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MEDIA NOTEBOOK

FOX’S JEFF GORDON GEARS UP TO BROADCAST DAYTONA 500 FOR THE FIRST TIME

Jeff Gordon,

who left NASCAR last fall as a four-time Sprint Cup champion, again will be in the spotlight at the Daytona 500 on Sunday — this time from the broadcast booth. Gordon will join race announcer

and analysts and for the broadcast of the race at noon Sunday on Fox. Prerace coverage begins at 11 a.m.

Gordon admitted he had a lot to learn about broadcasting. He called his first post-retirement race, the Sprint Unlimited, last weekend.

“It’s a lot to take in,” Gordon said on a conference call Thursday. “I had no idea just how much goes into these broadcasts. That’s been the most impressive part to me ... It’s quite an overwhelming undertaking.”

In grading Gordon’s start, Joy gave him “a gentleman’s C” for his first race, but also added “on enthusiasm, A-plus, on effort and preparation, A-plus ... The short answer is we’re getting a lot more than we bargained for.”

• The Thunder will make its second ABC appearance of the season, hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers at 2:30 p.m. Sunday ( and reporter ABC’s “NBA Saturday Primetime” returns with the Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Clippers at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (

and reporter

• ESPN’s “College GameDay,” 10 a.m. Saturday, will make its first stop at Texas A&M in advance of the Aggies’ game with No. 14 Kentucky at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

• and will call the No. 3 Oklahoma at No. 10 West Virginia game at 3 p.m. Saturday on ESPN. Fraschilla will stick around in Morgantown, W.Va., to call the Mountaineers’ “Big Monday” matchup with No. 13 Iowa State at 8 p.m. Monday with and reporter

• Play 4Kay, celebrating its 10th year across ESPN networks, continues to highlight the Kay Yow Cancer Fund with five games across ESPN2 and ESPNU on Sunday. Also included in the initiative are two top-25 matchups Monday as part of ESPN2’s “Big Monday,” featuring No. 3 Notre Dame at No. 10 Florida State at 6 p.m. ( and Stephanie White), followed by No. 4 Baylor at No. 20 Oklahoma at 8 p.m. ( and

• HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” which returns at 9 p.m. Tuesday, includes interviews with retiring Lakers superstar and Golden State Warriors President who is openly gay.

• Nine-time Pro Bowl defensive back

is joining ESPN as a NFL analyst. He is expected to make his debut in July.

• CBS Sports’ lead play-by-play announcer for college football and iconic broadcaster of more than 20 sports, will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 37th annual Sports Emmy Awards on May 10 in New York.

• Through 50 telecasts, ESPN’s NBA regular season viewership is up 7 percent compared to last season, according to Nielsen. ESPN is averaging 1,727,000 viewers and a 1.1 U.S. household rating. ESPN’s Golden State-Oklahoma City telecast on Feb. 6, was the mostwatched regular-season NBA game on ESPN since 2014 (non-Christmas) with 3.2 million viewers and the mostwatched NBA regular-season game ever on WatchESPN.