Thursday, July 9, 2009

ESPN/ABC shakes up college football announcing teams.

Matt Millen, Brad Nessler and Jesse Palmer are just three of the college football broadcasters with new roles for the upcoming season.

Millen, a new ESPN employee, will join Sean McDonough on ABC's lead Saturday afternoon college football broadcast team. Meanwhile, last year's lead Saturday afternoon team of Nessler, Bob Griese and Paul Maguire will go their separate ways; Nessler will call Saturday evening games on ESPN with Todd Blackledge, while Griese will sit alongside Dave Pasch and Chris Spielman for ESPN Saturday afternoon games. Maguire will have a reduced schedule this season.

Former ABC studio analyst Craig James will move to the booth alongside Mike Patrick for ABC's Saturday afternoon games. With James and fellow studio analyst Doug Flutie not returning, Jesse Palmer will join John Saunders on ABC's studio team.

James and Palmer will be in the booth for Thursday night games on ESPN, with Chris Fowler doing play-by-play.

Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit will be the lead team for ABC for the third straight year, continuing to call Saturday Night Football telecasts. Additionally, Fowler, Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Desmond Howard will remain on College Gameday, while Rece Davis, Mark May and Lou Holtz continue as ESPN's lead studio team.

Federer/Roddick an ace for NBC.

The men's final at Wimbledon was the most viewed since 1999.

Roger Federer's five-set win over Andy Roddick -- his record 15th Grand Slam title -- drew a 3.8/10 final rating and 5.7 million viewers on NBC Sunday, up 9% in ratings and 10% in viewers from a 3.5/10 and 5.2 million for last year's final between Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Federer/Roddick finishes as the highest rated Wimbledon men's final since '00 (4.4/14 for Sampras/Rafter) and the most-viewed since '99 (5.9 million for Sampras/Agassi).

The 3.8 rating is the highest for any Grand Slam final since the men's final of the '06 U.S. Open, also between Federer and Roddick.

This marks the fourth straight year that ratings for the Wimbledon men's final have increased.

To put the numbers in perspective, Federer/Roddick topped all but one game of the Stanley Cup Finals in ratings (and outdrew 5 of the 7 games in viewers), and also surpassed the ratings for last year's British Open and PGA Championship. The match finished behind the Indianapolis 500 (4.0/11, 6.3 mil), and the combined 6.9 million viewers for the USA/Brazil Confederations Cup Final.

Question of the day.

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