When the National Football League announced its 1991 schedule, ABC officials were all smiles. For the Bears, those darling Bears, were slated for three ”Monday Night Football” matchups.
”We`re extremely happy,” said an ABC spokesman.
And why shouldn`t they be. Not only have the Bears been involved in eight of Monday night`s top 12 rated contests since 1985 (when the Bears burst back into national prominence on the way to the Super Bowl), but ”Monday Night Football” last year finished sixth among the 110 prime-time shows with a 17.2 average Nielsen rating. And that was without a Bears game.
In other words, ”Monday Night Football” is on a roll. And this year, the first two games (49ers-Giants, Redskins-Cowboys) were the top-rated shows in those weeks.
Now the Bears are about to make their first Monday night appearance in two years. Just how important are the Bears to ABC?
”It`s a combination of two things,” says David Downs, ABC Sports vice president for programming. ”There are a handful of cities that combine large market size-Chicago`s the third-largest market in the country and accounts for 3.4 percent of the country-with unbelievably rabid fans. New York, for instance, has a huge market size, but the typical Giants game barely equals the national rating. In Chicago, on the other hand, the overnight rating is enormous.”
The Sept. 15 Giants-Bears game is an example: While the contest had a 34.9 rating with a 65 share in Chicago, it got only a 15.8/40 in New York. Nationally, CBS` early game that day received a 13.4/33.
”If you have a rating in Chicago that`s double what your average is for
`Monday Night Football,` ” says Downs, it can add between a point and a point and a half to the national average. Thus, a 20 rating turns into a 21.4 just from the additional Chicago viewers.
”Couple that with the Bears being a recognizable and colorful team,”
More Top Picks Best Hammock Swings For Sensory Rooms
adds Downs, ”and that makes them an exceptional draw for us.”
That`s why, even in the down years, the networks love to telecast the Bears. But ABC is the only network (CBS has its own deal with the NFC; NBC with the AFC) that relies on the league for its schedule. It was the NFL, not ABC, that kept the Bears off ”Monday Night Football” last year.
”That hurt,” says Downs. ”We were surprised and disappointed (even though) they were coming off a bad season. If we had it to do over again, we would have appealed to the NFL to perhaps have them on early in the year.
”But the bottom line is the league hands us the schedule. It would be improper for me to suggest we have a whole lot of influence. On the other hand, it would be foolish for anyone to suggest that the league does not want to please its multimillion dollar network partners-not just us, but CBS and NBC.
”The league recognizes the value of making `Monday Night Football` a good product. The NFL TV business starts at the top and moves down. If
`Monday Night Football` is performing poorly in the ratings, and therefore commanding poorer advertising prices, those prices will directly affect what CBS and NBC can get. A healthy `Monday Night Football` can have a positive impact on the other two network packages.
”The NFL knows which games work best for us, and why. And they make a reasonable effort to accommodate us without hurting the other partners.”
– Setting the record straight: Not all of WGN Radio`s pregame Bears programming is drivel. Some of it is informative. It`s just that in a three-hour time span, the good stuff (like ”Pro Football Weekly” and coach Mike Ditka`s comments) gets lost in the muck (like ”Between the Lines” and fan interviews). . . . Chuck Swirsky gets his share of ribbing, but the WGN Radio sports director isn`t always the cheerleader, as listeners heard last Monday when he said Cubs manager Jim Essian shouldn`t be retained for 1992.
– De Paul makes three appearances on ABC`s six-week college basketball schedule in conjunction with Raycom: Feb. 9 at Marquette (regional), Feb. 16 vs. Louisville (regional) and Feb. 23 vs. Florida State (national). . . . Illinois is slated for three national appearances as part of CBS` new Big 10 basketball agreement: Jan. 4 (or 5, depending on NFL playoffs) vs. Connecticut, Jan. 11 at Michigan State and March 1 at Indiana.
– Weekend wonderings: It isn`t surprising Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray derided WGN-Ch. 9 partner Steve Stone as a ”company man” on the air the other night; it`s surprising anyone took the incident seriously. . . . Why does Chicago Cable TV come up with more excuses than a losing football coach when it comes time to wire your house, but not when it comes time to raise its rates? And wasn`t the Chicago Cable Commission supposed to oversee this nonsense?