Tuesday Night Update

As I get ready to go to bed after getting caught up in an Amazing Race game over at the Reality Fan Forum (don't ask), I'll provide you with some linkage.

Friend of Fang's Bites Darren Rovell of CNBC has some great posts. First one is on Big Brown, you remember the horse that lost the bid for horse racing's Triple Crown earlier this year. Darren talks with one of Big Brown's owners who says losing the Belmont cost them millions of dollars. Not just one or two million, much more than that. Darren also has a great holiday gift idea. Darren looks at the market for college bowl tickets in this sluggish economy. Finally, CNBC sports producer Tom Rotunno has an unlikely sports business success story.

Newsday's Neil Best says the Cowboys are one continuous soap opera. Neil also discusses HBO's excellent "Breaking The Huddle" documentary has has video of one of the subjects, Wilbur Hackett, Jr., a current SEC umpire who had to endure a lot of pressure in breaking the color barrier at Kentucky. Neil has a story in the regular edition of Newsday about the suspension of play by the Arena Football League. Neil says Sunday was the last day for "MSG, NY" on MSG Network.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has the NFL TV schedule in New York State's Capital Region for Week 16.

Laura Nachman breaks news regarding Comcast's plans for a new network and its sports programming which was to be carried on the now defunct CN8.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun says Maryland, both the University and the State played a significant role in the HBO college football documentary.

The Washington Post's Leonard Shapiro talks with Darryl Hill, the first African American to play football in the ACC and who was featured in the HBO "Breaking the Huddle" documentary.

Brian Lowry of Variety reviews HBO's Breaking The Huddle.

Dugan Arnett of the Lawrence (KS) Journal-World reports that the NFL Network is allowing a Kansas City station to pick up the Insight Bowl which involves Kansas.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News has CBS' college football analyst Gary Danielson ripping the Heisman voting process. Barry feels the Cowboys' Pro Bowl selections may lead to more of T.O. vs. ESPN's Ed Werder.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says the man who is credited for inventing instant replay has apparently invented "talking replay". Tom has the NFL TV schedule for SoCal this weekend. He also has this weekend's college bowl schedule on TV (well, the bowls are mostly on the ESPN family of networks). Tom previews Sports Illustrated's Year in Sports Media issue. Tom writes that the next test for 3-D sports may not be available in Los Angeles proper. Lastly from Tom, he tells us that Golf Channel will cover Tiger Woods' press conference live on Wednesday.

The Sports Media Watch was also busy today. First, here are the final weekend ratings. The SMW notes that NBA ratings are down in both Oklahoma City and Seattle. Paulsen says the ratings for the Heisman Trophy presentation on Saturday were down from last year.

Earlier today, Steve Lepore's Puck The Media blog reviewed Versus' Hockey Central postgame show. And Steve has some suggestions on how to fix Versus' awful production of what's supposed to be a comprehensive hockey show. And Steve has the last matchup of Round 1 in his Tournament of Announcers.

Gina Keating of Reuters says ESPN is streamlining its website in an effort get more ads in.

The Big Lead says Yahoo! Sports continues to lead ESPN.com in unique visits in November.

Nick Harris, writing in The Independent in the UK, writes that with ESPN bidding for its TV rights, the English Premier League appears to be "recession-proof".

I'll end it there.