During TNT's live Super Bowl special on Friday night,
Bills DE Bruce Smith, serving as a guest analyst,
"collapsed" on-air, according to Shapiro & Maske of the
WASHINGTON POST. TNT later announced that Smith "left the
studio on his own power and apparently was fine" (WASHINGTON
POST, 1/29). Smith, on the situation: "We were about three-
quarters of the way through the game analysis. All of a
sudden I felt nauseated and I was over-heated and
perspiring." Smith was later diagnosed as "suffering from
anemia" (Rochester DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE, 1/31).
TOO MUCH CREDITING BY THE NFL? In Nashville, John
Shiffman reported that the NFL granted media credentials to
401 foreign journalists from 162 different news
organizations. Mexico led the int'l contingent with 33
media outlets, followed by Japan with 26, Germany with 24,
Canada with 18 and England with 14 (Nashville TENNESSEAN,
1/29). In N.Y., Phil Mushnick wrote the NFL "insults every
earnest sports journalist and, by extension, every earnest
football fan by issuing Super Bowl media credentials to
every MTV or Comedy Central-like TV show or network that
might give the NFL a boost among the omnipotent 'younger
demographic'" (N.Y. POST, 1/30).
ENHANCEMENTS: ABC Enhanced TV Exec Producer Jonathan
Leess, on the net's site around the Super Bowl: "The goal is
not to take viewers away from the telecast. The goal is to
find ways to make viewers stayed tuned." To soothe the
"fears of advertisers, Enhanced TV synchronizes ads and
promos with the on-air commercials." Leess says that the
site's "majority of users" are 26-45 years-old (ATLANTA
CONSTITUTION, 1/29). USA TODAY's Chris Jenkins reports on
four students who took part in the newspaper's test of
"Enhanced TV" during the game: "Based on the experiences of
our panel, Enhanced TV was a limited success." Panelists
favored the site's real-time stats and trivia, but the
site's "guess-the-play contest was plagued with technical
problems for most of the Super Bowl and, predictably, didn't
go over as well" (USA TODAY, 1/31). In L.A., Greg Johnson
reports Enhanced TV "experienced some second-half problems,
forcing fans who were tracking the game online to reboot
their machines." USC Sports Marketing Professor David
Carter "gave up trying to follow the game online and on" TV:
"It's too intrusive. You can't get involved in both of them
at the same time" (L.A. TIMES, 1/31).
DEFINING A QUALITY BROADCAST? The AP's Alan Robinson
reviews ABC's coverage in HDTV: "The high definition picture
is like watching a moving photograph -- seamless, with vivid
colors and a picture so sharp that the handwriting on a
referee's thrown flag is clearly visible" (AP, 1/31).
