NBC's coverage of Game Three of the Pacers-Lakers NBA
Finals on Sunday earned a 10.7/18 final Nielsen rating, down
12% from last year's 12.1/21 for Game Three of the Knicks-
Spurs. Game Two of Pacers-Lakers produced a 9.9/20 final
rating, up 3% from '99's 9.6/19 rating for Game Two. NBC is
averaging a 10.3/19 for the first three games, down 7% from
last year's 11.1/20 three-game total (NBC). USA TODAY's
Rudy Martzke notes that Friday's national rating for Game
Two "fell a whopping" 21% from the overnight. NBC Sports
Chair Dick Ebersol: "If there's going to be such a
discrepancy between the overnight and the national ratings,
why do we have to pay Nielsen for overnights?" (USA TODAY,
6/13). DAILY VARIETY's Rick Kissell writes that NBC
"appears to have a competitive NBA Finals on its hands, and
with it the potential for solid ratings." Game Two
registered a 30.8/50 final rating in L.A. and a 36.2/60 in
Indianapolis, while Game Three "slipped" in L.A. to a
27.7/50 "but soared in Pacer-land" to a 42.2/61 (DAILY
VARIETY, 6/13). In N.Y., Peter Vecsey writes that "there's
no denying NBC has regained the momentum in this series" and
"NBC doctors" have advised Lakers G Kobe Bryant "not to
play" in tomorrow's Game Four (N.Y. POST, 6/13).
DISSIN' TESH: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir writes that the
"NBA on NBC" theme music has remained unchanged "for about
as long as" the net has carried the league: "Hearing it is
as annoying as the blaring rock music must have sounded to
the former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega when United
States forces invaded his country" (N.Y. TIMES, 6/13).
Meanwhile, in MI, David Mayo criticized NBC for using the
NBA Finals to "promote its own" shows: "Don't use the
highest-quality basketball in the world as a way to promote
actors many of us don't know" (GRAND RAPIDS PRESS, 6/12).
TOTAL COVERAGE: The NBA states that 202 int'l media
from 34 countries will be part of the media contingent for
the NBA Finals, which will be televised in 200 countries, in
41 languages by 88 telecasters (NBA).
ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE? Biff Henderson of CBS' "Late
Show" is reporting from the NBA Finals. Henderson told
ESPN's Dan Patrick he would give him "twenty dollars if you
smack Bob Costas." Patrick: "Make it $40 and you got a
deal." Henderson to Patrick: "If Shaq is so great, how come
he's not on the Harlem Globetrotters?" Patrick: "You don't
know anything about basketball, do you?" Henderson asked a
Staples Center beer vendor, "How many beers do you sell a
night?" After hearing "about 700," Henderson asked, "How
many of those do you sell to Dyan Cannon?" (CBS, 6/12).
