NFL in L.A.: No Rams, Raiders, Ratings

Attention, NFL: You’re losing Los Angeles.

National ratings for Sunday regular-season telecasts dipped only slightly this season, but in Los Angeles, the NFL took a major hit.

The average rating for AFC telecasts dropped 17%, going from an 11.1 in 1997 on NBC to a 9.2 in 1998 on CBS. NFC telecasts on Fox went from a 10.5 to a 10.0.

Going back to 1994, the last season the Rams and Raiders played here, AFC ratings have dropped 35% and NFC ratings 32%. The average rating for AFC telecasts in L.A. in 1994 was a 14.2; the NFC average was a 13.2.

“Monday Night Football” was holding its own until this season. The average rating in 1994 was an 18.6 and it was an 18.9 in 1997.

But this season the average was a 14.9, a drop of 21%. No question the earlier kickoff was the main reason for the drop, and lopsided games didn’t help, either.

However you look at it, there’s a pattern developing. The evidence is in. With no NFL team in the nation’s No. 2 market, interest is waning.

“There’s not much we can do about it,” Sean McManus, the president of CBS Sports, said Thursday. “But we do realize it would be beneficial to us to have an NFL team, particularly an AFC team, in Los Angeles.”

ESPN VS. WHAT’S ITS NAME?

Fox Sports Net executives, prone to arrogance, have been pounding their chests over the hiring of Keith Olbermann for “Fox Sports News.”

Here are some numbers that may humble them a bit.

In December, ESPN’s 11 p.m. edition of “SportsCenter” was seen in an average of 1,074,000 homes each night, CNN’s “Sports Tonight” in 245,774, and “Fox Sports News” in 106,000.

Locally, on Jan. 5, the night Olbermann made his debut on “Fox Sports News,” the 11 p.m. edition was seen in 5,000 homes, while “SportsCenter” was seen in 30,000 homes. The Channel 4 news at 11 p.m. that night was seen in 370,000 homes.

Fox Sports Net also has an identity problem.

We took an informal survey and couldn’t find anyone who even knew that Fox Sports Net is the name of a group of Fox-owned regional sports networks. Most thought it had something to do with the Internet.

Everyone knows what ESPN is.

MORE ON FOX

The big boys at the Fox network also like to pat themselves on the back. But they shouldn’t be too proud that their NFL pregame show took a ratings slide this season, going from a 4.0 to a 3.7.

Going up against newcomer CBS, Fox’s ratings should have increased.

Could it be viewers are growing tired of Terry Bradshaw’s act and all the noise you hear on the show? Everyone is out of control.

Also, why hasn’t Fox gone to the first-down marker that has worked so well on ESPN and CBS?

And what was Fox doing last Saturday at the start of the San Francisco-Atlanta playoff game? As Garrison Hearst lay on the ground in pain with a broken leg, Fox was setting the Falcons’ defensive alignment, then going to a commercial.

WOMEN SLIGHTED

Channel 2 was scheduled to show a women’s basketball game between No. 1 Connecticut and No. 2 Tennessee last Sunday at 1 p.m. But instead it stayed with its NFL postgame programming until 2:15, then showed the basketball game delayed and cut out the start. The score was already 14-11 by the time Channel 2 started showing the game.

Channel 2 points out the postgame programming got a 4.4 rating, the basketball game a 1.1, but the question is, if it was the nation’s No. 1 men’s team against No. 2, would the station have treated it so shabbily?

IS THIS A RIP-OFF?

Saturday night’s Mike Tyson-Francois Botha pay-per-view fight comes with an asking price in the $45 range. That’s the price Showtime, which is televising the fight, has recommended.

On the surface, that’s a ridiculous price for a fight in which one guy last fought 19 months ago--and lost--and the other is someone few have ever heard of.

But Showtime can ask that price because people what to see if Tyson will snap.

Jim Gray, who will work the telecast as a reporter, interviewed Tyson this week for NBC’s “Dateline” and “Today Show.”

“Mike has a side [where] he is likable, respectful, warm and ingratiating,” Gray said. “But the other side that we experienced is one that can snap at a moment’s notice. He’s someone who can go from laughing to crying, from being totally at ease and telling someone like me that he loves me to not knowing if he will get out of his chair and turn over four television cameras.

“Unfortunately for Mike Tyson, he wasted an opportunity to be a Michael Jordan.”

Saturday’s undercard starts at 6 p.m., with the main event expected to go off between 8-8:30 p.m.

SHORT WAVES

FX has another outstanding Pacific 10 game Saturday, showing Stanford-UCLA at 7:30 p.m., with Steve Physioc and George Raveling announcing. FX had Arizona-UCLA on Jan. 2 and Stanford-California last Saturday. FX has Arizona-Stanford on Feb. 27. That’s the cream of the crop in the Pac-10. . . . HBO’s “Real Sports,” which might expand from every other month to every month, has added four correspondents. They are CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg, CBS News “Public Eye” anchor Derek McGinty, TNT’s Bryan Burwell and Jack Whitaker. . . Boxer Gerald McClellan, badly beaten in a 1995 fight and now blind and brain damaged, will be part of a report on boxing’s dark side on “CBS Evening News With Paula Zahn” Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

Recommended viewing: The Golf Channel, in its first “Golf Central” special of the year, goes with LPGA rookie of the year Se Ri Pak on her first trip home to South Korea. The special will be part of “Golf Central” Saturday at 5:30 p.m. . . . Five years after it happened, E! takes an excellent in-depth, two-hour look back on the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan incident Sunday at

8 p.m.

IN CLOSING

It appears NBA Commissioner David Stern, through the lockout and Michael Jordan’s retirement, has maintained a sense of humor. He has agreed to read the top 10 list on David Letterman’s show tonight.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for Jan. 9-10, including sports on cable networks:

SATURDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Pro football: San Francisco at Atlanta 11 16.6 39 Pro football: Miami at Denver 2 15.5 36 Horse racing: San Miguel Stakes 2 5.9 13 Skiing: Ford Downhill Series 4 0.9 2 College basketball: Women, La. Tech at Michigan 2 0.5 1

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Cable Network Rating Share Boxing: Roy Jones Jr. vs. Rick Frazier HBO 1.9 4 Golf: Mercedes Championships ESPN 0.9 2 Hockey: Edmonton at Kings FSW 0.8 1 College basketball: Washington at Arizona ESPN 0.2 1 College basketball: Illinois Chicago at Detroit ESPN 0.1 0 College basketball: Penn State at Minnesota ESPN2 0.1 0 College basketball: California at Stanford FX 0.1 0 College basketball: Nevada at Pacific ESPN 0.1 0

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SUNDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Pro football: Arizona at Minnesota 11 19.8 44 Pro football: Jacksonville at New York Jets 2 18.3 42 Hockey: Edmonton at Mighty Ducks 9 1.5 3 College basketball: Women, Tenn. at Connecticut 2 1.1 2

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Cable Network Rating Share College basketball: Women, Va. Tech at Geo. Wash. ESPN2 0.2 1 Horse racing: San Pasqual Handicap FSW 0.2 0 Horse racing: Santa Anita Live FSW2 0.2 0 College basketball: Women, Baylor at Oklahoma St. FSW 0.1 0 College basketball: Louisville at South Florida ESPN2 0.1 0

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Note: Each rating point represents 50,092 L.A. households. Cable ratings reflect the entire market, even though cable is in only 63% of L.A. households.