Notre Dame and Georgia on Saturday night will face off for the first time since the '81 Sugar Bowl, and just the second time ever, and NBC has "prepared a two-minute opening that features the schools' most recent Heisman Trophy winners -- Herschel Walker (UGA) and Tim Brown (ND), according to Tim Tucker of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. The segment includes scenes from the '81 game, which saw UGA win and claim the national championship, as well as the UGA "postgame celebration." The segment "ends with Brown and Walker happily seated side-by-side in stadium seats." Walker played in the '81 game, but Brown was still in high school. The NBC segment was shot this summer in Dallas, where both players now live. NBC during the game also "plans to include live look-ins to a TV-viewing party in Athens," where some members of that title-winning UGA team are gathering to watch the game (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 9/8).
UNBIASED APPROACH: Mike Tirico is in his first year as NBC's lead play-by-play voice for Notre Dame games, and he said there is a "perception" that the net has a "one-sided approach." In Chicago, Phil Rosenthal notes Notre Dame is the only college football program with its "own national TV deal." But Tirico said, "All I've done are national football games, so I'm used to approaching from both sides. ... There are just as many fans of the opponent, especially when it's a Georgia, USC or Stanford. They're watching the broadcast as well, so our job -- at least my job -- is to be absolutely fair about it and play it down the middle" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 9/8).
IRISH SETTER: NBC last Saturday averaged 1.58 million viewers for Notre Dame’s 49-16 win over Temple, marking the net’s lowest Irish football opener in at least a decade. NBC’s first Notre Dame game last year was in Week 2 against Nevada, with that game drawing 2.45 million viewers. Temple was the NBC opener in ’13, and NBC drew 2.5 million viewers for that game (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
