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:

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.