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Let’s give you some linkage this evening. I’m going to weed out the Tiger Woods previews so this may not be as extensive as past editions. Your Weekend Viewing Picks has your sports viewing including college basketball and Olympic viewing guide.
Let’s get to the links.
National
USA Today’s Michael Hiestand tells NBC it’s time to go live with Olympic events.
Seth Livingstone of USA Today says NBC will not be showing the USA-Canada men’s hockey game on the main network relegating it to MSNBC instead.
Eric Fisher of the Sports Business Daily/Journal says NBCOlympics.com and Yahoo! Sports are battling it out for online traffic this month.
Tripp Mickle of SBD/SBJ writes that NBC Sports Emperor Dick Ebersol sent a letter to his staff Thursday congratulating his employees for beating American Idol in the ratings this week.
Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says NBC is averaging almost 25 million viewers a night for the first seven days of the Olympics.
Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says as Americans win gold medals in the Olympics, ratings for NBC keep going up.
Amanda Rykoff in the OCD Chick compares Dick Ebersol’s production of the Olympics to American Idol.
Etan Vlessing of the Hollywood Reporter says it appears that after initially expecting losses, the Canadian Olympic Broadcast Consortium will break even on the Vancouver Games.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that multiple medal-winning skier Julia Mancuso could turn out to be a marketing gold medal winner.
Darren says for sponsors, Tiger Woods’ refusal to set a timetable to return to golf is most troubling.
Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated has the very funny video of Golf Channel analyst Charlie Rymer crying after Tiger Woods make his robotic apology in the Friday afternoon edition of Hot Clicks (scroll down).
Marisa Guthrie of Broadcasting & Cable has various golf analysts reactions to Tiger Woods’ wooden apology.
Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek writes that the PGA Tour’s TV partners will just have to wait for Tiger Woods’ return.
Gail Sideman writing in the Sports Networker blog says Tiger’s announcement was bad timing as far as public relations are concerned.
The Sports Media Watch looks at how the networks covered the Tiger Woods announcement today.
SMW also has some idle notes.
SportsbyBrooks says Tony Kornheiser has apologized to Hannah Storm for saying she dresses like a harlot.
AJ Daulerio at Deadspin says ESPN has actually banned some of Hannah’s wardrobe.
East and Mid-Atlantic
Chad Finn of the Boston Globe defends NBC’s handling of the Olympics.
Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram also compares the Olympics to American Idol.
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times, a frequent critic of NBC’s tape delayed Olympic coverage, is begrudgingly learning to live with the delays in the Vancouver Games.
Bob Raissman in the New York Daily News feels Mets manager Jerry Manuel is helpful in feeding the media beast with soundbites.
The Albany Times Union’s Pete Dougherty critiques some of NBC’s announcers at the Olympics.
Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record has some spring training TV schedules. First, the Yankees, the Mets, MLB Network, ESPN and WGN America.
Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News says the first network analysis was kind to Tiger Woods.
David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun is not happy how NBC has stopped mentioning the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili during its coverage.
Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com writes in Press Box that advertisers were sad to see Baltimore sports radio host Anita Marks leave last month.
Tim Lemke doesn’t quite understand NBC’s Olympic philosophy.
South
David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes that ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike will be back in town next month.
Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says Oklahoma University baseball games will be seen on local cable TV.
Mel says two Australian TV commentators are in trouble for making homophobic comments about US figure skater Johnny Weir.
Midwest
Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press wants the tape delayed Olympics coverage on NBC to stop.
Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is puzzled why Milwaukee is on top of the nation’s ratings for the Olympics.
Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business has his weekly winners and losers.
Ed notes that the White Sox will be part of a new reality show on MLB Network.
Ed also analyzes Tiger Woods’ apology.
Charles F. Rouse of the Kansas City Examiner says Big 12 fans want Brent Musberger and Bob Knight removed from the conference’s basketball games.
Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wonders if the Cardinals could be heading to the FM dial this season.
Dan writes that part-time Redbirds analyst Jack Clark will return for another season on Fox Sports Midwest.
West
Scott D. Pierce from the Deseret (UT) News says the reconstructed arena football Utah Pride have a TV deal in place.
Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune doesn’t like how the local NBC affiliate is playing coy about the Olympic delays.
Jay writes that Padres voice Jerry Coleman will be working less this season, but be doing more.
John Maffei of the North County Times says the West Coast is to blame for the Olympic delays.
Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star writes about the Olympics finally beating American Idol in the ratings.
Jim says the Olympics are bringing down the ratings for the Daytona 500 and the NBA.
Over to Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times who reports on Tiger Woods’ apology.
Diane adds that NBC’s Cris Collinsworth was critical of Woods.
Phil Rosenthal writes in the Times that MSNBC will put the politics aside on Sunday and air the anticipated USA- Canada men’s hockey game which will be seen live in all time zones.
The Times publishes several readers’ complaints about the Olympic delays to the West Coast even though the Vancouver Games are taking place in their time zone.
Canada
Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says it’s no surprise that hockey is tops in CTV’s Olympic coverage.
In Yahoo! Canada, William Houston critiques CTV’s coverage to date.
In his Truth & Rumours blog, William has a few columns in one.
Bill Brioux of the Canadian Press wonders if CTV’s all-out approach for the Olympics is too much of a good thing.
And that will complete the links.
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