The NFL moving Cowboys-Giants off Fox' Sunday national window in Week 14 to the net's regional window at 1:00pm ET is "not the kick in the butt it might appear to be at first blush," according to Barry Horn of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. While it appears the matchup is "being pushed aside" to make way for Seahawks-Jaguars, it is actually a "quite genius way to put the Cowboys-Giants game in front of more eyeballs." The flex scheduling move "most definitely is not Roger Goodell spitting on Jerry Jones." Eagles-Rams was already in Fox' national window plans alongside Cowboys-Giants, and with that game having playoff implications, it is "going to be beamed to the largest possible late afternoon audience" on Dec. 10. The Seahawks and Jaguars are "simply props being sacrificed in the game of eyeballs," as the game will only be "beamed to a slice of the northwestern U.S. and a smaller sliver of northeast Florida." Now the Dallas-Ft. Worth and N.Y. markets in the 1:00pm window will be "able to stoke Fox's ratings for the national second game of a doubleheader." Cowboys-Giants will "go to a larger percentage of the country" than any of Fox' five other 1:00pm kickoffs, and it "certainly will go to a larger percentage than the game would have gone" to at 4:25pm (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/29).
PRODUCT PLACEMENT: On Long Island, Tom Rock notes Giants-Cowboys games have been "such ratings catnip for the networks that they are almost always played in prime time." That two of the league’s "supposed ratings powerhouses would become so irrelevant as to play this late in the season in such a pedestrian time slot speaks to how low the two teams have fallen and how little respect the Giants ... garner in NFL broadcasting circles" (NEWSDAY, 11/29). In N.Y., Gary Myers writes the NFL yesterday "threw in the towel on the Cowboys and Giants" by flexing them into the 1:00pm regional window for Week 14. Myers: "That’s humiliating for the Giants and Cowboys. But they earned it." The Giants "crashed long ago" and the Cowboys "are in a freefall" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 11/29). In California, Rich Hammond wrote the "surprising success for the Rams" this season was "not enough to make the NFL move them" to NBC's "SNF" in Week 14 into a prime-time television spot" for Week 14. The Rams' attendance optics on TV may have "come into play here." Even with 62,006 announced Saints-Rams last Sunday, L.A. Memorial Coliseum "can look less full." The Rams "have not played in a Sunday night football national game since moving back" to L.A. last season (OCREGISTER.com, 11/28).
