After watching this week's "MNF" Vikings-Packers game,
the AP's Howard Fendrich reports that "MNF" is "no longer
the work-in-progress it was during the early going," but
what "is up for interpretation is whether it works."
Fendrich is "not convinced" that the show works, although
"plenty of aspects are wonderful." Analyst Dennis Miller
"just can't seem to find a happy medium" between being
"laugh-out-loud funny" and a "gray area" where he "seems
afraid to unleash the referential rants for which he's known
and is rendering himself relatively unnecessary" (AP, 11/9).
In N.Y., Phil Mushnick writes that Miller's "best moments"
come when he "ad libs off the game, and not when ABC's
forcing him on us like a talent agent at a casting call"
(N.Y. POST, 11/10). Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, Bob Wolfley
writes that the comment made by Miller on Monday regarding
VP Al Gore high-fiving African Americans (see THE DAILY,
11/7) "didn't come close to rising to the level of being
racially insensitive. The observer could not locate the
offensiveness of that remark without an electron
microscope." Wolfley "received one complaint" from an "MNF"
viewer about Miller's remark, and the Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel sports editor received four (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
SENTINEL, 11/10). In L.A., Tom Hoffarth writes that U.S.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) "phoned ABC to ask about
[Miller's] quote but then [agreed] it was just a innocent
political jab" (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 11/10). ABC's "MNF" is
averaging a 12.9/22 rating through ten games, down 7% from
last year's 13.4/22 (THE DAILY). See (#10) for more.
DOES ENHANCEMENT WORK? In MA, Bill Doyle tried ABC's
Enhanced TV last Monday, in which viewers can access instant
game and player stats and graphics via ESPN.com while
watching "MNF," and wrote that it "was fun for a change"
because "you aren't as likely to doze off during a boring
game." Doyle added, "Watching the third quarter on
television with Dennis Miller but without Enhanced TV wasn't
as interesting" (Worcester TELEGRAM & GAZETTE, 11/9).
SEX SELLS: In Baltimore, Milton Kent writes on the
"entertainment feel" of Fox' NFL pregame shows and writes,
the "Foxies often don't know when to quit pushing the
envelope or, worse yet, don't care." Kent cites "Fox NFL
Sunday" weathercaster Jillian Barberie, who "often dresses"
in "form-revealing outfits" and "sends a horribly sexist
message to viewers." Kent: "Worse yet, because of Fox's
ratings success, the message has gone out to the other
networks that doing a show that seeks to inform its viewers,
with a modicum of entertainment, isn't worth doing"
(Baltimore SUN, 11/10). But SI's Mark Bechtel calls the
"irreverence" of "NFL This Morning" "welcome and appeals to
the show's target audience," which Producer Mark Mayer says
is "the hard-core football guy, but also the guy who's tired
of being preached to" (SI, 11/13 issue).
REAL TEAM PRAISED: In L.A., Larry Stewart wrote that
the new football site RealTeam.com, founded by former CBS,
NBC and Saints exec Terry O'Neil, is "pretty good" because
"it's got credibility." O'Neil "knows something about how
the NFL works. And he writes like a pro" (L.A. TIMES, 11/9).
