Late Wednesday Night Links

I’ll give you a few links here. Just finished watching the latest edition of Ninja Warrior on G4 in which two Americans who qualified for the Sasuke tournament this past summer got to compete. Unfortunately, they could not advance past the first stage, falling into the muddy water at the Jumping Spider. They tried hard and they can take solace that 98 of the 100 participants failed to advance to the 2nd stage and the two that did advance to the next stage could not get past the Salmon Ladder. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can get a full explanation of this at the Wiki site. It’s pretty accurate.

To some links now.

Neil Best of Newsday tells us that Madison Square Garden prevented Knicks play-by-play man Gus Johnson from appearing on Steven A. Smith’s ESPN Radio program to comment on the Stephon Marbury situation. Neil also reviews Sports Unfiltered with Dennis Miller.

From TV Week, Chris Pursell reports that the NHL Network adds some programming through 20 American Hockey League games. And in his Pressbox blog, Chris writes that the NFL Network has two big games this season.

In news that could have a big effect on the cable industry, Linda Moss of Multichannel News reports that an arbitrator has ruled that an Ohio cable provider should be paying FSN Ohio less money for carriage because the channel lost the rights to the Cleveland Indians. Also from Multichannel, Linda Haugsted tells us that the NFL Network has begun using former 49er QB Joe Montana in a campaign to promote its eight game schedule.

Glen Dickson of Broadcasting & Cable magazine cites a Motorola study which states football fans prefer to watch games on HDTV rather than going to the games.

The Orbitcast satellite radio blog says XM Satellite Radio will be the sponsor for NHL All Star fan balloting.

Two things from the corporate offices of ESPN. First, we get a press release on the plans to cover the MLS Cup which airs Sunday on ABC. And here are plans for the “multi-platform” coverage for Ohio State-Michigan including classic games on ESPN Classic.

Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch looks at one of the first sports talk shows in the country that helped to shape how sports radio is done today, the Sports Huddle with Eddie Andelman, Mark Witkin and Jim Witkin which started in Boston back in the early 1970’s and airs today in a different incarnation.

The NFL says the Cowboys-Giants game on Fox this past Sunday was the most watched program of the week.

COWBOYS-GIANTS ON FOX MOST-WATCHED SHOW OF WEEK

NFL Games Account for 5 of 6 Most-Watched Shows of TV Season

NFL Games Top Ratings in 25 NFL Markets

Sunday’s FOX doubleheader game featuring the Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants was viewed by 25.1 million fans, ranking as the most-watched program of the week on television and posting a 15 percent larger audience than the week’s No. 2 show (CSI, 21.9 million viewers).

Since the NFL season kicked off on Sept. 6, NFL games account for five of the six most-watched programs on television:

Most-Watched Shows on TV, Sept. 6-Nov. 11, 2007

NFL games topped the local ratings in 25 of 30 NFL markets last week (Nov. 5-11).

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the turnaround of Alex Rodriguez to negotiate a new contract with the New York Yankees is a slap in the face to baseball uberskunk Scott Boras.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News wonders why the Sharks don’t like playing on TV.

Staying in the Bay Area, Dave Del Grande of the Oakland Tribune has some suggestions on how to improve the ratings for the final NASCAR Nextel Cup race this Sunday. Del Grande is wrong that the race will air on NBC, it airs on ABC. NBC no longer has the NASCAR rights.

Awful Announcing quotes an interview Sports Business Daily conducted with CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus in which he talks extensively about the NFL, the NFL Network and flex scheduling. Good stuff.

That’s going to do it for tonight. I’m going to bed. Back with more tomorrow.