tr1
December-7th-2007, 08:40 AM
Posted on Fri, Dec. 07, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/football/story/335616.html
BY BARRY JACKSON
No matter how much the Dolphins keep losing, viewers keep watching.
Despite the worst season in franchise history, Dolphins ratings in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market actually are ahead of last season, by more than 25,000 homes per telecast. The 12 games have averaged a 17.8 rating, ahead of last year's 16.1, when Miami finished 6-10, and comparable to recent years when the team's record was much better.
WFOR-4, which has carried nine of the games, has seen Dolphins ratings jump from a 15.7 to a 17.6, meaning 17.6 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets, on average, are tuned to the game. (One local ratings point equals 15,386 homes.)
The Monday night game against Pittsburgh produced the Dolphins' highest rating of the year in their only regular-season, prime-time appearance -- a 22.9 (11.8 on ESPN, 11.1 on Channel 7).
The Dolphins' ratings traditionally rank in the lower third among all teams, with Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Indianapolis and Denver among the strongest markets for the home team.
AROUND THE DIAL
...
Players, unlike coaches, will have the right to reject a request to wear a microphone.
• An unfortunate mistake: For a short time on the day Sean Taylor was shot, NBC 6's website incorrectly identified the victim as the brother of the Dolphins' Jason Taylor, not the former UM star. Yvette Miley, NBC 6's news director, said the error was made by a captain at the scene, and the station corrected it.
• ESPN's Emmitt Smith continues to amuse unintentionally with a string of malaprops and language-mangling, many of which have been documented on profootballtalk.com. Smith, who more than once has talked about teams being ''blowed out,'' recently spoke of Broncos players ''inserting themselves'' (we assume he meant ''asserting'') and said, ''Denver remained their cool'' against Tennessee.
At the very least, Smith should be able to assess running back play.
But last month, Smith was quite convinced San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson would have a better day than Minnesota's Adrian Peterson when the teams met because Tomlinson ``has a better supporting cast.''
But didn't it occur to Smith that the Vikings have one of the league's best run defenses? End result: Peterson ran for 296 yards. Tomlinson had 40. And this was yet another example why ESPN downgraded by hiring Smith to replace Michael Irvin.
• Butchering the language isn't limited to Smith. Fox's Troy Aikman mused last week that one unproductive player should ''have gotten satten down a few weeks ago.'' Oy!
• ESPN's Stuart Scott, in Pittsburgh for the Dolphins-Steelers game a couple of weeks ago, became ill and had to have his appendix removed.
His return date is undetermined. . . . With 17.5 million viewers, Monday's Patriots-Ravens game on ESPN was the most-watched program in cable TV history.
• The CBS NFL pregame show was buoyed last week by the return of Shannon Sharpe, who brings energy, playfulness and wit. (He had missed two weeks with a sinus infection.) Sharpe repeatedly offers creative spins, including this one on San Diego: ``You fire a guy who can't win in the playoffs [ Marty Schottenheimer] to hire a guy who can't win in the regular season [ Norv Turner].''
• As an experiment, Fox has dropped one of the longtime staples of NFL coverage -- starting-lineup graphics early in games. But those graphics have value, especially in familiarizing viewers with teams they don't know much about.[color=red](Yeah, how will puke fans know who's on their team? :laugh: )
...
The NFL stuck with Giants-Redskins as NBC's Dec. 16 Sunday night ''flexible schedule'' game.
http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/football/story/335616.html
BY BARRY JACKSON
No matter how much the Dolphins keep losing, viewers keep watching.
Despite the worst season in franchise history, Dolphins ratings in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market actually are ahead of last season, by more than 25,000 homes per telecast. The 12 games have averaged a 17.8 rating, ahead of last year's 16.1, when Miami finished 6-10, and comparable to recent years when the team's record was much better.
WFOR-4, which has carried nine of the games, has seen Dolphins ratings jump from a 15.7 to a 17.6, meaning 17.6 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets, on average, are tuned to the game. (One local ratings point equals 15,386 homes.)
The Monday night game against Pittsburgh produced the Dolphins' highest rating of the year in their only regular-season, prime-time appearance -- a 22.9 (11.8 on ESPN, 11.1 on Channel 7).
The Dolphins' ratings traditionally rank in the lower third among all teams, with Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Indianapolis and Denver among the strongest markets for the home team.
AROUND THE DIAL
...
Players, unlike coaches, will have the right to reject a request to wear a microphone.
• An unfortunate mistake: For a short time on the day Sean Taylor was shot, NBC 6's website incorrectly identified the victim as the brother of the Dolphins' Jason Taylor, not the former UM star. Yvette Miley, NBC 6's news director, said the error was made by a captain at the scene, and the station corrected it.
• ESPN's Emmitt Smith continues to amuse unintentionally with a string of malaprops and language-mangling, many of which have been documented on profootballtalk.com. Smith, who more than once has talked about teams being ''blowed out,'' recently spoke of Broncos players ''inserting themselves'' (we assume he meant ''asserting'') and said, ''Denver remained their cool'' against Tennessee.
At the very least, Smith should be able to assess running back play.
But last month, Smith was quite convinced San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson would have a better day than Minnesota's Adrian Peterson when the teams met because Tomlinson ``has a better supporting cast.''
But didn't it occur to Smith that the Vikings have one of the league's best run defenses? End result: Peterson ran for 296 yards. Tomlinson had 40. And this was yet another example why ESPN downgraded by hiring Smith to replace Michael Irvin.
• Butchering the language isn't limited to Smith. Fox's Troy Aikman mused last week that one unproductive player should ''have gotten satten down a few weeks ago.'' Oy!
• ESPN's Stuart Scott, in Pittsburgh for the Dolphins-Steelers game a couple of weeks ago, became ill and had to have his appendix removed.
His return date is undetermined. . . . With 17.5 million viewers, Monday's Patriots-Ravens game on ESPN was the most-watched program in cable TV history.
• The CBS NFL pregame show was buoyed last week by the return of Shannon Sharpe, who brings energy, playfulness and wit. (He had missed two weeks with a sinus infection.) Sharpe repeatedly offers creative spins, including this one on San Diego: ``You fire a guy who can't win in the playoffs [ Marty Schottenheimer] to hire a guy who can't win in the regular season [ Norv Turner].''
• As an experiment, Fox has dropped one of the longtime staples of NFL coverage -- starting-lineup graphics early in games. But those graphics have value, especially in familiarizing viewers with teams they don't know much about.[color=red](Yeah, how will puke fans know who's on their team? :laugh: )
...
The NFL stuck with Giants-Redskins as NBC's Dec. 16 Sunday night ''flexible schedule'' game.