| Do you believe in miracles? Will John Madden,
who could be officially switching his TV-network allegiance from Fox Sports to ABC very
shortly, team up with longtime "Monday Night Football" lead announcer Al
Michaels to make "MNF" must-see TV every week during the pro football season?
The "MNF" ratings have declined each of the past seven seasons, including a 9
percent drop this past season with Michaels, comedian Dennis Miller and Hall of Fame QB
Dan Fouts manning the booth for the second year in a row.
Madden is reportedly very close at this writing to signing a four-year, $5
million-a-year deal with ABC, after being let out of the final year of his contract with
Fox that paid him roughly $8 million per year. Should Madden sign on with ABC, he is
expected to become Michaels’ sidekick in the "MNF" booth, with Miller and
Fouts, both of whom have one year left on their contracts with ABC, getting the shaft.
Can the venerable "M and M" boys reverse MNF’s sorry ratings trend? And
will Miller and Fouts be missed?
As for the ratings, I wouldn’t be surprised if they continue to slip, although
probably not as much percentage-wise as they have the last few seasons. Plummeting ratings
for all sports events have pretty much become a fact of life because of the proliferation
of cable-TV alternatives.
But I think Michaels and Madden, who I thought delivered a first-rate performance in
Super Bowl XXXVI, will develop a quick chemistry and do very well together. Madden should
be able to contribute lots of lively humor — humor that revolves more around the
action taking place on the football field and less around arcane references to God knows
what.
As you might guess after reading the last sentence, I won’t miss Miller at all. I
give ABC credit for trying to pull off a noble experiment, but the truth is Miller never
came close to generating the feeling that he honestly belonged in the "MNF"
booth. I especially despised his weekly lead-ins with Michaels, which were always loaded
with forced humor of the highest order.
As for Fouts, I thought he basically knew his stuff. But in the charisma department, he
gets a "C-plus" at best.
In comparison, Michaels and Madden should be a dramatic improvement, even though both
are a bit past their prime.
At the same time, I don’t suspect Fox will suffer one bit if, as rumored, it makes
Joe Buck and Cris Collinsworth the lead broadcasting team replacing Madden and Pat
Summerall. Collinsworth is informative, funny and candid without coming off as a smart
ass.
I’m a big fan.
I also commend CBS for the changes it has planned for "The NFL Today" pregame
show next season — adding former star QBs Dan Marino and Boomer Esiason, reducing the
role of ex-NFL head coach Mike Ditka, moving former NFL offensive lineman Randy Cross to
the game booth and telling the insufferable Jerry Glanville to take a hike.
I like what I’ve seen and heard of both Marino and Esiason. Ditka still has some
appeal in front of the camera, but you could tell he stopped doing his homework a long
time ago, unlike Fox’s triumvirate of Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long and Collinsworth,
all of whom appear to work legitimately hard for their TV money. The only thing noteworthy
about Cross was his massive head of hair, which managed to take up half the TV screen
whenever he was on camera.
Glanville? He could easily be the most annoying football commentator in the history of
the genre.
Now if only Fox and Fox Net could remove Jimmy Kimmel and Jay Mohr from their
respective gigs. At least Kimmel makes a decent game prediction every now and then.
Mohr is pathetically out of place.
In the interview sessions leading up to SB XXXVI in New Orleans, Mohr couldn’t
have been more annoying, blurting out ridiculous questions for supposed comic effect,
while writers from across the country with tight deadlines staring them in the face
cringed in disgust.
The bottom line: Comedians in the pro football broadcast booths and studio shows are a
joke. |
