Last Thursday, less than two weeks after Sam Flood became Exec Producer of NBC Sports and Versus, he hosted a conference call with everyone who works on NHL games for the two networks. Flood's purpose was to outline his philosophy for how the games should look on television and start to develop common production values across the two networks. "Our job is not to produce a hockey game," Flood said on the call. "Our job is to react to the hockey game and tell the story of that game and celebrate that game." For Flood, the first big cross-platform, same-day event occurs Sunday, when NBC shows the first "Hockey Day in America presented by McDonald's" from 12:00pm-6:00pm ET, followed by the Heritage Classic on Versus. The six-hour window of "Hockey Day in America" will include staggered regional start times leading up to a national game on NBC. The NBC and Versus productions will use commentators from NBC, Versus and the Comcast SportsNet RSNs and will throw video back-and-forth to all sites, regardless of what network is covering them. "We're using all the assets of NBC and Versus and combining them to create a nine-hour window," Flood said. "That's why I'm executive producer of both places, so that we can use these synergies and work together. We're seeing it." In less than three weeks on the job, Flood already has instituted several changes on Versus' telecasts. Yesterday, he changed the lighting and camera positions for Versus' studio show. "We started at 4:00pm and had the set completely re-lit and ready to go at 7:00pm," Flood said. "It's the kind of can-do attitude that was fabulous to see and fun to be a part of." Flood also instituted NBC's "Inside the Glass" system -- having an additional commentator between benches -- to Versus' telecasts. "I immediately taught the 'Inside the Glass' system to producers and announcers at Versus," he said. "Everyone's been wonderful and embraced it."
