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ABC might be gone but not forgotten
By Jeremy Harness January 1, 2006 |
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ABC has left the game called Monday Night Football for cable TV for their own property-ESPN, which of course calls for that old battle cry "nothing is free" the tradition of MNF will be like nothing the one that NBC Sunday Night Football will be trying to get started up. For MNF to begin with on ESPN who paid $1.1 billion with a B for the rights does ESPN really think they can hype the prime time show like ABC attempted to do the last few years. ABC tried everything to get the fans back to watch the great prime time show but the show continued to get low ratings. If as some papers claim, ABC had good ratings with Monday Night Football why then would the network continue with the MN? After 555 MNF broadcasts over a span of 36 years being concluded as of last Monday Night the last game featuring the Patriots and Jets the ratings continued to show low numbers in the Nielsons. The match ups had teams like the Green Bay Packers who has tradition but no numbers and a record of 3-12 and in last place. Now there is no way the schedule makers could predict that at game time prior to making the schedule but they know the Packers have struggled last season and should not have put them on the schedule. Al Michaels the long time play-by-play announcer on Monday Night said during the last MNF broadcast on ABC "the game will continue but the era of ABC Monday Night Football comes to an end tonight." The memory and history of the games will always be in the in the consciences of everybody who whose watched MNF over the last 36 years. The first ones you think of when you think back on MNF on ABC is Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford, and Dandy Don Meredith. Those three broadcasters brought laughter, humor, insight, controversy and much more to talk about around the water cooler at the office on Tuesday morning. Howard was such a controversy with his New York lawyer lecturing that it unnerved some and the other half loved his brand of presenting the commentary and his yelling and hyping the NFL halftime highlights. Howard Cosell, for Monday Night Football brought the color, controversy and humor to the telecast. Meredith was noted for is singing "turn out the lights" in the fourth quarter of each game when the ball game was decided had excellent insight and knew his football and did his homework. Frank Gifford was the straight man and he was loved for his delivery of bringing the prime time game play by play between two analysts who truly brought true color to the telecast. Al Michaels was straight forward after becoming the play by play voice for the telecast he didn't get along with Boomer Esiason, his color analyst and that relationship lasted only one season. John Madden, what can you say about coach. He had all the tools he brought with him from working on the air with Pat Summer all from his former networks at FOX and CBS. Madden will continue to add the same color in his 2006 debut on NBC Sunday Night Football. "Obviously we're celebrating a 36 year legacy on ABC the end of an era but we're also celebrating the start of a new era with this great property on ESPN." said ESPN President George Bodenheimer. At first glance and Bodenheimer can relate to the nervousness part of getting over the ratings hump it will be a long time until ESPN can show some sort of ratings impact on MNF. If ESPN is to succeed, they will need to improve the scheduling on MN. Have packages that will work and match ups. It’s hard to predict a team's schedule but if you know the organization isn't making it work the previous season or the season before than why are you booking them on prime time when you know they can’t even sell out the stadium? The Packers situation is just one example of that. ESPN should have no problems selling its time packages to get things off the ground but ESPN will get time tested very fast especially coming out of the gate if they don't get the rating boost and the team match ups through the first or second seasons. Jeremy Harness covers Monday Night Football and will be back to cover Sunday Night Football next season. Catch J-Dogg on the radio on 1110 KLIB Sacramento. |
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