Olbermann Becoming a One-Man Show

Anyone who had a year-and-a-half in the Keith Olbermann over-under pool is a winner. He lasted exactly that long on Fox Sports Net’s nightly news show.

His first night was Jan. 5, 1999. His last was July 5, 2000.

Oh, he’s staying with the network. It’s just that his duties have been reduced to one night. And the network finally found a producer he can work with--himself.

“I can now submit my resignation to myself,” he quipped.

The Fox publicity machine was working overtime putting a positive spin on this story.

David Hill, the chairman of Fox Sports, was brought in Thursday to make the big announcement on a conference call, giving the impression Olbermann was being rewarded with his own show. It will be called, of course, “The Keith Olbermann Evening News,” and will be on every Sunday night. It makes its debut Aug. 6.

So what’s going on here?

Fox paid $1 million to MSNBC to buy out Olbermann’s contract and gave him a salary reported to be in the $900,000 range. For this, he became the main anchor on its nightly sports news show. And now Fox is reducing its high-priced “superstar” to one night a week?

That makes a lot of sense.

About as much sense as bringing in out-of-town anchors to do a local Southern California sports show, which Fox Sports Net recently did for its new “Regional Sports Report.”

Maybe the Olbermann move is a sign Fox Sports Net is realizing its “National Sports Report” will never catch ESPN’s “SportsCenter.” The latest Nielsen figures show that Fox Sports Net’s two-hour news blocks average a .54 rating and ESPN’s 11 o’clock edition of “SportsCenter” averages .82.

Hill, noting these ratings aren’t something to get excited about, said, “At one point we wondered if it wouldn’t be cheaper to just fly people in to watch the show live.”

Hill did indicate the show made progress with Olbermann. So why cut Olbermann’s duties? Besides his Sunday night show, he’ll do Saturday pregame baseball on the Fox network. Is two days a week worth $900,000 a year? He’s not a Dodger pitcher. Maybe Fox is cutting Olbermann’s salary. One source said that was the case.

As for what’s behind the move, it’s no secret Olbermann is not well liked around the Fox Sports Net set. There are a million stories. One is he insisted a popcorn machine that provided a snack for the crew be removed because he didn’t like the smell of popcorn.

He doesn’t speak to colleague Chris Myers at all, and barely speaks to anyone else.

Now that he is the lone anchor and the executive producer of his new show, there won’t be as many people to feud with. The question is, what’s the over-under on when Olbermann will fire himself?

THE LOCAL SHOW

The homerism on “Regional Sports Report” continues to be annoying. Wednesday night, a highlight of the Angels’ Scott Spiezio being thrown out at the plate in the ninth inning of the Texas Rangers’ 3-2 victory indicated it was a bad call. Anchor Gaard Swanson, from Seattle, pretended to be angry. “That’s going to bother me all night,” he said.

Swanson and partner Barry LeBrock just don’t seem to realize that in a major market not everyone roots for the home team.

Why wouldn’t Fox Sports Net bring in a seasoned pro who knows the market? Probably because all Fox Sports Net thinks about is attracting males 18-34.

GOLF EVERYWHERE

The U.S. Golf Assn. has gotten flak for scheduling the U.S. Women’s Open the same weekend as the British Open. It’s asking viewers to watch an awful lot of golf. But this may be a better weekend than a year ago, when the Women’s Open on NBC got killed going up against Tiger Woods winning the Memorial on ABC.

ESPN, resembling the Golf Channel, is covering the early rounds of both Opens through today. Earlier this week ESPN decided to expand its British Open coverage and start it at 5 a.m. instead of 6. That was a good move. A bad one is breaking into golf coverage for baseball scores.

SHORT WAVES

Sharing the spotlight with golf this weekend is the final weekend of the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. NBC is gearing everything toward Sunday’s men’s 200-meter final. Let’s hope it doesn’t give short shrift to other events. NBC seems to think viewers prefer packages to live competition, when, for most, that isn’t the case. The men’s pole vault and women’s high jump competition last Sunday were reduced to tape packages. . . . Dwight Stones is showing that he is to track and field what Johnny Miller is to golf and John McEnroe is to tennis. Stones calls partner Tom Hammond “the best track announcer in the history of the sport.” Other members of the crew are Carol Lewis, Marty Liquori, Lewis Johnson and reporter Jim Gray.

DirecTV subscribers were incensed last Friday when they tuned into Fox Sports Net 2 and discovered the Angel-Dodger game was blacked out. It wasn’t supposed to be, and DirecTV fixed the problem about 25 minutes into the game. . . . Don’t be misled by ads encouraging cable subscribers to get digital boxes to get out-of-market sports packages. There is one major exception. “NFL Sunday Ticket” remains exclusive to DirecTV for the next two seasons.

IN CLOSING

You might recall that when Boomer Esiason was fired by ABC in March, he had some unkind things to say about partner Al Michaels. Well, now that Esiason has been hired as a “Monday Night Football” commentator by CBS Radio, Esiason and Michaels will sometimes be working in neighboring broadcast booths. Said Esiason: “I think we can shake hands and be professional.” Said Michaels: “Sure, we’ll be professional about it. I’m happy for Boomer.”

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for July 15-16.

SATURDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Baseball: Angels at Dodgers 11 4.0 11 Track and field: U.S. Olympic trials 4 3.3 6 Cycling: Tour de France 7 1.8 5 Basketball: WNBA, Charlotte at Washington 4 1.8 5 Golf: PGA Greater Milwaukee Open 7 1.6 5 Golf: LPGA JAL Big Apple Classic 4 1.6 5 Golf: Senior Ford Players Championship 7 0.9 2 Motor racing: Craftsman Truck 200 2 0.8 2

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*

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Cable Network Rating Share Boxing: Lennox Lewis vs. Francois Botha HBO 3.5 6 Diving: U.S. Olympic trials PAX 0.7 1 Auto racing: CART Molson Indy qualifying ESPN2 0.6 2 Drag racing: Mile-High Nationals qualifying ESPN2 0.6 1 Auto racing: IRL Midas 500 ESPN 0.5 1 Soccer: MLS, Washington at Galaxy FSN2 0.2 0

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SUNDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Track and field: U.S. Olympic trials 4 5.4 13 Soccer: Panama vs. Mexico 34 2.5 6 Auto racing: L.A. Street Race 4 2.3 5 Baseball: Angels at San Diego 9 2.2 5 Golf: Senior Ford Players Championship 7 1.9 5 Golf: LPGA JAL Big Apple Classic 4 1.6 4 Golf: PGA Greater Milwaukee Open 7 1.4 4 Senior tennis: Pat Cash vs. John McEnroe 2 0.7 2

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Cable Network Rating Share Cycling: Tour de France ESPN2 1.6 4 Soccer: World Cup qualifying, U.S.-Guatemala ESPN2 1.5 4 Drag racing: NHRA Mile-High Nationals ESPN2 1.3 3 Baseball: Oakland at Colorado ESPN 0.8 2 Baseball: Chicago Cubs at Kansas City ESPN2 0.5 1 Auto racing: NASCAR Busch Grand National ESPN 0.4 1 Auto racing: CART Molson Indy ESPN 0.3 1

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WEEKDAY RATINGS: MONDAY: Baseball--Angels at San Diego, Ch. 9, 2.7/4, Pittsburgh at Dodgers, FSN2, 1.2/2. WNBA All-Star game, ESPN, 0.7/1.

Note: Each rating point represents 51,350 L.A. households. Cable ratings reflect the entire market, even though cable is in only 63% of L.A. households.