Fox's coverage of the Rams' NFC Championship win over
the Bucs earned a 27.9/46 preliminary overnight Nielsen
rating, up 7% from last year's 26.1/52. CBS' coverage of
the Titans' AFC Championship win over the Jaguars earned a
24.4/47 overnight rating, down 10% from last year's 27.2/47
(THE DAILY). For more overnight ratings, see (#29). In
Atlanta, Prentis Rogers writes that CBS' Greg Gumbel "was
superb" during yesterday's Titans-Jaguars game and allowed
partner Phil Simms "plenty of room to offer insightful
tidbits." Rogers adds Simms was "consistently good" (ATL.
CONSTITUTION, 1/24). In S.D., Jay Posner declares Fox the
"clear winner" over CBS this past weekend. Posner: "Replays
were more timely and more frequent, without being
overbearing. ... Graphics were good on both networks, but
again Fox was better" (SD TRIB, 1/24).
FACING SMALLER MARKETS: In Hartford, Jeff Goldberg
noted the dominance of small-market teams in postseason play
and examined how it affected the networks' ratings. Fox
Sports VP/Media Relations Lou D'Ermilio said, "Football is
probably the one sport where [who is playing] matters the
least. ... Is it going to significantly impact [ratings?] I
don't think so." CBS Sports President Sean McManus: "When
you don't have national marquee teams in the Super Bowl,
you're much more subject to the quality of the game. ... The
Super Bowl has been relatively immune to big swings in
ratings" (HARTFORD COURANT, 1/22). In Miami, Greg Cote
calls next week's Super Bowl "Transplant Bowl I" and writes
that the game "looks like the most intriguing SB matchup in
a long while" (MIAMI HERALD, 1/24).
SUPER RATINGS FOR SUPER BOWL TEAMS: In Nashville, John
Shiffman reported that the Titans' Web site, at
www.titansonline.com, received one million hits last Monday
(TENNESSEAN, 1/23)....In St. Louis, Jerry Berger cites
Nielsen Media Research as indicating "a greater percentage
of hometowners, 48 percent to 43 percent, watched" last
week's Vikings-Rams game than watched Cardinals 1B Mark
McGwire breaking the HR record in '98 (POST-DISPATCH, 1/24).
SUPER BOWL NOTES: John Elway contributes a commentary
in today's USA TODAY concerning pre-Super Bowl festivities
in Atlanta and notes MVP.com will hold a news conference
Wednesday in Atlanta (USA TODAY, 1/24)....ABC will use
SportsVision's virtual first down line during Sunday's Super
Bowl, marking its "Super Bowl debut" (Baltimore SUN, 1/24).
