LAWRENCE, Kan. – Let me begin by making a couple things clear.

First, as most people who have read my blog, visited my sites, listened to my podcasts or followed my tweets would know, I have worked for CBS Sports off and on as a runner and tape logger since I was a sophomore in high school. (That’s 2001 for those not keeping score.)

Second, I am gay. I came out when I was 17, began to have some doubts when I was 20, and ultimately came out for a second time shortly after my 23rd birthday. Was I gay that entire time? Yes. Was I sure? No, but I am now. For me and practically every other person, sexual orientation isn’t just black and white, cut and dry. It’s nuanced and complicated.

So too is CBS’ criteria for accepting and rejecting Super Bowl commercials.

Filed under:
Sports TV, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – This week I had the pleasure of interviewing CBS Sports director Bob Fishman for my podcast, “No Relation.” I have known “Fish” for seven years, meeting him by chance as a senior in high school. It didn’t take long for me to see that there is something truly special about him.

He commanded the respect of everyone working with him, but not the kind forced by title or protocol. It was more of a collective fondness and warmth for their leader. I shadowed “Fish” as his unpaid assistant for the SEC Football Championship in December 2002. Surrounded at a round table of camera operators, most of whom were twice my age if not older, they marveled my unique opportunity. “He doesn’t know yet how lucky he is,” one said. I didn’t then. I do now.

Filed under:
Sports TV, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Winter Olympics can’t come soon enough for NBC. Until then, there’s little the network can do to stop their talk show hosts from taking nightly jabs at their apparent late night ineptitude. Meanwhile, Conan O’Brien has finally broken his off-air silence, rejecting the proposed move to 12:05 a.m. ET in a statement released today:

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Who knew it would take over 15 years for the chinks in NBC’s late night armor to show? Indeed, what goes around seems to be coming around for the network that once branded itself “America’s Late Night Leader.”

It’s becoming clear that the decisions NBC made in 1991 set the stage for the giant mess currently waiting at its doorstep.

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Rumors began swirling today about the future of NBC late night. With an end to the 10 p.m. (9 p.m. CT) Jay Leno Show imminent, many people are wondering what will happen to new Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien.

It has been said many times over that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Such is true of NBC.

The network that passed over David Letterman as Johnny Carson’s successor for The Tonight Show in the early 1990s seems to have made a similar gaffe with Leno and O’Brien. Like former NBC Entertainment executive Warren Littlefield – made infamous by Bill Carter’s book The Late Shift and a subsequent HBO movie of the same name, current entertainment chief Jeff Gaspin offered the 11:30 time slot to a seemingly hot commodity, O’Brien, in order to prevent losing him to a rival network.

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer