What a difference two years makes for NBC.
In 2005, USC’s last-second victory over Notre Dame might have been the best game of the year. NBC was the big winner; the telecast’s 6.7 rating was the highest for a regular-season college game in nine years at that point (one ratings point is worth more than 1 million homes).
Saturday the Trojans return to Notre Dame. Unfortunately for the Irish, most of the players they had in 2005 won’t be on hand.
NBC televises all Notre Dame home games and the network is definitely feeling the pain from the Fighting Irish’s 1-6 start. The first three telecasts are averaging a 2.1 rating, down 46 percent from the 3.9 average in 2006.
On tradition alone, a Notre Dame-USC game will do a respectable number. But the remainder of the home schedule looks bleak for NBC with Irish games against Navy, Air Force and Duke.
Things have become so bad that NBC itself has taken a shot at Notre Dame, albeit from the entertainment division. “Saturday Night Live” did a great spoof Saturday with a fake promo hyping NBC’s coverage of the Irish.
Behind a montage of Notre Dame blunders, the announcer said, “Only on NBC, because rather than showing exciting games from multiple conferences like other networks, we at NBC prefer to limit ourselves to a single, non-conference team that hasn’t won a bowl game since 1996. Why? Because it’s just more expensive that way.”
If Notre Dame was put off by the dig, no one is saying. An athletic department spokesman said he wasn’t aware of the phony promo and that there had been no talk about it on campus.
That’s another bad sign for NBC if the college kids aren’t watching “Saturday Night Live.”
“SNL” also was taking a shot at the sports division, but NBC Sports President Ken Schanzer took it in stride.
“The people at ‘Saturday Night Live’ are good friends of mine,” Schanzer said. “I never said anything to them, and they never said anything to me. The good news is that if they’re going to use you as a subject for their material, you have to be big enough so people recognize who you are.”
Given Notre Dame’s troubles this year, Schanzer has been asked whether NBC would continue its involvement with the school. He has a pat answer.
“We’d like to make a deal with Notre Dame forever,” Schanzer said.
As it is, NBC’s current deal runs through 2010 at $9 million per year. The network began its association with the school in 1991. Some years have been better than others, ranging from excellent to mediocre. This season should be rock bottom. Even then, Schanzer remains high on Notre Dame.
“Notre Dame is a premier entity at every level,” he said. “Even in down years, their brand is so strong. Everyone wants to be involved with them. This is a tough football season for them, but our instinct is that it will turn around. Once they get it right, I believe they will keep it right for a good while.”
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For Notre Dame fans who want to remember how good it was, nbcsports.com has a replay of the 2005 USC game.
And if you turn it off with seven seconds left, the Irish win 31-28.
More spoof
Speaking of “Saturday Night Live,” Jason Sudeikis did a terrific parody of Dane Cook doing those breathless “Actober” ads that have been running on the baseball telecasts. Watch them on youtube.com.
Wrong angle
Several viewers were baffled by a few bizarre camera angles during Fox’s coverage of the Bears-Vikings game Sunday. They offered a sideways view from behind the action. Initially, I thought Fox was having trouble with its 50-yard line camera. Turns out it was an experiment, a Fox spokesman said. Cameras were placed at the 35-yard line to see if that enabled viewers to see the play develop in a different way.
The verdict from here: Can the experiment. You completely lost perspective of where the ball was on the field.
Easy quiz
One guess which announcer will be on the call for Fox’s coverage of the Bears-Eagles game Sunday. Who else? Our old pal Dick Stockton. It will be the third straight Bears game Stockton has done on Fox. And with Detroit coming up on Oct. 28, look for the Stockton streak to continue.
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