TV MONITOR: Last night's 10:00pm ET 60-minute edition of FSN's "National Sports Report" led with Paul Westphal being fired as coach of the Sonics, followed by Bucks-Magic. The first non-NBA report, at 8:22 into the broadcast, was VA Tech football coach Frank Beamer agreeing to a contract extension. The first NFL report, at 16:14, was the murder trial of Rae Carruth. The first NHL report, at 23:30, was an update on Flyers C Eric Lindros. Last night's 12:00am ET 60-minute edition of ESPN's "SportsCenter" led with Lakers- Clippers, followed by Grizzlies-Knicks. The first non-NBA report, at 5:23, was Middle TN Univ.-Univ. of KS NCAA men's basketball. The first NHL report, at 8:42, was Lindros. The first NFL report, at 26:02, was the Carruth trial. The 11:00pm ET 30-minute edition of CNN/SI's "Sports Tonight" was pre-empted due to coverage of Election 2000 (THE DAILY). NOTES: GE President & Chair-elect Jeffrey Immelt told the media yesterday that the company is solidly behind NBC: "I feel great about the future of NBC, and I think it's going to be a part of GE for a long time to come" (DAILY VARIETY, 11/28)....CNNSI.com's Jack McCallum wrote on the Skins Game and stated his "level of hatred toward this non- event [Skins Game] is, I concede, irrational, but the basis of my hatred is entirely rational." Among his reasons "to hate the Skins Game is that it puts the microphone on disagreeable personalities [such as Colin Montgomerie], non- personalities [such as Vijay Singh and Fred Couples] and trying-too-hard-to-be-personalities [such as Sergio Garcia] and asks them to stroll along as if on a carefree, we're- just-guys round at the local muni cow pasture" (CNNSI.com, 11/27)....In Toronto, William Houston reports that the CBC drew 3.152 million viewers for Sunday's broadcast of the Grey Cup, up about 300,000 over last year's game, which drew an audience of 2.86 million (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 11/28).
