TNT earned a 7.6 overnight Nielsen rating for last night's series-clinching Heat-Bulls NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game Five from 8:33-11:21pm ET, up 19% from the comparable Lakers-Suns Game Five last year. The game earned a 25.1 local rating in Chicago and a 25.2 rating in Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
LIMITED ACTION: The Sabres announced Thursday that announcer Rick Jeanneret "will do only 10 to 15 of the 41 road games next year." Jeanneret and analysts Harry Neale and Rob Ray "will travel together for a few games and do all the home games," and Jeanneret "will call all playoff games." There is "no word on who will be in the booth when Jeanneret, Neale and Ray are not." Jeanneret "will select his trips once the 2011-12 schedule ... is released, and the Sabres will determine the replacements." Jeanneret, 68, "skipped the team's Western trips the past three seasons but wanted more breaks from the travel grind before agreeing to continue the job he has held since 1971." He said, "It's no secret that the constant travel has been wearing on me over the years, and there were several times last season when I thought that it might be my last. I don't want to retire completely" (BUFFALO NEWS, 5/27).
SWITCHING STATIONS: In Denver, Lindsay Jones reports the Broncos Thursday "announced a two-year partnership" for KUSA-NBC to become the team's new flagship TV station. KUSA "will televise the team's preseason games as well as a weekly show" with Broncos Exec VP/Football Operations John Elway. The network "also will have increased access to game footage and will be allowed to use the Broncos' logo." The move "comes after the Broncos severed ties" KCNC-CBS after seven seasons. Jones notes KUSA "consistently has the market's highest-rated newscast, and the station is visible in the Denver community" (DENVER POST, 5/27).
GUEST APPEARANCE: In St. Louis, Dan Caesar reports Cardinals TV announcer Dan McLaughlin will call Saturday's Cardinals-Rockies game for Fox alongside Rockies TV analyst George Frazier. McLaughlin "has done about five games on a fill-in basis for Fox over the last eight years or so, but hasn't done a Cards contest for the network since 2009." McLaughlin's schedule of Cardinals broadcasts "has been reduced this season as Fox Sports Midwest is giving Rick Horton additional assignments" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 5/27).
MEMORIAL DAY PREMIERE: MLB Network on Monday will have the exclusive, worldwide premiere of the new video for the Kings of Leon's song, "Back Down South." The video will be intercut with baseball highlights every day through June 6 across various MLBN programming. "Back Down South" is the first music video to premiere on the net (THE DAILY).
