MILESTONE: ESPN's "SportsCenter" celebrates its
20,000th show on Sunday night during its 11:00pm ET
broadcast. In Philadelphia, Mike Bruton wrote that the show
is "both the linchpin and the scourge of television sports.
It is a runaway hit" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 5/12). In
Denver, Todd Phipers asked, "How did we ever get along
without it?" (DENVER POST, 5/12). In Orlando, Jerry Greene
compliments "SportsCenter," but writes that the celebration
seems "pretentious," and that a panel discussion about
"SportsCenter" at the Smithsonian Institute "seems like a
bit much" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 5/14). In Pittsburgh, Chuck
Finder says it's "amazing how a cable sports show could seep
so deeply into the soul of America" (POST-GAZETTE, 5/14).
NOTES: In Baltimore, Milton Kent writes that with its
dispute with ESPN over its Sunday night schedule, "baseball
has rarely looked as petulant as it does on this one"
(Baltimore SUN, 5/14)....The final two games of the Devils-
Senators NHL playoff series "drew significantly larger CBC
audiences" than the final two Penguins-Canadiens games. The
Devils-Senators pulled in 1.38 million and 1.73 million
viewers, while the Penguins-Canadiens had an audience of
708,000 and 1.36 million. In the second round, the
Senators-Capitals Game One drew 1.48 million and the
Canadiens-Sabres drew 1.18 million (GLOBE & MAIL, 5/14).
...In Detroit, UPN's telecast of Game Three of Red Wings-
Blues gave the station its highest Wings rating in two years
with a 25.0/37, up 47% from Game One (FREE PRESS, 5/14).
