Olympics' TV ratings soaring and tribute to Skip

Your guess is as good as mine as to what got Americaand Atlantadrowning in Olympic fever to such an enormous level during the first week, but the ratings have been enormous. Maybe it was seven straight days of swimfreak Michael Phelps. (Was anyone besides me slightly uncomfortable when NBC did an MRI physical on his arms, legs, feet and butt to help explain his dominance?)Maybe its the exotic nature of looking behind the Great Wall to see what two billion Chinese are doing when theyre not buying American real estate. Whatever it is, Americans and Atlantans are watching in American Idol-type numbers, dissimilar to Athens in 2004 and Sydney in 2000.
Ill also acknowledge that the announcing was outstanding in the swimming, which was the focus of the first week. NBCs Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines are so perfectly in-sync that you wouldnt be surprised if it outed that they narrate it all after the fact. (Rumor has it that Frank Gifford did exactly that on the legendary Franz Klammer downhill ski run in the 1976 Olympics.)
Hickss swimming calls on the photo finishes have only been terrific. As for Bob Costas, NBC drives a Brinks truck to his front door on the 1st and 15th of every month so that he can be the superstar in the studio every four years during the Olympics. And I cant imagine anyone could do it any better.
TRIBUTE TO SKIP
Like everyone in the business, I think TBS coverage of the Braves over the years has been great and probably the reason why the Braves never left town in the 70s or 80s. Thats why I was so underwhelmed last September at the lamely produced feature piece, memorializing the end of TBS coverage of the Braves. Thankfully, the Goodbye, Skip feature piece that Peachtree TV (the same production folks at TBS, basically) produced and aired last week was infinitely better. TV essayist Jim Huber is a great writer and voiceover artist as long as the video material supports it. Definitely a DVR keeper.
Naturally, it was fun to watch the hour-long pre-game homage to Skip on Peachtree TV, as Jiggs McDonald, Ernie Johnson, Sr. and Hubie Brown, among others, called in to reminisce. Kind of interesting to watch Chip Caray quarterback the special with a certain detachment. I guess hes determined not to show any less-than-professional emotion on television or in public, because youd never know he was, in effect, burying his own father on television.
DAWG DAYS
The University of Georgia football team has already had the top ranking attached by several pollmakers, which should guarantee an immediate frenzy for the 2008 season. Channel 46, which will presumably air UGA football games several times within CBS SEC game of the week package, is the clear beneficiary in what could be the Atlanta DMAs biggest overall television audience of the fall. Comcast Sports Southeast, though, will also score early with its exclusive pay-per-view coverage of the opening Georgia game, Aug. 30 against Georgia Southern.
All of the Georgia talk kind of begs the question: is the idea of an SEC television network still alive and kicking? For a couple of years, there have been rumblings from the SEC office that the conference would try to imitate what the Big Ten and Mountain West have semi-successfully done: create its own cable channel as a way to get cable systems to buy and carry it. At the recent media-day press conference, SEC commissioner Mike Slive said the conference is still pondering it and will make a final decision this fall. The SECs recent long-term renewal with CBS muddies the issue a little too, Im sure.
Cable systems, including Comcast, have fought the NFLs quest to stuff the NFL Network down their throats at exorbitant prices. You have to wonder if it would be that easy with an All-SEC channel, though. Its one thing for the cable systems to play chicken with last years Dallas-Green Bay Thursday night game, but it would be quite another (at least in Atlanta) for them to do it with Georgia-Florida. To paraphrase Larry Munson, I could see the DirecTV leaflets falling from the sky.
A few personal bon mots to pass along. Longtime Georgia State basketball and baseball announcer Dave Cohen was finally given the GSU football announcing job for 2009. Hes been doing pre-game and other segments for Furman football. Magic 102.9 Gainesville morning show host Judd Hickinbotham will join Tony Schiavone in the radio broadcast booth for the Triple-A Gwinnett Braves 2009 season. Hickinbotham, a former WSB-AM news host, is also a former employee of mine and even at 22, he had a remarkably polished voice. Hell be great. And Channel 11s Sam Crenshaw will be doing Falcons sideline work for DAVE-FM this fall. As Dave Archer and Foxs Chris Myers would tell you, Sam is very lucky hes dealing with the current Falcons coach and not the one from 2004-06.
Jeff Batten owns Batten Communications, Inc., the Southeasts largest independent sports production company. He also owns Complete Game Broadcasting in North Atlanta, a sports broadcasting training facility. His column appears twice-monthly in Score Atlanta. Send items of interest to jeff@completegame.tv.