Clearing A Lot of Press Releases From My Inbox

I have quite a few press releases in my e-mail inbox so it's time to clear them out so I can gain some room.

First, ABC/ESPN's Saturday night college football games are doing every well in the ratings.

Saturday Night Football and College Football Primetime Lead ABC and ESPN College Football Audience Increases

Texas at Texas Tech ABC’s Fifth Most-Viewed Regular Season Game Ever

ESPN is posting significant audience increases for its college football game coverage on ABC and ESPN over last year through the same point, led by the Saturday Night Football series on ABC and the weekly ESPN College Football Primetime.

ABC and Saturday Night Football

ESPN on ABC’s Saturday Night Football – the only weekly primetime college football series on broadcast television -- is averaging 5,444,000 households, based on a 4.8 rating through November 1, marking increases of 33 percent (vs. 4,097,000) and 33 percent (vs. 3.6) over last year at the same point. Additional highlights:

• The 39-33 Texas Tech victory over then-#1 Texas averaged a 8,590,000 households based on a 7.5 rating, making it the network’s fifth-most viewed regular-season college football game (and the seventh-highest rated) ever. It is the most-viewed and highest-rated game this year.

• The game is also the most-viewed and highest-rated Saturday Night Football telecast since November 25, 2006 – a 10,048,000 households and a 9.0 rating for a 44-24 USC victory over Notre Dame.

• For the second consecutive week, the Saturday Night Football matchup propelled ABC to win the night in households. In addition, ABC won the night in key demographics, including adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54.

Overall, college football on ABC is averaging 4,608,000 households and a 4.0 rating, marking increases of 14 percent (vs. 4,040,000) and 11 percent (vs. 3.6) over last year.

ESPN and College Football Primetime

ESPN’s College Football Primetime is averaging 2,591,000 households, based on a 2.7 rating through November 1, marking increases of 9 percent (vs. 2,369,000) and 8 percent (vs. 2.5) over last year at the same point.

Overall, ESPN is averaging 2,020,000 households and a 2.1 rating for its college football coverage, marking increases of 2 percent in households (vs. 1,973,000) and 5 percent in ratings (vs. 2.0) over last year.

Next, the NFL would love to have the Cowboys and Giants play every week.

COWBOYS-GIANTS ON FOX MOST-WATCHED SHOW OF WEEK

NFL GAMES TOP RATINGS IN 24 MARKETS

Last week’s FOX doubleheader game on Sunday (mostly Cowboys-Giants) was the most-watched program of the week (Oct. 27-Nov. 2) with 23.3 million viewers. An NFL game has been the week’s most-watched show on television eight times in the NFL season’s nine weeks.

NFL games also topped the local ratings in 24 of 30 markets last week. NFL games compared favorably in local ratings to prime-time competition:

Program	# of NFL Markets Ranked #1
NFL Football	24
College football	2
World Series	2
CSI	1
The Mentalist	1

Following are the NFL markets where football was the top-rated program for the week of October 27-Nov. 2:

Week of 10/27-11/2			HH	HH	RTG
Market	Game	Date	RTG	SHR	Rank
Nashville*	Colts @ Titans	10/27/08	46.2	61	1
Indianapolis	Patriots @ Colts + Postgame	11/2/08	40.9	61	1
Milwaukee	Packers @ Titans	11/2/08	35.7	64	1
Buffalo	Jets @ Bills	11/2/08	34.6	61	1
Dallas	Cowboys @ Giants	11/2/08	28.6	53	1
Cleveland	Ravens @ Browns	11/2/08	28.3	58	1
Denver	Dolphins @ Broncos	11/2/08	27.6	53	1
Boston	Patriots @ Colts	11/2/08	27.5	41	1
Cincinnati	Jaguars @ Bengals	11/2/08	26.6	52	1
Kansas City	Buccaneers @ Chiefs	11/2/08	26.5	56	1
Chicago	Lions @ Bears	11/2/08	26.1	53	1
Washington, DC	Cowboys @ Giants	11/2/08	24.2	41	1
Minneapolis	Texans @ Vikings	11/2/08	23.9	55	1
Baltimore	Ravens @ Browns	11/2/08	22.7	43	1
Seattle	Eagles @ Seahawks	11/2/08	22.6	46	1
Detroit	Lions @ Bears	11/2/08	21.0	44	1
New York	Cowboys @ Giants	11/2/08	18.9	33	1
Atlanta	Falcons @ Raiders	11/2/08	18.1	33	1
Miami	Dolphins @ Broncos	11/2/08	18.1	31	1
Charlotte	Cowboys @ Giants	11/2/08	17.6	28	1
New Orleans	Cowboys @ Giants	11/2/08	16.8	24	1
Phoenix	Cardinals @ Rams	11/2/08	16.7	37	1
San Diego	Patriots @ Colts + Postgame	11/2/08	15.0	24	1
SF-Oak	Patriots @ Colts + Postgame	11/2/08	12.2	20	1

* Local affiliate & ESPN combined

Source: NFL & Nielsen Media Research

We follow that press release on the Cowboys-Giants with an NBC Sports release on Sunday Night Football which will pit the Giants against NFC East arch-rival, Philadelphia Eagles.

“NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL” HAS FIERCE NFC EAST RIVALRY AS EAGLES HOST GIANTS

“When the Giants go to Philadelphia to play the Eagles something big is going to happen.” – SNF’s Madden

“They can run the ball with anybody in the history of the league.” “Football Night’s” Collinsworth

NEW YORK – Nov. 5, 2008 – "NBC Sunday Night Football," in its third season as the NFL's premier primetime package, heads to Philadelphia for a classic NFC East battle as the Eagles (5-3) host their rival the defending Super Bowl Champion New York Giants (7-1). Al Michaels (play-by-play), John Madden (analyst) and Andrea Kremer (sideline reporter) call the action. Coverage on NBC begins at 7 p.m. ET with "Football Night in America," with Bob Costas (host), Cris Collinsworth (co-host) Keith Olbermann (co-host), Dan Patrick (co-host), Jerome Bettis (analyst), Tiki Barber (analyst) and Peter King (reporter).

MADDEN ON MATCH-UP: "When the Giants have to go to Philadelphia to play the Eagles something big is going to happen.  Something tough is going to happen.  I believe in the Eagles.  I've done so many of their games over the years.  The Giants and the Eagles...to me that's just NFL football"

MICHAELS ON GIANTS-EAGLES: "Everyone believes in the Giants, they're not under anyone's radar anymore and anytime you get an NFC East matchup it's going to be a good one these days."

COLLINSWORTH ON GIANTS RUNNING GAME: "They can run the ball with anybody in the history of the league."

GIANTS-EAGLES IN PRIMETIME: Both the Giants and Eagles are making their second 2008 appearance on NBC.  In the opening game of the season, the Giants defeated the Redskins 16-7 and are now 2-4 overall since the NFL's premier primetime package moved to NBC in 2006. The Eagles are 1-5 overall on "Sunday Night Football," including a 24-20 loss to the Bears in Week 4. These two teams met on SNF last season in Week 4 with the Giants defeating the Eagles 16-3 at the Meadowlands.  The Giants have one more SNF game scheduled this season in Week 15 when they travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys (flex game).

GIANTS VS. EAGLES: This is the 153rd game in this rivalry that dates back to 1933.  The Giants hold an 81-68-2 edge including wins in both games last season.  The rivalry has been even since the 2000 season with both teams winning nine games including a playoff win for each team.

You want some more NFL related press releases? Sure you do. This deals with ESPN's features for its Sunday and Monday NFL pregame shows.

ESPN’s Weekend and Monday NFL Studio Features

ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown will preview the day’s matchups Sunday at 11 a.m. ET with Chris Berman and analysts Cris Carter, Mike Ditka, Tom Jackson and Keyshawn Johnson. Chris Mortensen will also provide headlines and league news, and Steve Young will contribute his weekly Sunday segment, “Young is Restless.”

The program will include reports from Rachel Nichols covering the Tennessee Titans at the Chicago Bears, Wendi Nix at the Bills – Patriots game, and Bob Holtzman covering the Indianapolis Colts at Pittsburgh Steelers game. Other highlights:

AFC East: Tom Brady Aftershock

In the first half of the first game this season, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady went down with a season-ending knee injury. That one play set off an aftershock in the AFC East – a division the Patriots have won and basically dominated for the past five seasons. Midway thru the 2008 season, the Patriots, Jets and Bills are tied at 5-3 and the Dolphins are 4-4. Countdown analysts look at how and why Brady’s injury has opened up the race for the AFC East title.

Rookie Running Backs Chris Johnson and Matt Forte

The class of 2008 NFL rookie running backs has been beyond impressive. At the forefront of this class are Titans’ Chris Johnson and Bears’ Matt Forte – the top two rookie rushers in the NFL, who are ranked 4^th and 7^th respectively in rushing this season. In their own words, the two rookies explain the challenges of their first NFL season and how they’ve been able to break through the “rookie wall.”

“Mayne Event:” Obama Staff Free Agent Draft

A fantasy football free agent draft is a good chance to bolster a team’s roster with a surprise player or two. What happens when you schedule that draft at the worst possible time, as president-elect Barack Obama found out when he accidentally scheduled the Obama Fantasy Football League draft on the same night as “Election Night.” In this week’s “Mayne Event,” Kenny Mayne was in Chicago at Obama’s campaign headquarters as staffers monitored election results while trying to make their free agent draft picks.

EA Sports Virtual Playbook: Eagles Blitz vs. Giants Quarterback Eli Manning

In EA Sports Virtual Playbook, Jackson breaks down how the Eagles exotic blitz schemes will try to pressure Eli Manning.

Ditka’s Doghouse

In his self-titled weekly segment, the erstwhile mercurial NFL head coach Mike Ditka sends an NFL player to “Ditka’s Doghouse,” much like he did to erring players during his coaching career.

Sunday Stretch

The early games are fast approaching and the players are heading out to the field for warmups. Countdown analysts will offer insights on the players to watch. And as kickoff approaches, the program will take a “Sunday Stretch” around the stadiums to preview some of the day’s key playmakers and storylines.

Start 'Em or Sit 'Em with Matthew Berry and Merril Hoge

ESPN’s fantasy football guru Matthew Berry and NFL analyst Merril Hoge preview which players to start or sit Sunday in “Start ‘Em or Sit ‘Em” including, weekly trends and sleepers in the NFL.

Berman, Carter, Ditka, Jackson and Johnson will pick the biggest games of the day and tell fans which players will make the biggest impact in NFL’s Week 10 action. The list of game picks will be posted on www.espn.com/sundaycountdown after the show.

MONDAY NIGHT COUNTDOWN, 7 P.M. ON ESPN

Monday Night Countdown with Berman, Carter, Ditka, Jackson, Johnson, and Mortensen (in Bristol) and Stuart Scott, Young and Emmitt Smith (at the MNF game in Glendale, Ariz.) will review Sunday’s games and preview Monday Night Football. The 90-minute, pre-game show will lead into the kickoff of the San Francisco 49ers at Arizona Cardinals game (8:30 p.m.), featuring Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser.

Reporters Michele Tafoya (49ers) and Suzy Kolber (Cardinals) and will cover the teams. Other highlights:

Mike Ditka and Mike Singletary: Reunite

Mike Singletary was the undisputed leader of the defense for Mike Ditka's 1985 Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears – one of the best defenses in NFL history. Two decades later, Singletary is the head coach of the 49ers and making headlines again. Countdown’s Ditka reunites with Singletary for a special one-on-one interview.

“Unmasked:” Larry Fitzgerald

The Arizona Cardinals have one of the most explosive pass offenses in the NFL and one of their most dangerous weapons is wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. In just 68 career games, Fitzgerald already has 39 touchdown receptions. In this week’s “Unmasked,” Countdown takes viewers inside the helmet to uncover what drives Fitzgerald to be one of the game’s greats.

ESPN the Magazine's “For Love or The Game:” Nate Clements

San Francisco 49ers cornerback Nate Clements will be the subject of Monday’s “For Love or The Game,” a Countdown segment that pairs a player or coach with a member of his family and a teammate to find out which person knows more about him. Clements’ wife, Melissa, and his teammate Takeo Spikes battle to see who really knows Clements better.

WEEKLY MONDAY NIGHT COUNTDOWN SEGMENTS

FIELD PASS – Countdown offers an all-access look at pre-game preparations as the players get ready for kickoff. Analysts will also breakdown the important storylines and key players before the game.

TEAMS AT 20 – Every 20 minutes reporters Tafoya and Kolber will update news from the teams in their preparations for the game, beginning with NFL Live at 3:30 p.m.

In addition, Monday Night Football's Tirico, Jaworski and Kornheiser will preview the night’s match-up, with Mortensen covering breaking news from around the league and the Countdown analysts offering their “Lead Pipe Lock” predictions for the game.

And our last NFL-related press release deals with Fox Sports crowing about ratings success for Fox NFL Sunday and the O.T.

FOX SPORTS IS LONE NFL NETWORK TO SHOW PREGAME, GAME, AND POSTGAME

RATINGS INCREASES AT SEASON'S MID-POINT

“One” might be the loneliest number according to Three Dog Night’s 1969 pop classic, but through the first nine weeks of the 2008 NFL season, being the “one” and only NFL broadcaster to boast higher pregame, game, postgame ratings and viewership figures than a year ago has FOX Sports feeling downright groovy.

The NFL’s No. 1 pregame show still has its edge. FOX NFL SUNDAY, coming off its two most-watched shows of the year (3.8 HH rating/5.5 million viewers in Week 8 and 3.4 HH/5.0 million in Week 9), is pacing ahead of last season by 3% in rating (3.1 vs. 3.0) and +1% in audience (4.5 vs. 4.46 million). Compared to its head-to-head rival on CBS, FOX NFL SUNDAY is out-pacing it in ’08 by 24% in rating (3.1 vs. 2.5) and 25% in audience (4.5 vs. 3.6 million), both improvements over a year ago through Week 9 (+15% in rating and +21% in audience).

FOX Sports’ national games are averaging 22.3 million viewers, currently the No. 1 program in all of television. Collectively, they’re pacing +6% over last year to date (21.0 million viewers), +2% better than CBS's 2008 national game average (21.9 million) and +39% better than NBC's Sunday Night Football (16.0 million). Overall, the NFL on FOX (all games) is averaging a 10.4 rating/22 share (16.5 million viewers), +5% over last season's 9.9/21 (15.6 million viewers).

Rounding out the NFL on FOX's mid-season ratings and viewership success is the network's critically-acclaimed NFL postgame show "THE OT." Sunday’s (11/2) edition of THE OT post-game show boasted 11.5 million viewers compared to 4.5 million for NBC's Football Night in America, a difference of 156%. Season to date, THE OT is attracting an audience of 11.7 million, +14% better than a year ago at this time (10.3 million), and +149% compared to FNA’s 4.7 million. (All comparisons are for the head-to-head 7:30-8:00 PM ET time period.)

Now let's move on from football. ESPN2 will carry the finals of the very last women's tennis tournament of the season, the WTA Championships from Qatar. Tennis Channel is carrying the prelims this week.

Tennis on ESPN2: WTA Championship

The top eight women tennis players are in Doha, Qatar, for the Sony Ericsson Championships -- the prestigious season-ending competition – with the final match televised Sunday, Nov. 9, at noon on ESPN2. Cliff Drysdale and Pam Shriver will be on the call.

The players in the round-robin tournament represent the sport’s best: U.S. Open winner Serena Williams, Wimbledon winner Venus Williams, World No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, French Open winner Ana Ivanovic, Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonereva.

ESPNU will kick off the ESPN Family of Networks coverage of college basketball starting next Monday.

ESPNU to Tip off ESPN’s Men’s College Basketball Coverage

ESPNU will tip off the ESPN network’s men's college basketball schedule Monday, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m., with a matchup between Presbyterian and Duke. The game will be one of 10 games from the 2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer and the first of approximately 1,100 men’s college basketball telecasts across ESPN’s multiple platforms.

The 24-hour college sports network will televise 14 of the first 17 games during ESPN’s first week of coverage and will air a record number of games this season, approximately 235. This year will also mark the first time ESPNU will televise games in high definition on ESPNU HD, launched August 28, 2008. Schedule:

Date Time (ET) Network Matchup

Mon., Nov. 10	7 p.m.	ESPNU/ESPNU HD	2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer – Regional Semifinal: Presbyterian at Duke (Durham)
Tue., Nov. 11	7 p.m.	ESPNU	2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer - Regional Semifinal: Michigan Tech at Michigan (Ann Arbor)
	9 p.m.	ESPNU/ESPNU HD	2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer - Regional Final (Durham)
Wed., Nov. 12	8 p.m.	ESPNU	2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer - Regional Final (Ann Arbor)
	10 p.m.	ESPNU	2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer - Regional Semifinal: Prairie View A&M at UCLA (Los Angeles)
Thu., Nov. 13	11 p.m.	ESPNU	2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer - Regional Final (Los Angeles)
Fri., Nov. 14	6 p.m.	ESPNU	O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic: Toledo at Florida (Gainesville)
	7:30 p.m.	ESPN360.com	Western Carolina at Connecticut
	9 p.m.	ESPN360.com	Detroit Mercy at Purdue
Sun., Nov. 16	2:15 p.m.	ESPNU	O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic: Bradley at Florida (Gainesville)
	4:30 p.m.	ESPNU/ ESPNU HD	Rhode Island at Duke
	6:30 p.m.	ESPNU	O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic: LeMoyne at Syracuse (Syracuse)
	8:30 p.m.	ESPNU	O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic: Missouri-Kansas City at Kansas (Lawrence)
Mon., Nov. 17	7 p.m.	ESPN2 / ESPN360.com	Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off - Regional Semifinal: Eastern Michigan at Purdue (West Lafayette)
	7 p.m.	ESPNU	Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off - Regional Semifinal: Loyola (Md.) at Boston College (Chestnut Hill)
	9 p.m.	ESPNU	Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off - Regional Semifinal: Mississippi Valley State at Oklahoma (Norman)
	11 p.m.	ESPNU	Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off - Regional Semifinal: Florida Atlantic at Arizona (Tucson)

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Turner Sports tells us that NBA TV will pick up the Detroit Pistons-Boston Celtics game this Sunday. That will be Allen Iverson's national debut this season while TNT will also have Allen Iverson next Thursday.

Allen Iverson Makes his TNT NBA Thursday Debut with the Pistons

Iverson’s national Pistons debut this Sun., November 9 on NBA TV vs. Celtics

Nine-time NBA All-Star Allen Iverson will make his TNT NBA Thursday debut with the Detroit Pistons on Thurs., November 13, 2008 at 10:30 p.m. ET. Iverson and his new teammates will visit the Golden State Warriors in the second game of a TNT NBA Thursday doubleheader. Kevin Harlan (play-by-play), Doug Collins (analyst) and Cheryl Miller (reporter) will call the action. The first game of the night will feature one of the players sent to Denver in exchange for Iverson, Chauncey Billups, and the new-look Nuggets traveling to Cleveland to face LeBron James and the Cavaliers at 8 p.m. ET. Marv Albert (play-by-play), Reggie Miller (analyst) and Mike Fratello (analyst) will be courtside with David Aldridge reporting. The night will conclude with the Emmy® award-winning studio show Inside the NBA with Ernie Johnson (host), Charles Barkley (analyst) and Kenny Smith (analyst). The Pistons @ Warriors game replaces the Dallas Mavericks @ Chicago Bulls match-up on the TNT NBA Thursday schedule.

Iverson will make his national television debut with the Pistons on NBA TV on Sun., November 9, 2008. Andre Aldridge (host) and Eric Snow (analyst) will provide studio coverage for the first home appearance of A.I. as the Pistons host Kevin Garnett and the Boston Celtics at 6 p.m. ET.

TNT NBA THURSDAY SCHEDULE:

Thu., November 13

8 p.m. NBA Tip-Off

Ernie Johnson (host), Charles Barkley (analyst) and Kenny Smith (analyst)

8:15 p.m. Denver Nuggets @ Cleveland Cavaliers

Announcers: Marv Albert (play-by-play), Reggie Miller (analyst), Mike Fratello (analyst) and David Aldridge (reporter)

10:30 p.m. Detroit Pistons @ Golden State Warriors

Announcers: Kevin Harlan (play-by-play), Doug Collins (analyst) and Craig Sager (reporter)

Post-game Inside the NBA

Ernie Johnson (host), Charles Barkley (analyst) and Kenny Smith (analyst)

TNT NBA THURSDAY UPCOMING SCHEDULE:

Thu., November 20

8 p.m. NBA Tip-Off

Ernie Johnson (host), Charles Barkley (analyst) and Kenny Smith (analyst)

8:15 p.m. Detroit Pistons @ Boston Celtics

Announcers: Marv Albert (play-by-play), Reggie Miller (analyst), Mike Fratello (analyst) and David Aldridge (reporter)

10:30 p.m. Los Angeles Lakers @ Phoenix Suns

Announcers: Kevin Harlan (play-by-play), Doug Collins (analyst) and Craig Sager (reporter)

Post-game Inside the NBA

Ernie Johnson (host), Charles Barkley (analyst) and Kenny Smith (analyst)

That's it. I can now delete these press releases from my inbox.