NBC Preakness coverage will focus on the present
Common sense tells NBC that the story of Saturday’s Preakness Stakes is Street Sense.
“It’s all about the Kentucky Derby winner and if he can win the second leg of the Triple Crown,” said David Michaels, who will direct the coverage that begins at 2 p.m. (Post time is 3:09).
The story going into last year’s Preakness was Derby winner Barbaro. It became even bigger after the horse broke down in the race and then, after a gallant effort to survive, had to be put down nine months later.
But NBC has no plans to return to that story and will refrain from showing the footage of Barbaro’s injury.
However, NBC won’t be ignoring Barbaro either. For one thing, the horse’s trainer, Michael Matz, has a 3-year-old named Chelokee running in the Barbaro Stakes, which will be contested three races before the Preakness, and NBC will show highlights.
As for the main event at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course, NBC analyst Gary Stevens, who won the Preakness aboard Silver Charm in 1997 and Point Given in 2001, sees a tight race.
“I have no reason to shy away from Street Sense after his Derby win, but it won’t be a walkover for him,” he said. “Hard Spun ran a great Derby race and Curlin faced adversity for the first time and fared well.”
Preakness pre-race coverage on ESPN will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday.
HRTV has a preview show airing at 8 a.m. today and repeating several times leading into the race. The hosts are Laffitt Pincay III, Jeff Siegel and Millie Ball. Analysts include Jon White, Peter Lurie, Joanne Jones and Aaron Vercruysse.
Also today, HRTV begins televising selected races from the United Kingdom. The schedule includes the $2.475-million Vodafone Derby on June 2 at Epsom Downs near London.
Another way to watch the Preakness is on a Verizon cellphone through subscription mobile channel NBC2Go, a first for NBC Sports.
Blanket NASCAR coverage
You think Super Bowl pregame coverage is long? It’s nothing compared with what Speed, formerly the Speed Channel, is doing this weekend surrounding the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
Would you believe 48 consecutive hours of coverage?
It begins this morning and runs through post-race coverage. And earlier in the week Speed offered various special programs leading up to Saturday’s Nextel Open qualifying race at 4 p.m. and the ensuing main event at 5.
This is the first year the motor sports network has NASCAR’s version of baseball’s All-Star game, and to say Speed is fired up is an understatement.
“We’ve had a ton of NASCAR qualifying and the Craftsman truck series, but this is by far the highest profile Nextel Cup event we’ve ever had,” Speed President Hunter Nickell said. “Our approach to NASCAR is just have a blast, and that’s what we are doing here.”
The All-Star Challenge, a non-points event, features race winners from the previous Nextel Cup season and current season winners, plus the first two winners of the qualifying Open and another driver who gets in through fan voting. First prize is $1 million.
Rivaling what Speed is doing will be the coverage provided by Sirius Satellite Radio. It will have blanket coverage over the next two days on its NASCAR channel, 128, plus, during the challenge, will offer in-car audio feeds on 10 channels.
Short waves
Some viewers have complained they are still not getting FSN’s high-definition coverage of the Dodgers and Angels, or they are getting a poor-quality picture. Sometimes it’s a case of not having an updated receiver, and sometimes it’s a case of a transmission problem by the satellite or cable provider.
In particular, some Time Warner Cable subscribers said the Dodgers games last Friday and Saturday were not shown on HD channel 413. A spokesperson said Time Warner had failed to pull down the HD signal and apologized for any inconvenience.
There should be no confusion or problems concerning the television coverage of Game 5 of the NHL Western Conference finals between the Ducks and Detroit Red Wings on Sunday. The noon game is on NBC, with Mike “Doc” Emrick and Eddie Olczyk announcing. They’re also working Saturday’s Ottawa-Buffalo game for NBC.
The event that gave UCLA its 100th NCAA team title, the women’s water polo victory over Stanford last weekend, will be reshown by CSTV Sunday at 11 a.m.... Beginning today, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will televise 39 games of the NCAA softball tournament. UCLA opens against Loyola Marymount today at 5 p.m. as the second game of an ESPNU doubleheader.
ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes will offer live coverage of the UEFA Champions League final between AC Milan and Liverpool at Athens on Wednesday at 11 a.m. There will also be related coverage on ESPN Classic, ESPN360.com, ESPNdeportes.com and ESPNsoccernet.com.
A consolation of getting knocked out of the NBA playoffs sometimes is a TV job. Houston Coach Jeff Van Gundy will serve as an analyst for games on ABC and ESPN, beginning with Phoenix-San Antonio tonight, working alongside Mike Breen and Mark Jackson. And Orlando’s Grant Hill has been hired as a studio analyst for ABC’s pregame show. He makes his first appearance Sunday.
And finally
Maybe KLAC 570 should have Jeanie Buss on more often. Her candid remarks about how she was hurt by her brother Jim Buss’ criticizing her boyfriend, Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, made news. And the story became one of the most viewed stories on latimes.com Thursday.
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