TV MONITOR: Last night's 10:00pm ET 60-minute edition
of FSN's "The Keith Olbermann Evening News" led with a 12:53
report on IN Univ. firing men's basketball coach Bobby
Knight, followed by Raiders-Colts. The next non-NFL story,
at 22:13 into the broadcast, was Tiger Woods' win at the
Bell Canadian Open. Last night's 11:00pm ET 30-minute
edition of CNNSI's "Sports Tonight" led with a 5:12 on
Knight's dismissal, followed by Rams-Seahawks. The next
non-NFL story, at 11:34, was Marat Safin defeating Pete
Sampras to win the U.S. Open men's singles championship.
Last night's 11:00pm ET 60-minute edition of ESPN's
"SportsCenter" (late due to NFL) led with a 7:58 report on
Knight's dismissal, followed by Raiders-Colts. The next
non-NFL story, at 17:37, was Yankees-Red Sox (THE DAILY).
FINAL USA RATINGS FOR THE OPEN: USA Network's coverage
of the U.S. Open earned an overall prime-time HH rating of
1.4, up 8% from '99. For the two weeks, USA had an overall
day-night rating of 1.1, while the daytime rating of 0.7 was
flat from '99. USA saw "jumps" of 32% among adults 18-34 in
prime time and 31% among adults 18-49 (N.Y. TIMES, 9/10).
DETROIT DEAL NEAR? In Detroit, Crowe & Smyntek reported
that a six-year, $50M agreement for WXYT-AM to carry the
Tigers and Red Wings "is expected to be signed next week."
The new deal "would allow" the Tigers and Red Wings to sell
ad time during games and "pocket the profits." WXYT "would
keep ad revenue from the pregame and postgame shows." The
Tigers have been on current carrier WJR since '61, about ten
years longer than the Red Wings (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 9/9).
TIGER FORCES SENIOR EVENT TO TAPE: Saturday's third
round coverage of the Senior PGA Tour's Comfort Classic was
moved from its planned live coverage from 2:00-4:00pm ET on
ESPN to tape delay from 5:00-6:30pm ET so ESPN could show
Tiger Woods playing at the Bell Canadian Open. Senior PGA
Tour VP/Business Affairs Hal Seward, on the change:
"Actually, the change is better for us because now we have
them as the lead-in program for us" (INDY STAR, 9/9).
NOTES: In Knoxville, Laura Ayo reported that the Univ.
of TN (UT) "is fighting attempts" by ESPN to subpoena
thousands of student records and university documents "in
connection with federal defamation lawsuits pending against"
the net. UT attorney Alan Parker argued that it will "cost
the university tens of thousands of dollars and take months
to comply" (NEWS-SENTINEL, 9/9)....Though MLB's Web url will
change to mlb.com, the N.Y. TIMES' Murray Chass wrote that
"does not mean its Internet policies will change with the
name." Chass: "When the site carries news articles about
player contracts and salaries, financial details are first
expunged." MLB says that is because it "does not officially
divulge player salary information" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/10).
