Monday, June 7, 2010

Hockey Beats Hoop Here; No One Tops Bullock





Nobody asked me but:

* Not surprisingly in this hockey town, championship round hockey trumped championship round basketball in a head-to-head matchup Sunday night by almost a 2-1 margin.

The Chicago Black Hawks’ 7-4 victory in Game 5 over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals had a 10.6 rating on Channel 2, the NBC affiliate.

The Boston Celtics’ 103-94 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2 of the NBA Finals had a 5.7 rating on Channel 7, the ABC affiliate. CBS’ afternoon golf coverage of the Memorial Tournament won by Justin Rose even beat basketball with a 6.2 rating on Channel 4, the CBS affiliate.

Nationally, the results were reversed. The Celtics' win had a 10.9 overnight rating on ABC and the Black Hawks' victory had a 4.0 rating on NBC. The Buffalo TV market is a rare one in which hockey outdraws hoop.

The good news for both the NHL and the NBA and Channel 2 and Channel 7 is that none of the remaining games will go head-to-head.

*Is it just me, or is NBC’s sound too high at times during the Stanley Cup finals ?

The crowd noise can be so loud that you can’t hear the announcers at times. I know, this is isn't always a bad thing. And those Pierre McGuire on-ice interviews are ridiculously hard to hear. On Sunday night, he interviewed a Black Hawk after the game while the public address announcer was shouting about who was selected as the game’s three stars.

I’d rather see the three stars skate on the ice than hear -- or not hear – a McGuire interview with a player.

* Talk about perfect timing. I took a brief pause from watching the NBA and NHL games Sunday just in time to see Sandra Bullock take over the MTV Movie Awards like the Celtics’ Rajon Rondo took over the game with the Lakers.

Looking radiant in a black sparkly thing – sorry I wouldn’t know Vera Wang from the Bills’ Ed Wang – Bullock seemed to be proving the theory that laughter is the best medicine as she accepted something called The Generation Award.

She had several sparkly jokes about the rumors that have sprung up since she and her hubby Jesse James split. Then she kissed Scarlett Johansson, the wife of Ryan Reynolds, her co-star in “The Proposal.”

It was an impressive performance on what really was a Bullock Awards show doubleheader. On Saturday, she was given the “Troops Choice Award” for Entertainer of the Year at Spike TV’s “Guys Choice” event. That won’t air until June 20.

On “Today” this morning, co-host Matt Lauer wondered aloud what the deal was with the Bullock-Johansson kiss.

“Is that required at these award shows now?” Lauer asked co-host Ann Curry.

“You really should make yourself a presenter,” replied Curry.

Not really. The last thing that Lauer needs is more Page 1 material for one of the supermarket rags that seem to stalk his every move.

* Speaking of The MTV Awards, my 17-year-old son advised me that the language got a little rough later in the program (while I was watching basketball) and the censors did about as good a job containing it as the Lakers did containing Rondo. In other words, dialogue from “Jersey Boys” sprung out. (The silliest controversy over the recent performances of “Jersey Boys” at Shea's was that there weren’t any warnings about the language. I mean the musical is called “Jersey Boys”!).

The language at the MTV Awards was hardly a shock, either. It wouldn’t be the MTV Awards without expletives and same-sex kisses.

* On Tuesday, Fox airs the season finale of “Glee.” If you missed all the fuss about this show -- about a high school glee club -- that is full of teachable moments, be advised the first season DVD arrives Sept. 14. And Fox – Channel 29 here -- is airing reruns this summer.

* My Toronto critic friend Bill Brioux advises via his exceptional blog – “TV Feeds My Family” -- that Conan O’Brien’s new 11 p.m. TBS show this fall will air two hours later on CTV (which is on Time Warner Cable) at 1 a.m. That means Conan will air opposite Leno, Letterman, Jimmy Fallon, Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Kimmel here at different times.

* Regular readers – OK, both of you – may recall that one of the inspirations for this blog was discovering that my TWC box would re-set to Channel 1 and YNN in the morning every time I turned it on. Bulletin: There’s a way to stop that and set the channel you want to wake up to yourself. Just go to settings and follow directions.

* Smart, cheap move by the CW to bring back reruns of the 2007 CBS vampire series “Moonlight” starring Alex O’Loughlin on Thursdays after reruns of this year’s “The Vampire Dairies.” But don’t think "Moonlight" has any chance of coming back from the dead. O’Loughlin, who co-starred with Jennifer Lopez in this spring’s “The Backup Plan,” already is set to star in a new fall CBS version of “Hawaii Five-O.” “Moonlight” is on the CW because that network and CBS are owned by the same company, Viacom. The show was produced by Warner Brothers Television, the W in CW. "Moonlight" isn’t in syndication because there weren’t enough episodes made to make syndication profitable.

* Hard to believe the old NBC series “The A-Team” is coming back as a big summer movie. If you want to see the Mr. T series that inspired it, tune in to Channel 2’s digitial channel tonight at 8 at 2.3.

*Set your calendars. HBOs’ “Entourage” comes back June 27 with new Sunday night episodes. The NBA finals even will be over by then.

http://www.bing.com/search?q=Sandra%20Bullock%20and%20MTV%20Awards&form=SOLTLB

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