Dianna Agron: "Glee" Future Cloudy

Today’s guest media critic is Phil Rumore, the president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation.

In a telephone interview on Channel 2’s late news Tuesday night, Rumore was highly critical of a lengthy CNN report on the cosmetic surgery rider in medical insurance contracts for Buffalo teachers.

“It is really pathetic that CNN is going to rehash a 1 and a half year old story as if there is something momentous about this,” said Rumore, who appeared in the cable piece.

I’m with Rumore’s hard-hitting analysis. The CNN report, which emphasized the rider over the years that the teachers haven’t had a new contract, was old news to Western New Yorkers but new to most of the nation.

The national attention led Channel 2 to lead its 11 p.m. newscast with a story by reporter Michael Wooten in which he acknowledged that a teacher criticized the station for giving the old news such attention.

At least Wooten’s story updated the issue, with Rumore suggesting that his better relationship with the current school leadership could be helpful in trading the rider for discussions about a new contract.

The story belonged on the newscast because of the national attention. It didn’t belong as the lead since there wasn’t much new about it.

While we’re on school issues, it is a good time to deal with what happened on Tuesday’s episode of “Glee.” Spoiler alert. If you don’t want to know what happened, stop reading now.

I’ve lost interest this season in the intentionally preposterous series, but turned to the final 10 minutes just in time to see one of the lead characters, Quinn (Dianna Agron), becoming involved in a car accident after she was texting about being late to Rachel’s (Lea Michele) wedding to Finn (Cory Monteith). Her car appeared to be hit by a pickup truck and then the screen faded to black.

If the scene disturbed regular “Glee” viewers, then it did its job. The writers were sending a message to teens about the dangers of texting while driving, a message that can’t be repeated often enough.

Whether Quinn lives or dies and whether the accident delays the foolishly premature teenage marriage undoubtedly will be debated online until April 10 when the next original episode of “Glee” airs. There has been speculation online about Quinn dying for more than a year and there even is a You Tube video about how it will play out made by a fan of the show.

The show’s producers have said they want to cut the cast of the series next year, which could add to the speculation that she is going to die. Earlier in the season, Quinn was inexplicably admitted to Yale so she could leave the show that way, too.

I haven’t received a release from Channel 4 about the New York State Emmy nominations, but I was able to go online and see that the station earned five nominations, less than half the 12 that Channel 2 received. That explains Channel 2’s promos that it has earned more than twice as nominations as any local station. Channel 7 didn’t get any as far as I could read.

In the Emmy list, all of the nominations were credited to Channel 4 News Director Joe Schlaerth rather than the reporter or photographer involved. I was able to learn that one of the stories was reported by Lorey Schultz, who now works for Mayor Brown.  

As a Buffalo Bills season ticket-holder, I initially thought the local stations missed the point Tuesday after the team announced it was holding the line on prices. The team also announced that a preseason game that had been scheduled for Toronto will now be played in Buffalo.

After further review, I was the one who missed something. While the Toronto preseason game is being moved to the Ralph, the Bills will have two home preseason games in 2012 as they did in 2011 since the team announced a nine-game 2012 schedule at the Ralph. That would be seven regular seasons games and two preseason games.

I apologize for my confusion. My math was correct on one thing – 22.2 percent of the home games season ticketholders pay for will be meaningless (that’s assuming the regular season games will all be meaningful). The ideal situation for season ticket sales would be if the Bills played one preseason game at the Ralph and one in Toronto. If that had happened, the Bills probably could have raised season ticket prices without complaint.  

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Katharine McPhee

This is what I’m thinking after long holiday weekend:

It was easy to laugh at how easy Channel 2 – the station that stands up for us – accepted a statement by  Time Warner Cable Monday that there won’t be any rate hike resulting from the recent deal with MSG that brought the Buffalo Sabres back on the cable system.

Channel 2 “reported” that a TWC spokesman said the cable system isn’t planning a rate hike because subscribers aren’t charged by the channel.

Puh-lease. As I have written before, TWC leaders aren’t stupid. They just implemented a rate hate a few months ago. They aren’t going to announce another one now.

Rate hikes typically are announced at the end of the year, about a month after subscribers receive a notice in the mail about it. You’d have to believe in the Easter Bunny to think that one won’t be coming by next January. And the notice probably won’t blame MSG, but say the increase is due to “increased programming costs.”

Inquiring minds wanted to know how long TWC would continue to carry the sports networks it has been giving customers when MSG was off the system. It announced late Monday that the free preview of the Time Warner Cable Sports Pass will continue until the end of this month. Then subscribers will have until March 18 to keep the package for three months for $2.99 a month. That’s about a 50 percent discount for those subscribers who got hooked on NBA TV, the NHL Network and several other sports channels.

Speaking of Channel 2, it has been running a promo claiming it has earned 12 New York State Emmy nominations and that is more than twice the number any of its competitors have received. It doesn’t have time in the promo to note which reporters and which stories were nominated. I won’t list them all, but it is notable that John Beard was nominated for a feature news story called “Living Legend” about former Channel 7 anchor Irv Weinstein. That has to hurt over at 7 Broadcast Plaza.

Some other notable nominations include: Aaron Saykin for a human interest story about Jason McElwain (J-Mac) five years after the high-functioning autistic basketball manager went into a Greece Athena High School game,started hitting shot after shot and his story became a national sensation; Scott Brown with four nominations, include one for a story about a paralympian; and Michael Wooten for a story about fracking.

Finally, here’s one that may surprise blog readers who have criticized anchor Jodi Johnston. She was nominated in the category of on-camera talent.

It was no contest locally Sunday when the Buffalo Sabres went up against Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks on national TV. The Sabres’ 6-2 win over Pittsburgh at 12:30 p.m. had an 11.1 rating on Channel 2, the NBC affiliate. The Knicks’ 104-97 win over Dallas had a 2.8 rating on Channel 7, the local ABC affiliate. You might have thought that Lin would get more love here since he essentially settled the TWC-MSG dispute.

It looks like it was too early to declare NBC’s “Smash” a local hit. The third installment of the series starring Katharine McPhee took about a 30 percent drop Monday to a 5.6 on Channel 2 and lost its time slot for a first time to CBS’ “Hawaii 5-0.”  The 5.6 rating is still decent here by 10 p.m. standards on Channel 2. We’ll see next week if the President Day’s holiday had anything to do with the drop or if viewers are just bailing.

Over the weekend, I had time to read a replay of the chat that Buffalo News editor Margaret Sullivan had with readers. A few things caught my eye. A reader named Kate praised Sullivan’s new entry in the world of blogging but criticized the title of it – “SulliView.”

“I really like your daily comments except for one thing–the name,” she wrote in the chat. “I do not know Jerry Sullivan but I think everyone would agree that he has claim on the name Sully/Sulli. Can you find another name for your terrific online column?”

The editor responded: “Thanks, Kate. There is a little confusion over ‘Sully on Sports,’ which is my friend and colleague Jerry Sullivan’s blog, and ‘SulliView,’ which is my blog. I’m pretty attached to my name, so I hope people can figure it out.”

I first took a look at “SulliView” a few weeks ago thinking it was Jerry Sullivan’s blog because Sully is his nickname, and I never considered an editor running a newspaper in these difficult times would have time to spend even a few minutes of her day blogging about “adventures in media and pop culture.”

So the title is confusing. I doubt anyone at The News would advise the editor to change the title. So I guess it is up to me to share my view. In my decades at the Buffalo News, I never heard anyone call Margaret Sullivan “Sully” or “Sulli.” However, I understand that she is “pretty attached” to her name.

But that’s not the issue. If she wants to clear up any confusion and keep her name on her blog she could change the name of it to “Margaret Sullivan’s View.” It isn’t as catchy but it also isn’t as confusing. It also would be a nice thing to do for her friend.

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Kevin Costner (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

I didn’t want to give up four hours of my life to celebrate Whitney Houston’s life.

My goal Saturday was to ignore her funeral or homegoing and live my life.

But the social media wouldn’t let me do it. However, the goodbye to Houston made me think about how our lives have changed since she starred with Kevin Costner in the 20 years since the premiere of “The Bodyguard.”

You might consider having the old Supremes song “Reflections” (of the way life used to  be) play in the background as you read this.

Shortly after Costner spoke at the funeral, I received several tweets and Facebook messages about how moving, funny and emotional the actor was before he received a standing ovation in the New Jersey church. One local newsman on one of the social network sites even revealed his man-crush for Costner in terms more sexual than that.

So I decided to look for Costner’s speech on my cell phone while watching a college basketball game. Sure enough, the speech of more 17 minutes long was almost immediately posted online. I watched it on my phone and agreed that it was very touching. I suggest you go to YouTube to view it in its entirety because the network news sound bites don’t do it justice.

That night, I went to my best friend’s house for dinner. During the course of dinner conversation with his wife and another friend, the discussion turned to the Oscar-nominated movies we all had seen. I repeated that I thought “Hugo” deserved to be best picture over the two pictures that experts say are more likely to win — “The Artist” and “The Descendants.”

I’ve revealed my man-crush for George Clooney over the years, but I just don’t think that his little film, “The Descendants,” is best picture worthy. I also enjoyed “The Artist.” That was partly because it seemed to follow an old story my late father told me as a child about a silent film star named John Gilbert, whose career went downhill after the invention of talkies.

After the discussion of current films, my friend remarked he wished that he could see “The Bodyguard” now. I joked it probably would be on every cable channel within a few days.

Then I went home. After watching the best part of “Saturday Night Live” — Weekend Update with Amy Poehler back for one night with Seth Meyers – I went dial hopping.

Sure enough, I ran into “The Bodyguard” on cable’s Lifetime. It was about 12:30 a.m. and I was tired from watching too much basketball. I briefly thought of staying up and watching the entire movie until its scheduled end at 3 a.m. Then I remembered that I was 20 years older now — just like Costner. And then I remembered about the invention of the DVR.

I watched until 1 a.m., then DVRed the final two hours of what became a three-hour film because of all the commercials that Lifetime added. I awoke Sunday planning to finish watching the film. I watched it for 30 minutes and then got a call from a friend to have breakfast.

After breakfast, I came home in the afternoon to watch the latest Broadway star – the New York Knicks’ Jeremy Lin – light it up in a win over Dallas that added to his growing legend.

Then back to “The Bodyguard.” I thought the only thing I remembered about the film from 20 years ago was how beautiful Houston looked and sounded in the film. But I saw every plot twist coming, either because they were so predictable or because they were as deep in my memory as Houston’s beauty.

It was still as enjoyable to watch as it was predictable. I even found some humor in it. Costner’s character often needed to go to a pay phone or a regular phone in the pre-cellphone era.  And there was one surprise. I forgot that Richard Schiff, who played Toby on “The West Wing,” had a minor role in it.

In the end, it was time for reflection. I realized that thanks to the invention of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, the cellphone and the DVR, I devoted about four hours to Houston’s homegoing after all.

pergament@msn.com

Gov. Cuomo

It’s time for The Interpreter to make sense of the Time Warner Cable deal with Madison Square Garden Network, which has the same chairman as the company that owns  the New York Knicks and New York Rangers. Here are some quick thoughts:

I awoke this morning in time to hear Channel 2 morning anchor Michael Wooten tell viewers “we don’t know yet if this will lead to a rate hike.”

I wanted to shout back, “yes, we do.”

It will come. If history is a guide, the rate hike won’t be announced until the end of the year and subscribers won’t be told it is the result of a specific deal but rather “due to increased programming costs.”

Cable rate hikes aren’t announced immediately after deals are made. Besides, TWC just announced one a few months ago. It isn’t that stupid to announce another one so quickly.

Cheers to Gov. Cuomo, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and NBA Commish David Stern for getting the two sides together. But I’d be more impressed if the guv made one of the terms of the deal be the end of the secrecy behind the pact so subscribers will be told how much more TWC has to pay to carry MSG for its coverage of Buffalo Sabres, Knicks, Rangers, New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils games. (WNYers only get to see the Sabres and Knicks because of blackout rules).

I had to laugh at the sentence in the TWC deal that said terms weren’t announced. They almost never are. But eventually, sometimes a cable news publication gets the info from inside sources and it filters down to the mainstream press.

Like everything in sports, this deal was all about money. MSG and the Knicks had a lot of money to gain in advertising and merchandise sale because of the Linsanity surrounding Knick guard Jeremy Lin and it isn’t sure how long he will stay hot. TWC undoubtedly realized that it could lose many more subscribers downstate because it wasn’t carrying the Knicks during Linsanity. So both sides had more financial reasons in NYC to make a deal. As I’ve written many times before, this dispute was all about NYC.

I wonder if I was the only one in Western New York who chose to watch Lin and the Knicks get upset by the lowly New Orleans Hornets Friday night instead of watching the Sabres shootout loss to Montreal after the deal was made. I also wonder how many local fans were aware the Knicks game was on high definition Channel 730 while the Sabres were on Channel 700 and Channel 28. I did switch back-and-forth between the games during the shootout. The Knicks and the Sabres’ losses were a disappointment to the feel-good story of a deal being made.

I bet at least five TWC subscribers are thrilled that the deal includes the music channel Fuse. I hope that doesn’t cost subscribers more than a nickel of the rate hike that inevitably will arrive at the end of the year.

pergament@msn.com

Jeremy Lin

 You may recall the headline of my Dec. 27 blog four days before MSG disappeared from Time Warner Cable in a contract dispute: “Sabre Fans Should Root for Knicks.”

My point was that the dispute was all about the New York City market since it has about seven times as many TWC subscribers as the Western New York market.

At the time, I thought former Syracuse University star Carmelo Anthony would be the key player for the Knicks in forcing the two sides to make a deal.

Apparently overnight sensation Jeremy Lin was able to do what the injured Melo couldn’t do and force the two sides to make an agreement.

The New York Times said today that a deal has been made to get the Knicks, the Sabres, the Rangers, the New York Islanders and the New Jersey Devils back on TWC via MSG. (Only the Knicks and Sabres air here because of blackout rules.)

Undoubtedly, Linmania or Linsanity had a lot to do with it. Cablevision, which owns MSG and the Knicks, certainly wanted the hot Knicks to get the viewership they deserve after years in which they were about as exciting as the Bills. And TWC didn’t want to alienate its fans any further by keeping them off the air.

However, the devil can be in the details. We don’t know yet (and may never know) how much TWC is going to pay MSG per subscriber. Of course, the increase inevitably will be passed on to subscribers in some way.

The deal comes two days before the Knicks and Sabres are scheduled to compete on national television. The Knicks game with Dallas on ABC and the Sabres game with Pittsburgh on NBC both are being played around the same time Sunday afternoon.

The Sabres are expected to have a much higher local rating on Channel 2, but it will be interesting to see if Linmania makes the rating for the basketball game on Channel 7 competitive.

You can hear more of my thoughts on WBEN radio, which just interviewed me about the apparent end of the cable dispute.

pergament@msn.com

Strong Sweeps Start

Channel 4’s new anchor Diana Fairbanks sent out a panoramic view of the station’s new high definition set this week to her social media followers.

The view apparently hasn’t impressed Channel 4’s viewers so much during the first two weeks of the February sweeps.

The new set (which got big play in a promotional Buffalo News story) and the new anchor getting high grades haven’t helped Channel 4 News in its battle with Channel 2 for local news supremacy in the early evening hours.

And the Amelia Segal for Mike Cejka weather trade  in the morning isn’t helping Channel 4’s “Wake Up,” either.

Channel 2 News has much more to celebrate in the first two weeks than its rival, which was expected to gain some viewers in February now that it entered the 21st Century with a new set and added an impressive anchor in Fairbanks.

With two weeks left in the sweeps, Channel 2 ‘s “Daybreak” leads by a wider margin from a year ago over Channel 4’s “Wake Up” ago at 6 a.m.  Channel 2 also now owns a solid lead from 5 p.m. through 6:30 p.m. over Channel 4, which was No.1 there last February when programs in Oprah Winfrey’s final season provided the lead-in.

At 5 p.m, Channel 2’s lead is 9.3-7.8. At 5:30 p.m., Channel 2’s lead over the first newscast anchored by Fairbanks is 10.0-7.6. At 6 p.m., Channel 2 leads 9.7-8.5. A year ago, Channel 4 won all three newscasts. (For those who wonder, Channel 7 is a poor third in all time slots).

The race at 10 p.m. between Channel 4’s 10 O’Clock News on WNLO-TV and Channel 2’s “10 at 10” on WNYO is even much tighter than it was a year ago. That’s where Fairbanks competes with former Channel 4 anchor Melissa Holmes, who now is at Channel 2. The race has tightened because of WNLO declines from a year ago, not because of audience gains at WNYO.

A year ago, Channel 4 on WNLO won by a 6.1-1.9 margin over Channel 2 on WNYO for the entire sweeps period. In the first two weeks of this sweeps period Channel 4 has lost more than a point of its lead and wins 4.7-1.7.

Of course, Buffalo is a news market that is notorious for being slow to accept any changes so it isn’t that surprising that Fairbanks hasn’t become as instantly popular with viewers as she has become with critics.

This February also has been unusually calm weather-wise, which may have something to do with the diminished news audiences compared to a year ago.

Channel 4 is trying to promote Fairbanks, using her in promos with main anchors Don Postles and Jacquie Walker and even having her read promos for the morning “Wake Up” show that she doesn’t appear on.

“Wake Up” needs the promotional help. After closing to win two-tenths of a point last February, it is behind by almost a full point this February.

The only newscast besides 10 p.m. where Channel 4 still dominates is at 11 p.m., where it holds a commanding lead over Channel 2. Of course, Channel 4 has a big lead-in advantage because of the popularity of CBS’ 10 p.m. shows. NBC’s 10 p.m. shows don’t help Channel 2 much at all.

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Brian Higgins: Promoted

I’m sure that many people watching the plea of essayist Bill Flanagan on CBS’ “Sunday Morning” for the media to leave Whitney Houston alone after the eulogies stopped Sunday were moved by the idea.

Flanagan probably would have received a standing ovation in many homes after he told viewers “let’s ignore the gossip press and scandal media that will try to exploit her memory now that she can’t defend herself.”

After it was over, my immediate thoughts were “well done” and “fat chance.”

There is money to be made from the exploitation of Houston and the gossip press and scandal media aren’t the only ones that realize that. The network morning shows and prime time shows realize it as well. So stay tuned for nightly specials in time slots where the networks have trouble getting viewers.

One of my South Buffalo spies alerted me to the unscheduled appearance of Congressman Brian Higgins on Tuesday’s edition of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” During his monologue, Leno noted that taxpayers pay for Senate haircuts and then aired footage of a series of politicians with bad haircuts. The first politician with a bad hair day was – you guessed it – Higgins, whose uncontrollable locks were on display. Oh, well, at Leno gave Higgins a promotion. The bit suggested he was a senator instead of a congressman. The footage of Higgins, Barney Frank and others is available on the internet. 

I’ll give fans of this season’s favorite guilty pleasure, ABC’s “Revenge” time to catch up with Wednesday’s episode. Let’s just say it ended with a terrific twist that I should have seen coming well before I did in the final 15-20 minutes. More on it in a future blog – perhaps even Friday – after I give readers a day to see it.

You had to love the way ESPN tried to spin removing Lackawanna native Ron Jaworski from the Monday Night Football booth. It sent out a release announcing he signed a five-year deal that downplayed that he was leaving MNF. Of course, his departure from the three-man booth was the bigger story. Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden now will go it alone. As I said Wednesday, Gruden and Jaws both are quarterback experts so it was understandable that one of them would leave the booth. However, you might have expected a defensive-minded analyst to join Gruden. Since Gruden’s name comes up every time there is a NFL coaching opening, one would assume ESPN has some kind of assurance that he isn’t going back to coaching anytime soon.

CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley committed an unforced turnover when he confused baseball and basketball after Wednesday’s newscast ran a piece on New York Knicks sensation and Harvard grad Jeremy Lin. Pelley said only four Harvard grads have played pro baseball (he meant basketball), with twice as many Harvard grads making it to the  presidency than the NBA.

Speaking of Linmania, the Knicks game with the Dallas Mavericks at 1 p.m. Sunday is on Channel 7, the local ABC affiliate. It goes one-on-one with a 12:30 p.m. Buffalo Sabres game with Pittsburgh Sunday on Channel 2, the NBC affiliate. I imagine a lot of dial switching will be going on locally. Of course, the Knicks and Sabres are both off of local cable because of the TWC-MSG dispute. It is just our luck that their network telecasts are on at the same time.  

pergament@msn. com 

Ron Jaworski: Off of MNF

The NBC musical drama “Smash” took a much bigger hit nationally than locally Monday when its second episode ran.

“Smash” had an 8.1 rating on Channel 2 Monday, down only slightly from the 8.4 the premiere had locally on the Monday after the Super Bowl.

Nationally, “Smash” lost a quarter of its audience Monday from the premiere. But that’s a bit deceptive because the premiere audience was inflated by the viewership it had in the first 15 minutes. The decline wasn’t that much compared to the final 15 minutes of the premiere. “Smash” still won its time slot nationally. That’s a good sign for NBC. Channel 2 rarely gets anything in prime time in the range of an 8 rating.

Talk about timing. Monday’s episode of “Glee” featured Amber Riley, who plays Mercedes, singing the song that Whitney Houston made famous, “I Will Always Love You.”

Sorry to see that Lackawanna’s Ron Jaworski will be off Monday Night Football next season now that ESPN has decided to go with Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden on a two-man team. Jaws and Gruden are both quarterback experts so there was duplication. However, you might have thought that ESPN could have found a defensive-minded analyst to pair with Gruden, who delivers far too many superlatives every game. Jaworski will be busy anyway next season after signing a five-year extension to appear on several football related ESPN program.

Buffalo native David Milch, the creator of the HBO horse racing series, “Luck,” had to be pleased by the endorsement by Tony Kornheiser Tuesday on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption. “At the risk of sounding stupid,” Kornheiser said in between a commercial break, “‘Luck’ may be the greatest show ever made. It is great. It is great.”

I loved the Buffalo News column Bruce Andriatch wrote Monday about listening to radio broadcasts of Buffalo Sabres games during the Time Warner-MSG dispute that is keeping the games off of TV. Andriatch is one of my favorite columnists at the paper.

Rating update: The preliminary 11.4 rating for the Sabres game with Tampa Saturday on Channel 2 rose to a 12.6 rating after the final numbers came in. The rating in Rochester won’t arrive for a while since Rochester isn’t a metered market.

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Stephen Colbert

This is what I’m thinking:

If you ask me, the Public Service Commission should forget about trying to pass a rule or a law to solve future cable TV stalemates like the current one between Time Warner Cable and the owner of the Madison Square Garden Network and do something easier to solve that is more important to consumers.

I’m talking about the cable secrecy that allows systems to avoid telling consumers how much they pay to get channels like MSG, ESPN, CNN, Fox News and hundreds more.

After the battle between TWC and MSG has gone on for several weeks, we still don’t know which company is telling the truth about what TWC had been charged for the channel that carries the New York Knicks and Buffalo Sabres and what is being asked for now. Of course, cable systems pass on whatever they are being charged to the consumer or subscriber.

Consumers get to know what they pay for practically everything else these days. So why not be told what they pay for cable channels? If it isn’t the role of the PSC to propose that law, surely some other state or national body could be responsible. There ought to be a law. I’m just sayin’.

WGR radio host Mike Schopp’s distaste for the National Basketball Association is well-known, but I almost drove off the road Monday afternoon when he said he didn’t want to listen to national host Colin Cowherd talk about New York Knick star Jeremy Lin because he has no interest in the NBA or talking about it. Shortly after that, Schopp said he did want to talk about the Grammys and the death of Whitney Houston. Sure, that’s just what we want from a sports talk host.

I didn’t stay around for Schopp’s assessment of the Grammys. Lin’s story transcends sports and gives hope to every player who never made it off the bench or was told he wasn’t good enough. On Monday night, Stephen Colbert’s addressed Linsanity on his cable comedy show. He said the media is saying Lin came out of nowhere, adding “which is my name for Harvard.” (Lin is a Harvard grad.) David Letterman talked about Lin in his Monday monologue.

The point is that any sports talk host who is proud that he isn’t interested in the Lin story or in the NBA ought to be ashamed of cashing a paycheck. I hope Buffalo News columnist Jerry Sullivan – who wrote a wonderful column about Lin on Monday — straightened Schopp out when he appeared on WGR later in the afternoon. I just couldn’t stick around.

The Buffalo Sabres loss to Tampa Bay Saturday had an 11.4 rating on Channel 2, the local NBC affiliate that carried MSG’s coverage. The only February prime programs that will get a higher rating on Channel 2 were the Super Bowl and premiere of “The Voice,” which followed it.

The death of Whitney Houston and the tribute for her Sunday led to a big rating for CBS’ coverage of the Grammy Awards locally as well as nationally. The Grammys had a 23.6 rating on Channel 4. Channel 7, the local ABC affiliate, would be happy to get something in that range for the Oscars on Feb. 26. The fact that the two favorites for best film – “The Artist” and “The Descendants” — are smaller films that appeal to older viewers won’t help ratings. I liked them both very much but I would vote for “Hugo” as best picture.

pergament@msn.com

Jeremy Lin: Can He Solve TWC-MSG Dispute

Heaven help those who get what they want.

That phrase comes to mind when thinking about the Western New Yorkers  who want the FCC to end the policy that leads to blackouts of Bills games that aren’t sold out 72 hours in advance.

I sympathize with the handicapped and the elderly with health problems that can’t get to the Ralph to see the games. I also understand why fans believe all games should be televised because taxpayer money pays for stadium upgrades.

I just don’t know what to root for.

My heart says root for the blackouts to end. I could be dead wrong, but my head says not so fast.

Naturally, it is easy for politicians to climb aboard the anti-blackout movement led by the Buffalo Chapter of the Sports Fans Coalition. But sometimes quick rule changes can have long-term unintended consequences.

The NFL has said that only 16 games in the 2011 season were blacked out, with the small-market teams in Buffalo, Cincinnati and Tampa Bay having most of the blackouts.

It hasn’t been a problem in big markets, which have many more potential fans to fill the stadiums at much higher ticket prices. So a change in the rule probably wouldn’t hurt them. I fear it could hurt small market teams.

For argument’s sake, let’s say the FCC is moved by the stories of the handicapped and the infirm and changes the rules that prohibit cable and satellite systems from carrying games not on local TV affiliates, and the games land on TV regardless of whether they are sold out.

And let’s say the NFL is right that the blackout rule helps it fill stadiums and a change in the rule results in more empty seats in Buffalo, Cincinnati and Tampa Bay. After all, some former Bills ticket buyers might prefer waiting until late November and December to see what the weather is like before buying tickets to games then. And some season ticketholders might just decide to buy tickets for the games in early fall, when the weather is better.

If that would happen and ticket sales drop significantly in Buffalo and in other small markets, what do you think the owners of those teams might consider doing then?

Do I hear the words “move their teams?”

Any reduced attendance could cause team owners to say “I told you so,” blame the communities for lack of support and feel more entitled to put attendance clauses in their leases so they could eventually move somewhere where the games would be sold-out.

It certainly is a scenario that Bills fans should fear since they already have enough reasons to worry about losing a team owned by a man in his 90s who wants stadium improvements and who recently learned again that the money he gets for radio rights to Bills games probably can’t pay for one decent player.

The taxpayers who feel they are entitled to see the games on TV because of the public money that subsidizes stadium improvements should understand that taxpayer money goes to plenty of private businesses without the government telling them how to change the way they conduct their businesses.

The Bills do provide the area with entertainment, pay taxes, support other businesses and have highly-paid employees who add to the tax base.

This isn’t to say that I don’t understand why people want the blackouts to end. I just think small markets like Buffalo could eventually have more to lose than win if the rule changes.

It would be better if the league addresses this issue itself. After all, the NFL wants all the games to sell out and be televised because more viewers and higher ratings can lead to more TV money. It also realizes that the blacked-out games are carried by illegal websites so it has reason to solve this problem by itself rather than be forced to do it by the government.

While we’re on a sports blackout issue, one wonders if the Jeremy Linsanity going on with the New York Knicks will mean MSG and Time Warner Cable have a new reason to get together and end the dispute that also has kept Buffalo Sabres games off of local cable.

After all, as I’ve said several times this is a dispute that is more about NYC – where TWC has many more subscribers — than it is about Buffalo. The Sabres’ recent play has been nice for fans but it won’t make TWC officials in NYC budge from their negotiation stance.

However, Lin’s play in New York City has the Big Apple and the world abuzz and certainly should encourage the two sides to try and solve this mess and get the Knicks games in more NYC and WNY homes.

If Linsanity gets MSG and TWC to end their own insanity, then the Harvard grad will truly be a miracle worker.

And while we’re on the subject of TWC and sports, the announcement by the NFL Network that it is expanding its Thursday Night schedule to 13 games and that every team next year will have a prime time game won’t help most cable fans here see more football unless TWC makes a deal to carry the network.  The question is whether the extra games will put more pressure on TWC nationally to make a deal to carry The NFL Network.

If the Bills make the NFL Network schedule next season, at least the game will be televised here on one of the local network affiliates. Of course, right now that’s if it is sold out 72 hours in advance.

pergament@roadrunner.com