LAWRENCE, Kansas — Even after the Kansas men’s basketball team had escaped with a one-point victory against UCLA last night, something just didn’t feel right. How could officials have put 0.7 seconds back on the clock after reviewing the same footage I’d seen on television?

The issue to me was not whether KU’s Mario Little was in fact fouled but whether the official had called the foul before time had expired in the second half. After the replay had aired several times, it was clear that the official hadn’t raised his arm until after time had run out.

Filed under:
Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV, Technology by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – When I said three weeks ago that, for CBS, this year’s NCAA Tournament “may very well be the network’s own shining moment,” I never could have anticipated the whirlwind ride that followed. Not only were we treated to two overtime games in the first session of the first round, but we were also treated to close game after close game, upset after upset.

In a year with so much uncertainty about the future of the tournament, teams delivered the most exhilarating set of games in history. They showed off everything that is right with the current format, making a seemingly imminent expansion to 96 teams look that much more ridiculous.

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

LAWRENCE, Kan. – As CBS embarks on another NCAA Tournament, it is important to remember just how good they are at doing this event. Sure, they will miff some viewers by jumping around from site to site to update other games – the necessary evil known as “walking the dog” – but when your game is on the line, you can be sure you’ll see it live.

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

LAWRENCE, Kan. – If you choose which games you watch based on the announcers or crew covering them, this is for you. Here is the breakdown of which crew is at which site for the first two rounds of the 2010 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament as well as the early and late first round games.

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

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Audience metrics are a funny thing. Enormous value is given to what are simply estimates. In “traditional media” like radio and television, they have always been admittedly flawed in one form or another. After all, in the days before cable, how could anyone possibly know how many people are actually watching a television show? The same has always been true of radio. It’s impossible to measure with absolute certainty an audience receiving an over-the-air signal.

Filed under:
Technology, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – America loves an underdog, and America loves a comeback. Put those together, as the New Orleans Saints did in Sunday’s Super Bowl, and you get ratings. Big ratings.

CBS’ average overnight rating/share was a 46.4/68. In layman’s terms, an average of 46.4% of U.S. television households watched the game, with 68% of those watching television from 6:30-9:45 p.m. ET tuning in to the Super Bowl. It marks the highest rating since current CBS lead analyst Phil Simms was leading the New York Giants to victory in Super Bowl XXI (47.8/68). Conveniently, that too was a come-from-behind win.

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

LAWRENCE, Kan. – I can sum up Super Bowl XLIV in a phrase: good but not great. Save a commercial here or a play call there, little about either the game or the telecast was particularly noteworthy. As much as the many fans who’ve proclaimed themselves members of the “Who Dat Nation” would like to think that this game will go down “as one of those sports moments,” it won’t.

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

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

LAWRENCE, Kan. – I am a die-hard Saturday Night Live fan and have been since I was in elementary school. (Too bad my classmates didn’t always appreciate my not-ready-for-prime-time sense of humor.) But for as much as I love the show, I have often been as critical of the show as any outsider with better than cursory knowledge of the inner workings of the show.

The show is currently in a sort of transition, with new writers coming and going and talent cycling through like college athletes. Even so, SNL has recently shown the sort of signs of life that illustrate just how close it is to striking yet another memorable balance in both its on and off air ensemble. And that’s just the purely content-driven side of the show.

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

O’FALLON, Mo. – Where do I begin? There’s been a lot of interesting television in the last week, and some other intriguing item looking forward.

Late Night

Saturday Night Live delivered one of its best episodes in recent memory. And I have a pretty good memory, particularly with regard to SNL. Beginning with a well-executed cold open and perhaps the most physically demanding monologue since Bill Murray scaled the “Homebase” set 10 seasons ago, Joseph Gordon-Levitt proved himself a more-than-formidable host. Musical guests Dave Matthews Band made yet another appearance on the show. DMB is the only musical act I can think of who’s performances have now spanned the three longest-tenured directors in SNL’s history – the late Dave Wilson (with host Courteney Cox in 1994), multiple appearances with director Beth McCarthy Miller, and now Don Roy King. I have no doubt I’m the only person who really cares.

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Music/Variety, Sports TV, Technology, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – By now, it’s hard to have totally avoided the news of the video taken through a peephole that shows ESPN reporter Erin Andrews walking around a hotel room nude. The blog post that surfaced in the media late last week is getting all kinds of reactions–from outraged to obscene.

ESPN attorneys took immediate action, sending a cease and desist letter to the blog’s owner. Andrews’ own attorney subsequently released a statement confirming what had previously only been suspicion of the identity of the “Hot naked blonde.” Deadspin, which has been covering developments in the story since it broke, has reported that the video had actually been online for months before widespread news of it broke.

Filed under:
Opinion/Editorial, Social Media, Sports TV, Technology, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Here are portions of the June 12 episode of “Smokey and the Bear,” when I weighed in on the David Letterman-Sarah Palin fiasco:

This whole thing about David Letterman and Sarah Palin. Basically, my opinion is this.

David Letterman made a few jokes the other night about Sarah Palin and Sarah Palin’s daughter. He was intending the jokes to be about the 18-year-old who had a baby that, by the way, Sarah Palin’s husband on an interview on the Today show referred to–with his daughter and baby in hand. He’s sitting next to his 18-year-old daughter, who’s holding her baby, and he refers to the baby as “a mistake.” Right there. I’m like, Jesus, what an awful grandfather! My grandparents have had their moments over the years, but I don’t think they ever called me a mistake–at least, not that I knew of. Same with my parents. But either way, it’s just like. What a jackass!

Filed under:
Music/Variety, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – This evening Jay Leno finishes his 17-year tenure at The Tonight Show, and it’s hard not to think of the events that have transpired since or those leading up to him getting the job. Either way, I certainly won’t be losing sleep over what to do now that Conan O’Brien is taking over. It’s simple: I’ll watch David Letterman.

Sure, I’ve been a fan of the Late Show since I was in 5th grade. For a while I loved the show for reasons I couldn’t even articulate at the time. But there was definitely something. After attending a taping in 2007, I finally figured it out. Letterman and his staff are simply smarter than the folks on the other coast.

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

LAWRENCE, Kan. – After putting forth my arbitrary list of the best in live television for the past year, I have seen that the Sports Emmy Awards were given out last night. I’ve decided that, since I have yet to look at the winners, I might as well give my picks to a slightly less arbitrary selection.

Here’s a quick digression: I’m sitting in the Kansas Union on the KU campus in Lawrence with ESPN’s newsmagazine attempt, E:60, on a television to my left. I can’t really hear what’s being said. What I can tell is that the film noir pitch meeting footage is horribly over the top, and the camerawork for the interviews in this Stephon Marbury piece is basically what I’d expect from ESPN trying to do break into this genre. Could someone please watch Real Sports or 60 Minutes?! They do it right.

Filed under:
Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – For as long as I’ve been writing about the world of live television, I don’t think I’ve ever actually put forth a list of who I think is the best for on-air and production.

Here are a couple of rules: 1) individuals must still be active in their respective roles (network changes are okay); 2) there is no limit on how many people working for a particular network can be chosen (if the network happens to be that good, it wouldn’t make sense for me to suggest otherwise); 3) for sports, when I feel it is warranted, I may select multiple people holding the same position but for different sports.

Filed under:
Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – You couldn’t tune in to last weekend’s Masters coverage without incessant reminders that Tiger Woods was playing. Honestly, how could we forget? CBS probably would have run promos mentioning Woods whether he was “within striking distance” or not. It’s understandable. Like Duke and North Carolina in basketball, a tournament with Tiger is sure to get big ratings, especially if he’s threatening the lead.

In this year’s case, however, CBS didn’t need golf’s biggest name to draw in viewers. Americans Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell did plenty to help. Oh, and they didn’t even win. Perry and Campbell led after two rounds at Augusta National and kept it more than interesting for the final two. Neither golfer is entirely unknown, which was a plus. But what really made the tournament was the competition.

Sure, Tiger has put up some wowing scores at the Masters, but he has often won convincingly with no threat on Sunday. This year’s final round had all the makings of a network executive’s dream. The scenery at Augusta is always something to behold, and high definition doesn’t hurt. That much is a given. After some concern of stormy weather earlier in the week, the clouds cleared and the stars on the course shone bright.

Filed under:
Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV by Scott A. Winer