ABC Sports producer Nancy Stern, who obtained the network’s exclusive interview with figure skater Nancy Kerrigan just a few hours after she had been attacked, later noticed the depressing effect the Kerrigan incident had on the rest of field at the U.S. championships.
“The other skaters are absolutely terrified,” said Stern before Saturday’s women’s final. “They’re all really scared.”
The tone of Saturday night’s telecast, however, downplayed the fear factor. Instead, ABC’s announcing team of Julie Moran, Peggy Fleming and Dick Button put on a happy face, emphasizing how the attention paid to Kerrigan might help the other skaters perform better.
At the conclusion of the three-hour-plus telecast, Moran was forced to ad lib while awaiting the decision of the U.S. Olympic figure skating committee (which she kept calling “the International Olympic Committee”) on Kerrigan. Moran also said winner Tonya Harding was backstage “on the respirator.” (Harding uses an inhalator because of asthma).
But coordinating producer Curt Gowdy Jr. deserves high marks for staying on the air past the scheduled conclusion for the committee’s decision and a postperformance interview with Harding as well as for some terrific reaction shots, such as Michelle Kwan watching one of Harding’s jumps.
Kerrigan’s tale: Stern had chased around hotel corridors and through snowy city streets for the exclusive interview with Kerrigan that closed ABC’s Thursday night show.
“I’d developed a pretty good relationship” with the Kerrigan entourage over the last three years, Stern said. That relationship paid off when Kerrigan, just a few hours after the attack, showed up for an interview that her coach and her agent told Stern was doubtful. But it was a talk Kerrigan needed, Stern said.
“I was shocked by the interview,” Stern said, “because sometimes Nancy’s hard to talk to. Even though I’ve known Nancy for a long time, she’s not any easy interview. But (Thursday night) she was relaxed and calm. I think she was happy that the people at home were going to get to see that she was all right. Her family and her agent made a really good decision to have her do that.”
Cozy time: John Madden likely will accept ABC’s offer of $10 million for four years over Fox’s $16 million bid because Madden is more comfortable with ABC’s years of NFL experience rather than with Fox’s groundbreaking efforts. Also, a Monday night schedule would allow Madden to plan his entire year, rather than go month-to-month, as he did at CBS. An official Madden announcement isn’t expected until after his annual “All-Madden Team” CBS special Jan. 29. Fox chief Rupert Murdoch, notorious for getting what he wants, still could raise the ante-and create a Madden comfort zone-by making bids for Pat Summerall as well as producer Bob Stenner and director Sandy Grossman.
Whither Dan Dierdorf if Madden bumps him out of the “Monday Night Football” booth? Dierdorf’s options include staying at ABC for college football and boxing, or jumping to Fox to take what would have been Madden’s role-however, for less than Madden money. Whither Frank Gifford? He becomes strictly a “Monday Night Football” host, leaving the booth to Madden and Al Michaels.
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If Saturday’s wild-card playoff game was the last Gifford-Michaels-Dierdorf telecast, they went out on top. Except for a pregame audio glitch, the only flaw in the production was the inability to come up with a replay of Steelers cornerback D.J. Johnson’s flagrant foul.
Playoff pairings: For NBC, Marv Albert-Paul Maguire in Orchard Park, N.Y., and Dick Enberg-Bob Trumpy in Houston; for CBS, Summerall-Madden in San Francisco and Jim Nantz-Randy Cross in Irving, Texas. . . . As for the Mike Ditka-wrote-to-the-Falcons rumor, the ex-Bears coach (who was allowed to sidestep the Buddy Ryan punching incident) said on his NBC Sunday gig: “They haven’t contacted me and I haven’t contacted them.”
Random thoughts: If the sale of WGBO-Ch. 66 to Hispanic network Univision goes through, what happens to all those Raycom college basketball telecasts the station’s been showing in recent years? . . . Wasn’t it interesting that CBS, which will carry the Winter Olympics but is shut out of coverage of the figure skating trials by ABC, was the only network to interrupt the soaps Friday for live coverage of Kerrigan’s press conference?