week of June 7–13 (TV.YAHOO.com, 5/26).
| RK | SHOW | NET | DAY | RAT/SHR | HHs (IN MILLIONS) |
| 1) | NBA Finals Game Four | ABC | Sun | 12.7/22 | 13.7 |
| 2) | NBA Finals Game Two | ABC | Tue | 10.7/19 | 11.6 |
| 3) | NBA Finals Game Three | ABC | Thu | 10.5/19 | 11.4 |
| 4) | CSI | CBS | Thu | 9.2/15 | 10.0 |
| 5) | Without A Trace | CBS | Thu | 9.0/15 | 9.7 |
| 6) | Everybody Loves Raymond | CBS | Mon | 8.8/15 | 9.6 |
| 7) | Two And A Half Men | CBS | Mon | 85/14 | 9.2 |
| 8) | CSI: Miami | CBS | Mon | 8.2/14 | 8.7 |
| 9) | Law & Order: SVU | NBC | Tue | 7.6/13 | 8.3 |
| 10) | Cold Case | CBS | Sun | 7.3/13 | 7.9 |
…TODAY’S ANSWER
Headache and heartache
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