- Image by life is good (pete) via Flickr
This is what I’m thinking:
* Can Ryan Fitzpatrick bring Buffalo Bills fans back in their seats next to the TV?
The switch at quarterback from Trent Edwards to Fitzpatrick may just be the spark needed – for Channel 4.
Because last week’s lopsided loss in Green Bay had “only” a 27.9 rating on the CBS affiliate.
While a 27.9 rating – representing 27.9 percent of area households — makes it the highest-rated program of the week in Western New York, it is about 20 percent lower than the rating for the Bills home opener against Miami.
That suggests the encouragement Bills fans received in the preseason when ratings were high has disappeared with the lack of regular season offensive production.
The New England game Sunday should be a bounce back game for Channel 4 – provided it is competitive. Kevin Harlan and Solomon Wilcots will call the game for CBS.
The Bills-Jets game on Sunday Oct. 3 will bring Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf to Ralph Wilson Stadium. Gus Johnson and Steve Tasker will do the Oct. 10 home game against Jacksonville.
* You may have read that all but one of the 82 regular season Buffalo Sabres games will be carried in high definition on MSG. Unfortunately that bit of good news doesn’t extend to customers of FiOS. Cablevision, which owns MSG, only will sell the standard definition feed to its competitor.
* I just got a release about the first “Ice Issue” from ESPN The Magazine, which offers a preview of the upcoming NHL season.
According to the release, the Mag is doing a feature on Chicago Black Hawks star Patrick Kane (see above). This is its summary of the article about the South Buffalo native: “Despite his rise to hockey’s pinnacle (he) is just as grounded as he was before Chicago made him the first pick of the 2007 NHL draft.” With that summary, it will be interesting to see how Kane’s celebrated off-ice mistakes are portrayed.
* Mark Preisler, a Nichols School graduate, former Channel 4 producer and the current coordinating producer at ESPN, is now an author. He and ESPN NFL analyst Mark Schlerth wrote “”Ready, Set, Play.” In an email, Preisler wrote the book features interviews “with some of the world’s greatest sports stars about their childhoods, relationships with their parents, and how they parent their kids.”
Alan Pergament was the television critic for The Buffalo News for 28 years. He currently is an adjunct professor at Buffalo State College and Medaille College, teaching courses in communications. He also writes a monthly column on the media for Buffalo Spree magazine.
