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Thursday, October 12, 2000

Reach around there with the remote control and pat yourself on the back, Pittsburgh. No other NFL market tuned into a game more intently than this one Sunday.

More than one of every three households watched the Steelers-Jets game. To be precise, the rating was a whopping 34.4. The number closely edged Milwaukee, where 34.1 beheld a Packers-Lions contest in between cheese snacks. Next came Denver at 33.4, Buffalo at 32.4 and Cleveland at 30.

Winning thrills so much that Steelers-Jets was the most-watched show in the Pittsburgh market between the previous Monday and Sunday. Second was "Everybody Loves Raymond" followed by "60 Minutes." Which goes to show, Pittsburgh is a place where either folks possess intellectually sophisticated tastes or everybody loves CBS.

Some other tidbits from the past NFL weekend's viewing:

Washington, D.C., watched the Redskins, "60 Minutes" and -- like, duh -- "West Wing."

Nashville watched the Titans and -- like, howdy -- the Country Music Awards.

Milwaukee watched its local TV postgame show even more intently than its Packers-Lions game.

Seattle, home to coffeehouses and computer companies and internet millionaires, watched the Seahawks, the Simpsons and the Simpsons, in order. Now that's intellectual sophistication, ain't it?

Dallas, so hard up for decent football, watched Seattle-Kansas City on "Monday Night Football."

Poor'Boys.

More football notes

More impressive than merely the highest "Monday Night" rating to date, ABC's Tampa Bay-Minnesota broadcast this week ranked No. 1 among total viewers, teens, adults aged 18-34, adults 18-49 and adults 25-54. Take that, wrestling.

Beano Cook, who just doesn't get enough publicity in this column, performs "Out of Bounds" commentaries for ABC's Saturday college football coverage.

Jim Colony figures it's a good thing WEAE-AM doesn't have a postgame call-in show for Penn State football, otherwise fans would be blaming the Lions' 2-5 record on him. And his "brats."

The best call of Plaxico Burress' spike still remains Tunch Ilkin's on the WDVE-FM broadcast: "What a doofus move ..."

Trying to duplicate the whirlwind tour that Pittsburgh's own John Clayton conducted during NFL training camps, ESPN.com is sending college basketball reporter Andy Katz to 18 schools in 15 days. Shoot, if Clayton covered basketball, he'd get to all 321 Division I campuses. In 32 days.

The Steelers' Jerome Bettis will talk about his Detroit high school days on "NFL Under the Helmet," noon Saturday, on Fox, WPGH-TV locally.

Battle of the Network Comics: Jimmy Kimmel on Fox's pregame show, Dennis Miller on "Monday Night" and now Jay Mohr on Fox Sport Net's pregame "NFL This Morning." Has football ever attempted to be this stand-up funny? Have you settled on a favorite? Have you remembered to tip your wait stiff?

By the way, if a particular Miller utterance perplexes you, check out the handy annotated definitions at Britannica.com. Now that's funny.

Wish I had authored this: Norman Chad opined that Eric Dickerson on "Monday Night Football" makes Beasley Reece look like Wolf Blitzer.

Somebody at Fox Sports Net blew it. That Texas death-row inmate, the one who pronounced "the Redskins will go to the Super Bowl" before his lethal injection, would have been a natch for Jim Rome's, "The Last Word."

Penguins broadcasts

Paul Steigerwald returns to Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh tomorrow night -- as a regular part of the Penguins' pregame show. He comes back to where he belongs, in a version of "Steigy's Corner," now called "NHL Insider." He spent last season off the channel and on radio, where he continues as the play-by-play announcer on flagship WWSW-AM.

That station, also known as Sports Radio 970, tomorrow launches a new, elongated pregame show entitled, "Hard Core Penguins." It starts at 6 p.m. on all Eastern time games and emanates from the glass Mellon Arena booth that also houses the the www.PittsburghPenguins.com headquarters. The hour-long show will lead into the radio network's half-hour program that carries listeners into the opening faceoff. Tab Douglas will work as the show's host with such rotating co-hosts as hockey writer Bob Grove, ex-Penguins winger Dave Hannan, plus other journalists and former players.

Don't forget, this weekend marks the local TV debut of color commentator Ed Olczyk alongside that Hallelujah Hollywood fella.

Program notes

ESPN's "2-Minute Drill," the 7 p.m. Mondays sports quiz show where players and former stars deliver the questions, adds 7 p.m. Thursdays to its schedule beginning tonight. Here's a sample question from the show: In the 1979 World Series, five Pirates rapped 10 hits or more -- name at least three. (Answer below)

TNT is revving up so much for this NASCAR television restart next season on its airwaves along with Fox and NBC, Turner Sports also picked up internet rights and the job of overseeing NASCAR.com. Fox is revving up so much for it, even Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh's "SportsBeat" may soon start a regular auto racing segment.

Your final answer is: Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, Phil Garner, Tim Foli and Omar Moreno.