Fox Earns Season's Highest Overnight Rating For Cowboys-Giants

NBC Earns 11.9 Overnight Rating For Patriots-Colts "Sunday Night Football"

HIGH NIGHT: DAILY VARIETY's Rick Kissell writes under the headline "ESPN's Magic 'Monday.'" For "MNF," a "cleaner graphics package, new on-air replay technology and the decision to eliminate in-booth celebrity guests and most sideline reports has paid off in a stronger product." Pilson Communications President Neal Pilson: "The talent is doing better, and the presentation has improved this year." Kissell notes "MNF" has won the night in adults 18-49 for eight consecutive weeks. Monday "actually has become a great success story for Disney overall" -- through last week, ESPN's Monday "was the top-rated night of the week among adult males, while ABC's Monday (thanks to hoofing hit 'Dancing With the Stars') is the top-rated night among adult women" (DAILY VARIETY, 11/3).

EARLY DEPARTURE: On Long Island, Neil Best reports Fox left yesterday's Packers-Titans game just before Titans K Rob Bironas kicked the game-winning field goal in overtime, and the game was replaced "by 3 minutes, 50 seconds of a Fox promo, commercials and pregame chatter among the announcers before kickoff" of Cowboys-Giants. Best notes Fox was "required to leave Packers-Titans in time to get to Cowboys-Giants, and in fact pushed things a bit further than it was supposed to," leaving the game late. The departure was the "latest in a series of frustrations for fans as networks work within the NFL's quirky TV rules" (NEWSDAY, 11/3). In N.Y., Phil Mushnick writes, "NFL rules, we understand ... but only to a point" (N.Y. POST, 11/3). In Toronto, Chris Zelkovich: "Why tease viewers like that?" (TORONTO STAR, 11/3).

TALENT REVIEWS: In St. Petersburg, Tom Jones writes of Fox' coverage of yesterday's Buccaneers-Chiefs game, "Did Fox announcer Ron Pitts really make a reference to the Bucs getting their pants pulled down? We know what he meant, but still, take an extra second and think of another analogy." Meanwhile, sideline reporter Charissa Thompson during the game reported Buccaneers CB Ronde Barber "went back to the bench yelling and throwing his helmet" after getting beaten for a touchdown in the second quarter. Jones: "There you go, a sideline reporter giving us news that's actually informative and interesting" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 11/3). The TORONTO STAR's Zelkovich writes Fox sideline reporter Pam Oliver prior to yesterday's Cowboys-Giants game did not give Giants WR Plaxico Burress, who was suspended by the team for a game earlier this season, the "usual kid-gloves treatment," instead "peppering him with some tough questions." Oliver asked Burress, "Do you make mistakes or do you make excuses?" (TORONTO STAR, 11/3). SI.com's Peter King: "Nice job by Pam Oliver grilling Plaxico Burress" (SI.com, 11/3).

JUST BEING HONEST: Fox NFL analyst Michael Strahan, who played 15 years for the Giants, said that he "can't and won't be impartial when it comes to players he calls 'my brothers.'" Strahan: "Guys can lie and say, 'I don't root for my own team.' I was there 15 years. You think I hope the Giants don't do well? Of course I do" (NEWSDAY, 11/2).

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