LAWRENCE, Kansas – Late Show with David Letterman: Led by the premiere host in late-night television, the Late Show did a superb job last Wednesday when actor Russell Crowe appeared on the show after his arrest last week for throwing a telephone at a New York hotel worker. If Johnny Carson is the eternal King of Late Night, then David Letterman is its Crowned Prince. Letterman is by far the best interviewer of all late-night talk show hosts, and his star shone bright when he appropriately conducted a compassionate, serious interview, infused with a perfect amount of humor. Regardless of ratings, Late Show with David Letterman is qualitatively far superior to any of its competition. Even technical-director-turned-director Jerry Foley, who is often lacking in his ability to direct a music performance, rose to the occasion with a commendable job on Paul Anka’s jazzed up rendition of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

The Belmont Stakes: After solid coverage of the first two legs of thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown, director John Gonzalez was again faced with the challenges inherent in covering a race at Belmont Park, whose track is the longest of the three races. Camera positions different from Churchill Downs and Pimlico Race Course, coupled with confusing cuts on the clubhouse turn and backstretch, resulted in an unfortunately perplexing telecast by NBC Sports’ best director.

NBA Finals: ABC still has at least two more games two improve its coverage, but it hasn’t been pretty. Game 1 featured several graphical problems, including a full-page animated graphic that inexplicably came on over live action and subtitles for a well-produced feature on Manu Ginobili that were out of the 4:3 safe title zone (but were presumably correct for 16:9). The network is also notorious for tacky plugs for its own programming, evident by cut-aways to and an in-game interview with Desperate Housewives‘ actress Eva Longoria, who has been linked to the Spurs’ Tony Parker. A lower-third graphic identifying Longoria contained the drop line, “Star of ABC’s ‘Desperate Housewives’.” The simple facts are that 1) the NBA Finals still don’t compare to March Madness, 2) ABC Sports continues to be over-the-top in its presentations of high-profile sporting events and 3) Al Michaels is still not the best play-by-play announcer on television. If you want to see the best, I have two words for you: Dick Enberg.

Filed under: Late Night TV, Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV, Television