NFL Network show for early birds
Filling 4 hours on ‘AM’ ‘easier than it sounds’
Originally, TV morning shows were meant to catch you up on the weather, world events and trendy barbecue tips.
But starting July 30, there will finally be a four-hour weekday morning show devoted strictly to the NFL — year-round.
Today, the league’s NFL Network will announce NFL AM, which will start at 6 a.m. ET.
Meaning, the Los Angeles-based show will start at 3 a.m. local time. So what are people in the middle of their nights going to say that newsy about the NFL in, say, May?
“It’s mind-boggling how much content is out there,” NFLN executive producer Eric Weinberger says. “How can you fill up four hours dedicated to the NFL every morning? It’s surprisingly easier than it sounds.”
Expect, obviously, lots of yak. Weinberger suggests the show, which will replace re-airs of NFLN’s Total Access news shows in the time slot, could talk to coaches “before they start their days.” There’ll be “heavy debate,” he says, and some elements might seem “like Fox & Friends meets a radio show.” Occasionally news might filter in from outside the NFL world — Weinberger suggests the show would have mentioned the Miami Heat won the NBA title — but with any non-football news “there’ll always be an effort to bring it back or compare it to the NFL.” Like maybe, would LeBron James be better as a tight end or linebacker? Weinberger suggests the show’s staff expects to get up at 11:30 p.m. local time. Still, NFLN managed to find recruits, including ex-NFL cornerback Eric Davis, who is a San Francisco 49ers radio game analyst, and Brian Webber, who has been an anchor and reporter for Fox Sports Network and will, Weinberger says, be NFL AM’s “quarterback.” Others include co-host Nicole Zaloumis, who worked for Comcast SportsNet New England, and Mark Kriegel, who has been a FoxSports.com columnist and will be cast as a sparring partner with NFLN reporter Steve Wyche in debates. But for now anyway, Weinberger says there won’t be a wacky weatherman.
All miked: In terms of electronic eavesdropping, ESPN’S College World Series might get the most surveillance in TV sports.
While ESPN uses 30 to 40 mikes for MLB games and 20 to 30 for NFL and NBA games, it deploys 94 mikes for the event’s stadium in Omaha.
The mikes, coordinating producer Tom McNeeley says, are “literally everywhere” — under home plate, on the umps and a total of 32 in the outfield walls meant to capture the sounds of spikes on the warning track and players and balls hitting the walls. Players and managers aren’t allowed to be miked, but ESPN has so many listening devices in dugouts, McNeeley says, “that if we wanted to hear everything a manager said, we could do it in a heartbeat.”
ESPN uses a five-second delay to bleep out cursing and sometimes plays audio for NCAA officials “and they can say if something isn’t offensive and then we can run it.” McNeeley says ESPN’s free rein grew over time: “The NCAA has been willing to let us put mikes wherever we want because there’s a trust factor.”
Spice rack: Showtime spokesman Chris Deblasio on Sunday had no comment on Antonio Tarver’s future as a Showtime boxing analyst and whether he’ll appear for his next scheduled assignment July 28. Tarver tested positive for an anabolic steroid in a sample taken before his June 2 fight against Lateef Kayode. In what might be the first time, a TV sports analyst has been taken off-air because of steroid use. Tarver didn’t work Showtime’s Saturday boxing coverage.