Jumping The Gun: NBC Breaks Deal With ABC On Landis Sit-Down

ABC Upset With NBC For Timing Of Landis Interview

ABC’s “GMA” is “furious” at NBC’s “Today” show “for breaking a pre-arranged deal” regarding interviews with Tour de France champion Floyd Landis that aired yesterday, according to Michael Starr of the N.Y. POST. The shows agreed that “Today” would wait to air a taped interview between Landis and NBC’s Matt Lauer until after “GMA” aired a live interview with Landis and ABC’s Robin Roberts at 7:12am. “Today” ran the segment at 7:05am. “GMA” spokesperson Bridgette Maney said, “‘GMA’ respects embargos and it’s unfortunate that the competition clearly does not.” Landis said in a statement, “I’m disappointed that NBC’s ‘Today’ chose the tact of pre-empting the live segment we offered ‘GMA’ and ABC. ... It’s unfortunate they breached our agreement, which questions NBC’s integrity.” Meanwhile, Landis is scheduled to appear on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” tonight after cancelling two previously-scheduled appearances over the past two weeks (N.Y. POST, 8/8). Landis spoke to about a dozen print and electronic media outlets in all yesterday “in hopes of repairing his reputation” after his “B” sample confirmed positive results from his “A” sample regarding high levels of testosterone. Landis declined to comment to the Times (N.Y. TIMES, 8/8).

LANDIS NOT WELCOMED AT RACE: In N.Y., Juliet Macur reports organizers of the inaugural Tour of Elk Grove, a race scheduled for this weekend near Chicago, “notified Landis that they no longer wanted him to compete -– or even sign autographs -– at their race.” Race Dir Nick Sepke said, “We didn’t want that image associated with our event.” USA Cycling Marketing & Communications Dir Andy Lee said that Landis cannot participate in any UCI ProTour events “because his Phonak team fired him, but he is still free to race in certain events in the United States.” The Tour of Elk Grove is not part of the ProTour (N.Y. TIMES, 8/8).