Wednesday Night Hoedown

I don’t know what to title this. And taking a look at “Private Practice” on ABC for the first time since the pilot back in May, I’m still convinced that Kate Walsh should have married me instead of the tool she got hitched to in the summer. I kid. I kid. I’ve liked Kate Walsh since first seeing her on “Grey’s Anatomy” and she’s a hot chick. Ok, enough of primetime TV and time to give you an update.

First we have an interesting development. NBC is outsourcing its halftime show for the USC-Notre Dame this Saturday to the NFL Network. I never thought I would see the day this would happen. That means the NFL Gameday crew of Rich Eisen, Deion Sanders and Steve Mariucci along with Marshall Faulk will get some prime exposure. John Consoli of Mediaweek says the halftime show is part of an increasing collaboration between NBC and the NFL Network.

Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune writes that Minnesota Vikings rookie RB Adrian Peterson will be the subject of an NFL Network show on Thursday.

Neil Best of Newsday writes in his Watchdog blog that the ratings of the ALCS are on the way up. Way up. The Sports Media Watch blog also looks at the ALCS ratings which beat Monday Night Football and drew well Tuesday night as well.

On the other hand, the ratings for the NLCS weren’t very good and Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball website reports that even in the home cities of Phoenix and Denver, the interest was low.

Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren was not happy about NBC’s overhead camera falling near his players and delaying action for 10 minutes during the Sunday Night Football game.

Last week, I linked to a story which stated that Time Warner Cable would not add the NHL Network to its system in Buffalo. Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News reports that it may be added after all.

If you scroll down in Bob Wolfley’s story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, you’ll notice that Wisconsin state legislators are appealing to Time Warner Cable and Charter Communication to put the NFL Network on their systems.

You can watch DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket package on a nice 42″ HDTV screen and free wi-fi at a bunch of Hyatt Hotels across the US. And here’s the web page from Hyatt and the list of participating hotels for the promotion.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell talks with Agent Scott Boras about Alex Rodriguez.

And the NFL is crowing and for good reason about the ratings for the Patriots-Cowboys game. Here’s the press release:

PATRIOTS-COWBOYS MOST WATCHED

SUNDAY REGULAR-SEASON GAME SINCE 1996

29.1 Million Fans Tune in – Most-Watched Show of TV Season

NFL Games Top Ratings in 23 NFL Markets

Sunday’s CBS doubleheader game featuring the New England Patriots (5-0) at the Dallas Cowboys (5-0) was viewed by 29.1 million fans – ranking as the most-watched regular season game on an NFL Sunday since Dallas-San Francisco on Nov. 10, 1996 (29.7 million viewers on FOX).

The New England-Dallas game topped the week’s second-most watched show by more than nine million viewers (CSI, 19.8 million viewers) and is the most-watched show of this TV season.

NFL games topped the local ratings in 23 of 30 NFL markets last week (Oct. 8-14). Against strong competition, NFL games ranked first 23 times vs. Major League Baseball’s ALCS and NLCS games, which topped the ratings in four NFL markets. In the 26 non-NFL markets metered by Nielsen Media Research, Patriots-Cowboys was the top-rated program in 17 (65 percent) of those markets last week.

NFL games compared favorably in local ratings to prime-time competition:

Program

# of NFL Markets Ranked #1

NFL Football

23

MLB Playoffs

4

CSI

2

Grey’s Anatomy

1

Following are the NFL markets where football was the top-rated program for the week of October 8-14:

Week of 10/8-14

HH

HH

RTG

Market

Game

Date

RTG

SHR

Rank

Buffalo*

Cowboys @ Bills

10/8/07

42.0

59

1

New Orleans

Saints @ Seahawks

10/14/07

40.5

53

1

Milwaukee

Redskins @ Packers

10/14/07

39.5

67

1

Dallas

Patriots @ Cowboys

10/14/07

36.4

63

1

Kansas City

Bengals @ Chiefs

10/14/07

32.7

61

1

Minneapolis

Vikings @ Bears

10/14/07

31.8

68

1

Tampa Bay

Titans @ Bucs

10/14/07

27.2

54

1

San Diego

Raiders @ Chargers

10/14/07

26.9

54

1

Washington, DC

Redskins @ Packers

10/14/07

26.5

58

1

Cincinnati

Bengals @ Chiefs

10/14/07

26.5

55

1

Nashville

Titans @ Bucs

10/14/07

26.3

50

1

Chicago

Vikings @ Bears

10/14/07

25.4

51

1

Philadelphia

Eagles @ Jets

10/14/07

25.0

53

1

Seattle

Saints @ Seahawks

10/14/07

24.9

42

1

Baltimore

Rams @ Ravens +

Bonus Coverage

10/14/07

23.5

44

1

Charlotte

Panthers @ Cardinals

10/14/07

23.0

40

1

Indianapolis

Patriots @ Cowboys

10/14/07

22.0

36

1

Jacksonville

Patriots @ Cowboys

10/14/07

19.5

32

1

Miami

Dolphins @ Browns

10/14/07

18.7

37

1

Phoenix

Panthers @ Cardinals

10/14/07

18.2

37

1

Houston

Patriots @ Cowboys

10/14/07

17.5

33

1

Atlanta

Patriots @ Cowboys

10/14/07

14.9

27

1

SF-Oakland

Raiders @ Chargers

10/14/07

12.5

34

1

* Local affiliate & ESPN combined

Source: NFL & Nielsen Media Research

Here’s the complete PAC 10 men’s basketball schedule.

I think that will do it for tonight. More links coming your way Thursday morning.

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