This blog looks back at classic sports telecasts and announcers (primarily from the mid-1960s to present), provides DVR alerts for upcoming classic programming, and covers other historical aspects of sports media.
For the sixth time, I tracked the number of strokes that CBS televised per player during the Sunday round of the Masters. The telecast began at 9am ET (after tee times were moved earlier to beat the storms) with players grouped in threesomes. I counted a total of 450 televised strokes. The final putt dropped at 2:27 resulting in an average of 1.38 strokes per minute which was slightly less than the rate of the 2018 Masters, but still the third highest of all major tournaments I have tracked since 2014.
CBS covered 69 of the 70 strokes from winner Tiger Woods (skipping only a tap-in putt on hole #1). Francesco Molinari actually received coverage for 70 shots. His final score of 74 included two penalty strokes, so CBS only bypassed two of his shots (a layup on 15 and his tee shot on 17). Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau were spotlighted for 59 shots each. Those four players accounted for 57% of the televised shots.
The highest finisher not shown by CBS was Aaron Wise who finished 17th. CBS televised strokes from 26 players during the Sunday round and 11 golfers were covered for at least 10 shots.
I also tracked the number of televised strokes by hole. Once again, the 18th was featured the most (38 strokes). Hole #5 was featured second most often (33 strokes) while the 14th hole received the fewest televised strokes as CBS only aired 14 shots there.
This is the sixth year that I have compiled these televised shot charts. For comparison to prior majors, see this summary table which contains links to all shot charts since 2014.
Here is the complete shot chart (including the highest finisher not shown on the telecast) followed by the hole-by-hole breakdown:
Player
Shots shown
Finish
Pairing
Francesco Molinari
70 (of 72*)
T5
1
Tiger Woods
69 (of 70)
1
1
Brooks Koepka
59
T2
2
Tony Finau
59
T5
1
Xander Schauffele
36
T2
3
Ian Poulter
28
T12
2
Patrick Cantlay
24
T9
5
Webb Simpson
14
T5
2
Rickie Fowler
12
T9
4
Dustin Johnson
10
T2
4
Jason Day
10
T5
7
Phil Mickelson
8
T18
6
Jon Rahm
7
T9
6
Matt Kuchar
7
T12
3
Bubba Watson
7
T12
7
Jordan Spieth
7
T21
8
Alvaro Ortiz
4
T36
16
Justin Harding
3
T12
3
Justin Thomas
3
T12
6
Rory McIlroy
3
T21
14
Louis Oosthuizen
3
T29
4
Viktor Hovland
3
T32
12
Thorbjorn Olesen
1
T21
5
Bryson DeChambeau
1
T29
13
Patrick Reed
1
T36
17
Alex Noren
1
T62
22
Aaron Wise
0
17
11
others
0
total
450
* Molinari took 72 "shots" plus two penalty strokes for a score of 74
Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 = final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.
The network which has the late Sunday afternoon window on NFL Divisional Playoff weekend almost always sends its #1 announcer crew to that game. This time slot traditionally obtains the highest ratings of any NFL playoff weekend and networks typically assign their top broadcast team to the game expected to draw the best TV rating.
However, this weekend, Fox has the late Sunday slot (Eagles-Saints), but is not using its #1 team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on that game. Instead, Fox is sending its #2 announcer team of Kevin Burkhardt and Charles Davis to New Orleans. Fox is using Buck and Aikman on the Saturday prime time Cowboys-Rams game despite the fact that Eagles-Saints will almost certainly garner a much higher rating due to its favorable time slot.
The last time a network which had the late Sunday afternoon window chose to send its top announcers to a different divisional playoff game was during the 1980 playoffs when CBS sent its #1 team of Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier to call the early Saturday Vikings-Eagles game and assigned the #2 crew of Vin Scully and George Allen to the late Sunday Cowboys-Falcons matchup.
So the Fox announcer assignments for this weekend represent a situation that hasn't happened in 38 years - and has only occurred three previous times since the 1970 merger.
Here is a summary of the rare cases where a network which had the late Sunday divisional playoff window sent its #1 announcer crew to a different game (all years refer to the NFL season, even when the playoff games were played in January):
2018 - Fox - described above
1980 - CBS - described above
1978 - CBS - #1 team of Summerall and Brookshier called Falcons-Cowboys (late Saturday)
#2 team of Scully, Allen, and Jim Brown called Vikings-Rams (late Sunday)
1972 - NBC - #1 team of Curt Gowdy and Al Derogatis called Raiders-Steelers "immaculate reception" (early Saturday) #2 team of Jim Simpson and Kyle Rote called Browns-Dolphins (late Sunday)
I monitored the strokes televised by NBC during the final round of the Open Championship. I started tracking at 9am ET to provide a comparable time period to the other majors I have tracked. NBC televised 383 strokes during the tracking period. This total includes 30 shots that NBC aired as part of its Playing Through feature during 10 of the commercial breaks. With the final putt dropping at 1:57pm, the rate worked out to 1.29 strokes per minute.
NBC showed strokes from 21 different players during the tracking period with seven golfers being covered for at least 22 strokes. Those seven accounted for 84% of the televised shots. NBC televised 45 strokes from winner Francesco Molinari which was only the fourth highest total. NBC devoted air time to 65 strokes from Tiger Woods and spotlighted the final pairing of Jordan Spieth and Xander Schauffele for 58 and 55 shots respectively. The highest finishers not shown during this period were three of the players who were part of a tie for 12th.
I also recorded the number of televised strokes by hole during the tracking period. The 18th was featured most frequently (39 strokes) followed by hole #1 (35 shots). On the other extreme, the 9th hole received only nine televised shots.
This is the fifth year that I have compiled these televised shot charts. For comparison to prior majors, see this summary table which contains links to all such shot charts since 2014.
Here is the complete shot chart (including the highest finishers not shown during the tracking period) followed by the hole-by-hole breakdown:
Player
Shots shown
Finish
Pairing
Tiger Woods
65 (of 71)
T6
3
Jordan Spieth
58
T9
1
Xander Schauffele
55
T2
1
Francesco Molinari
45
1
3
Kevin Kisner
40
T2
2
Rory McIlroy
35
T2
5
Kevin Chappell
22
T6
2
Tommy Fleetwood
10
T12
6
Justin Rose
9
T2
7
Matt Kuchar
7
T9
5
Phil Mickelson
7
T24
19
Eddie Pepperell
5
T6
19
Tony Finau
4
T9
9
Webb Simpson
4
T12
4
Alex Noren
4
T17
4
Zach Johnson
4
T17
6
Erik Van Rooyen
4
T17
10
Jason Day
2
T17
27
Bernhard Langer
1
T24
18
Julian Suri
1
T28
23
Sean Crocker
1
T47
15
Cantlay/Moore/Olesen
0
T12
others
0
total
383
Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 = final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.
I tracked the shots televised by Fox during the Sunday round of the US Open. The final pairing teed off at 2:24pm ET, so I started the tracking at 2:00 to provide a fair comparison to the other majors I have monitored.
Fox showed 345 shots during the tracking period. Play concluded at 6:39 which worked out to a rate of 1.24 strokes per minute. This was down from the 1.30 shown by Fox during the 2017 US Open.
Fox showed 65 strokes from Dustin Johnson and 64 by winner Brooks Koepka. Patrick Reed was featured for 58 strokes. The final pairing of Tony Finau and Daniel Berger checked in at 44 and 29 respectively. Runner-up Tommy Fleetwood (who was already on the 10th hole when the tracking period started) was covered for 25. Fox showed only 18 golfers playing strokes during this period with eight players getting coverage for at least 12 shots. The highest finisher not shown during the period was Zach Johnson who tied for 12th.
A few notes on the TV coverage:
Fox went commercial-free for the final 52 minutes of play.
I noticed two different occasions when the Fox on-screen scoreboard gave away a result of a shot that Fox was about to show. With D Johnson facing a rather short par putt on 7, Fox cut to show Fleetwood at 18. While there, the on-screen leaderboard updated to show Johnson dropping a shot on 7 and sliding down the board. Then Fox cut back to 7 and aired Johnson missing the putt. Similarly, Fox showed Fitzpatrick's approach to 18, but before it went back there to televise his birdie putt, the on-screen scroll showed Fitzpatrick's final score, again giving away the result.
When D Johnson was hitting a layup shot on 16, Fox was showing Koepka standing in the fairway. You could hear the club strike the ball and then a camera picked up the ball and showed it land. I chose to count this as a televised stroke.
I also tracked the number of televised strokes by hole during the tracking period. The 18th was featured the most (39 strokes) by a wide margin. Hole 7 received the fewest televised shots (12).
This is the fifth year that I have compiled these televised shot charts. For comparison to prior majors, see this summary table which contains links to all shot charts since 2014.
Here is the complete shot chart (including the highest finisher not shown during the tracking period) followed by the hole-by-hole breakdown:
Player
Shots shown
Finish
Pairing
Dustin Johnson
65 (of 70)
3
2
Brooks Koepka
64 (of 68)
1
2
Patrick Reed
58
4
4
Tony Finau
44
5
1
Daniel Berger
29
T6
1
Tommy Fleetwood
25
2
14
Justin Rose
20
T10
3
Henrik Stenson
12
T6
3
Matthew Fitzpatrick
9
T12
11
Webb Simpson
6
T10
9
Kiradech Aphinbarnrat
3
15
4
Xander Schauffele
3
T6
10
Matt Parziale
2
T48
18
Tyrell Hatton
1
T6
6
Russell Knox
1
T12
13
Brian Gay
1
T20
5
Ian Poulter
1
T25
7
Luis Gagne
1
T48
23
Zach Johnson
0
T12
9
others
0
total
345
Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 = final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.
I tracked the number of strokes that CBS aired per player during the Sunday round of the Masters. The telecast began at 2pm ET and I counted a total of 387 televised strokes. The final putt dropped at 6:38 which worked out to an average of 1.39 strokes per minute, a slight decrease over the rate from the 2017 Masters, but still the second highest of all major tournaments I have tracked since 2014.
CBS covered all 71 strokes from winner Patrick Reed. Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy were spotlighted for 58 shots each. Runner-up Rickie Fowler and third place finisher Jordan Spieth also received significant coverage. Overall those five players accounted for over 74% of the televised shots. Early in the telecast, CBS went overboard on the well out-of-contention Tiger Woods who was shown for 18 strokes (two of which were taped highlights from prior to airtime) which wound up being the sixth most of any player. CBS also included a 3-stroke highlight package of Phil Mickelson who had already completed his round.
The highest finisher not shown by CBS was Marc Leishman who wound up 9th (after being featured prominently on Saturday). CBS televised strokes from just 22 players during the Sunday round.
I also tracked the number of televised strokes by hole. The 18th was featured the most (36 strokes). I was a bit surprised at a few other results from this tracking. Hole #1 was seen second most often (29 strokes). And the iconic par-3 12th received the fewest televised stokes as CBS only showed 10 shots from that hole.
This is the fifth year that I have compiled these televised shot charts. For comparison to prior majors, see this summary table which contains links to all shot charts since 2014.
Here is the complete shot chart (including the highest finisher not shown on the telecast) followed by the hole-by-hole breakdown:
Player
Shots shown
Finish
Pairing
Patrick Reed
71 (of 71)
1
1
Jon Rahm
58
4
2
Rory McIlroy
58
T5
1
Rickie Fowler
54
2
2
Jordan Spieth
48
3
5
Tiger Woods
18
T32
20
Henrik Stenson
17
T5
3
Paul Casey
17
T15
15
Justin Thomas
11
T17
5
Bubba Watson
8
T5
4
Webb Simpson
5
T20
18
Cameron Smith
4
T5
6
Dustin Johnson
4
T10
6
Tony Finau
3
T10
10
Phil Mickelson
3
T36
25
Fred Couples
2
T38
19
Justin Rose
1
T12
7
Charley Hoffman
1
T12
10
Jimmy Walker
1
T20
9
Jason Day
1
T20
8
Branden Grace
1
T24
21
Doug Ghim
1
T50
24
Marc Leishman
0
9
4
others
0
total
387
Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 = final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.
If you are searching for a villain in the world of sports TV broadcasting, one figure jumps quickly to mind. That would be the man who wrote the following in his 1973 self-titled autobiography:
Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a show-off. I have been called all of these. Of course, I am.
The writer was none other than Howard Cosell.
When ABC launched the Monday Night Football package in 1970, executive producer Roone Arledge unveiled a unique three-man booth. Arledge inserted Cosell into the mix to supplement the traditional roles of a play-by-announcer (Keith Jackson) and analyst (Don Meredith). And the pivotal member of that commentary team was clearly Cosell.
Meredith, who was new to broadcasting, was so apprehensive as the season opener approached that he considered backing out of his contract to call the games. Cosell told Meredith: “You'll wear the white hat, I'll wear the black hat.” By casting himself in such a role and exhibiting all of the characteristics he outlined in the above book quote, Cosell turned Meredith into a hero to viewers who loved the way that Dandy Don would needle Humble Howard. Ratings surged as fans were drawn to the weekly banter between Meredith and Cosell. Meredith even earned an Emmy Award from that first season.
After the first game, Cosell became a villain in the minds of advertisers, most notably Henry Ford II of the Ford Motor Company who felt that Cosell detracted from his enjoyment of the telecast. He threatened to withdraw the Ford sponsorship of the prime time series unless ABC removed Cosell from the booth. After early season ratings proved stronger than expected, Ford backed off from the threat and Cosell remained a prominent member of the ABC NFL package for its first 14 years.
Cosell always seemed to relish his role as the announcer that viewers loved to hate. He took the same approach in the way he portrayed himself in movies and guest appearances on sitcoms such as The Odd Couple.
Cosell surfaced as a prominent villain in other sports as well. ABC acquired Major League Baseball rights in 1976, but suffered disappointing ratings for its first season of Monday Night Baseball and received poor reviews for its initial lead announcer team. As the postseason approached, the network performed a major overhaul of its broadcasters and unveiled plans to install Cosell for the ALCS. MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn strongly objected because of comments by Cosell in recent years about how dull baseball had become. But Arledge held the trump card as the contract he had signed with MLB gave ABC the final say over announcers. So Cosell worked the playoffs and became a regular member of Monday Night Baseball the next season.
When ABC first bid for the TV rights to the 1976 Summer Olympics, the Montreal Olympic Committee tried to make the bid conditional on ABC not using Cosell on the telecasts. Again, Arledge won out as ABC got the rights and Cosell was ringside at the boxing venue.
Cosell called most of the key boxing matches on ABC during the 1970s. In 1982, he was at the mic for the Larry Holmes title fight against Randall "Tex" Cobb. The bout was extremely one-sided and Cosell, via his on-air commentary, implored the referee to stop the fight and expressed disgust that the match was allowed to go the distance.
In 1983, Cosell became a villain to the press once again when he used the phrase "little monkey" while praising Redskins wide receiver Alvin Garrett during a MNF telecast - which some perceived as racist. Later in that game, Cosell made the situation worse by issuing an on-air denial that he had used such a term. Despite the fact that Cosell had been a longtime supporter of civil rights, he was the subject of countless negative newspaper headlines over this incident.
Cosell became the villain yet again, this time to his entire industry, with the publication of I Never Played The Game in 1985. In the book, he blasted several of his former TV colleagues including Frank Gifford, OJ Simpson, and Meredith.Less than two weeks before the start of the 1985 World Series, ABC removed Cosell from its planned Fall Classic telecast team.
Also, in that book, Cosell wrote that in 1984, he received a call from Vince McMahon, chairman of the World Wrestling Federation. It turned out that McMahon wanted to hire Cosell to be the primary announcer for WWF wrestling telecasts. Cosell turned him down, but I find it intriguing to envision Cosell (the ultimate villain announcer) calling staged matches for McMahon's company at a time when professional wrestling was about to boom in popularity. McMahon went on to successfully feature many villain announcers of his own such as Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and Jesse "The Body" Ventura.
Howard Cosell was an absolute giant in the sportscasting industry. He dominated virtually any telecast in which he appeared and had the ability to elevate the perceived importance of each event. But, throughout his career, Cosell was seen as a villain by numerous entities - viewers, advertisers, league commissioners, sportswriters, and broadcasting colleagues - a true black hat in the booth.
In 1970, ABC introduced Monday Night Football and placed the colorful Don Meredith in the booth alongside Keith Jackson and Howard Cosell. Meredith became known for his irreverent style and classic one-liners. Perhaps the most famous quote attributed to Meredith took place in the debut regular season edition of this prime time series. Late in the second quarter of that telecast, Meredith commented about the intriguing name of Browns wide receiver Fair Hooker. According to a frequently cited legend, Dandy Don uttered a follow-up remark along the lines of "I haven't met one yet."
I've long wondered how this commentary sounded on-air (more on that later). First, let's take a look at several versions of this tale which have appeared in print.
Perhaps the greatest line of them all came in the first Monday night game between the New York Jets and the Cleveland Browns.
Cleveland receiver Fair Hooker had just caught a pass, which really got Meredith going.
"Isn't Fair Hooker a great name?" he asked.
Keith Jackson said nothing and for once Cosell was speechless.
Meredith then added, "Fair Hooker . . . I haven't met one yet."
Or the time he said of Fair Hooker (the Cleveland wide receiver), "Now there's a name. Fair Hooker. I ain't never met one yet."
The 1988 book Monday Night Mayhem, a detailed history of ABC's Monday Night Football, offered this version:
"Isn't Fair Hooker a great name?" Meredith asked, with the implications hanging.
"I pass," Jackson said.
Cosell, perhaps reluctant to hear what might come next, said nothing.
Meredith went on anyway. "Fair Hooker", he mused. "I haven't met one yet."
Obviously some of the details on the exact wording and the reactions of Jackson and Cosell are inconsistent in these renditions. But the essence of the story is that during this Jets-Browns telecast, Meredith commented about the name Fair Hooker and then followed up with a classic line about never having met one. And numerous other newspapers, magazines, and books over the years have described the incident along those lines. However, there is one major problem with this tale. The famous alleged on-air follow-up statement never happened!
A full copy of this 9/21/70 telecast recently surfaced on YouTube. I located the exchange in question starting around the 1:23:21 mark as Meredith analyzes the previous play:
Meredith: Isn't Fair Hooker a great name? Cosell: <after a slight pause> I pass. Jackson: 3rd down and about 42 yards to go
And that was the extent of it. No follow-up remark of "I haven't met one yet" or anything resembling it. I wondered whether Meredith may have made that kind of statement later in the telecast. But I listened to the remainder of the video and found no such comment.
So where did this famous story come from? I have no idea. I suppose that once it appeared in print, other publications assumed it was true without attempting to verify it and simply ran with it. But that doesn't explain how it got printed that way in the first place. Perhaps Meredith was later interviewed about his "great name" comment and added the "haven't met one yet" quip at that time.
It seems that this often quoted Meredith line was really too good to be true.
I tracked the strokes televised by CBS during the final round of the PGA Championship. On Sunday, CBS showed 401 strokes from the 4th round. This worked out to an average of 1.32 strokes per minute - which was much higher than the previous three PGA Championship Sunday telecasts I have tracked.
CBS televised 55 strokes by winner Justin Thomas. Playing partner Hideki Matsuyama who was in stronger contention early in the round was seen most often (68). Along with third round leader Kevin Kisner (64) and Chris Stroud (52), the final two pairings accounted for 60% of the televised shots.
At one point during the round, eight golfers were within two shots of the lead. CBS bounced around frequently to show key shots from the many contenders. A whopping eight players received coverage for at least 25 shots. CBS devoted 87% of the televised strokes to those eight players. Overall, CBS showed 23 different golfers playing strokes. The highest finisher not shown by CBS was Justin Smith (T9).
I have compiled these televised shot charts since 2014. For comparison to other majors, see the summary table which contains links to all of these charts. (Note: I was busy during the Sunday round of the 2017 Open Championship and never compiled that chart, but I have a DVR copy of that telecast and may get to it some day).
Here is the complete shot chart:
Player
Shots shown
Finish
Pairing
Hideki Matsuyama
68 (of 71*)
T5
2
Kevin Kisner
64 (of 72**)
T7
1
Justin Thomas
55
1
2
Chris Stroud
52
T9
1
Patrick Reed
30
T2
4
Louis Oosthuizen
28
T2
3
Francesco Molinari
28
T2
6
Rickie Fowler
25
T5
8
Jordan Spieth
14
T28
21
Graham DaLaet
6
T7
4
Jason Day
5
T9
9
Grayson Murray
4
T22
3
Ian Poulter
4
T22
21
Sung Kang
3
T44
7
Jon Rahm
3
T58
22
Matt Kuchar
2
T9
15
Brooks Koepka
2
T13
18
Dustin Johnson
2
T13
27
Gary Woodland
2
T22
5
Jason Kokrak
2
T33
26
Marc Leishman
1
T13
24
Chez Reavie
1
T22
6
Jordan Smith
0
T9
15
others
0
total
401
* Matsuyama took 71 "shots" plus one penalty stroke for a score of 72
* Kisner took 72 "shots" plus two penalty strokes for a score of 74
Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 = final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.
I tracked the shots televised by Fox during the final round of the US Open. With the leaders teeing off around 4pm ET, I started the tracking at 3:30 to provide a similar timeframe to the other majors I have monitored.
Fox showed 366 strokes during the tracking period. The final putt dropped at 8:12 which resulted in a rate of 1.30 strokes per minute. This marked a significant increase over the 1.12 and 1.18 shown by Fox during its last two US Open telecasts, but trailed the 1.41 rate from the 2017 Masters on CBS.
Fox showed all but four shots from both winner Brooks Koepka and Brian Harman who tied for second. Rickie Fowler had 58 strokes televised and Tommy Fleetwood received coverage for 56. During the tracking period, Fox devoted 67% of its televised strokes to those four players. Fox showed 23 golfers playing strokes with eight players getting coverage for at least 12 shots. The highest finishers not shown during the period were three in the group who tied for 16th.
Also notable: Fox went commercial-free for the last 46 minutes of play.
This is the fourth year that I have compiled these televised shot charts. For comparison to prior majors, see this summary table which contains links to all shot charts since 2014.
Here is the complete shot chart (including the highest finishers not shown during the tracking period):
Player
Shots shown
Finish
Pairing
Brian Harman
68 (of 72)
T2
1
Brooks Koepka
63 (of 67)
1
2
Rickie Fowler
58
T5
3
Tommy Fleetwood
56
4
2
Justin Thomas
30
T9
1
Hideki Matsuyama
21
T2
8
Si Woo Kim
14
T13
3
Charley Hoffman
12
8
5
Xander Schauffele
6
T5
7
Brandt Snedeker
6
T9
6
Patrick Reed
5
T13
4
Russell Henley
5
T27
4
Cameron Champ
5
T32
12
Steve Stricker
4
T16
15
Bill Haas
2
T5
5
JB Holmes
2
12
8
Matt Kuchar
2
T16
18
Sergio Garcia
2
T21
10
Trey Mullinax
1
T9
9
Brendan Steele
1
T13
6
David Lingmerth
1
T21
15
Jim Furyk
1
T23
14
Scottie Scheffler
1
T27
17
Bernd Wiesberger
0
T16
7
Eddie Pepperell
0
T16
10
Chez Reavie
0
T16
11
others
0
total
366
Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 = final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.
I tracked the number of strokes that CBS aired per player during the Sunday round of the Masters. The telecast began at 2pm ET and I counted a total of 430 strokes televised by CBS during regulation. The final putt in regulation was holed at 7:05 which worked out to an average of 1.41 strokes per minute - not only an increase over the rate from the 2016 Masters, but a new record high for all major tournaments I have tracked since 2014.
Note: CBS televised all eight shots from the playoff, but I did not count these in the table in order to provide a fairer comparison to the tracking for other tournaments.
CBS covered 66 regulation strokes from both winner Sergio Garcia (skipping two tap-ins) and runner-up Justin Rose (skipping two layups and a tap-in). Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth were featured next most frequently. Those four players (comprising the final two pairings) accounted for slightly more than half of all televised shots. Early in the telecast, CBS seemed quite consumed with the competition for low amateur honors and wound up devoting a total of 17 strokes to the two amateurs who made the cut.
The highest finisher not shown by CBS was Kevin Chappell who tied for 7th. CBS televised strokes from 27 different players. 13 players were covered for at least 10 shots.
This is the fourth year that I have compiled these televised shot charts. For comparison to prior majors, see this summary table which contains links to all shot charts since 2014.
Here is the complete shot chart (including the highest finisher not shown on the telecast):
Player
Shots shown
Finish
Pairing
Sergio Garcia
66 (of 68*)
1
1
Justin Rose
66 (of 69)
2
1
Rickie Fowler
50
T11
2
Jordan Spieth
35
T11
2
Charl Schwartzel
31
3
4
Paul Casey
25
6
6
Charley Hoffman
23
T22
3
Thomas Pieters
22
T4
5
Adam Scott
19
T9
4
Matt Kuchar
11
T4
7
Ryan Moore
11
T9
3
Phil Mickelson
11
T22
13
Stewart Hagestad
10
T36
18
Fred Couples
9
T18
10
Lee Westwood
8
T18
5
Curtis Luck
7
T46
24
Rory McIlroy
7
T7
7
Martin Kaymer
6
T16
16
Russell Henley
3
T11
12
Jason Day
2
T22
14
Jon Rahm
2
T27
8
Hideki Matsuyama
1
T11
15
Jimmy Walker
1
T18
9
William McGirt
1
T22
8
Justin Thomas
1
T22
14
Daniel Berger
1
T27
18
Marc Leishman
1
T43
26
Kevin Chappell
0
T7
9
others
0
total
430
* Garcia took 68 "shots" plus one penalty stroke for a score of 69
Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 = final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.
This week, ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale is scheduled to call a game with Karl Ravech for the first time. Ravech will become the sixth play-by-play announcer this season to receive a first-ever TV pairing with Dickie V.
After noticing a recent flurry of such first-time pairings, I wondered how many different play-by-play partners have shared the broadcast table with Vitale over the years. So I attempted to compile a list of all play-by-play announcers who have worked with Vitale on college basketball. (Note: I am almost certainly missing some announcers from the early ESPN years as these the hardest to research.)
Vitale called the first college basketball game ever on ESPN back in December 1979 alongside Joe Boyle. Eventually, ESPN paired him regularly with Jim Simpson. In subsequent years, his most common ESPN partners included Mike Patrick, Tim Brando, Brad Nessler, and Dan Shulman. When ABC started carrying college games, he frequently worked with Keith Jackson and later Brent Musburger.
The list is a mix of prestigious broadcasters and lesser-known voices. One interesting name (perhaps surprising to some) is Al Michaels who worked a single time with Vitale (the 1989 Pac-10 championship game on ABC).
I find the pattern intriguing. Starting from the late 1980s, Vitale was acquiring about two new partners per year. Then after 1997, Vitale went without any new partners until 2005 and only picked up three additions to this list from through 2013. However, a few years ago, ESPN installed Jay Bilas as its top analyst to work with Shulman on the highest profile games. This move has resulted in Vitale working with a wide variety of first-time partners in recent seasons (10 since 2014).
Here is the list that my research uncovered (with calendar year of the first such telecast for which I found evidence). Again, note that I am very likely to be missing some names from the first decade.
During the NFL regular season, Fox and CBS share the Sunday afternoon TV rights. Each week, one network gets doubleheader rights and can show both an early and late afternoon game in most markets. The other network gets rights to show just a single game to each market. Typically, the network with the doubleheader features its most attractive game in the late afternoon (4:25 pm ET) time slot and usually assigns its top announcer team to that game.
Because Christmas Day is on Sunday this year, the NFL moved the bulk of its schedule to Saturday for week 16. This weekend, Fox has the NFL doubleheader TV rights, but is sending its #1 team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to call Vikings-Packers at 1pm ET instead of a 4:25 game. How rare is such an assignment? This is only the fourth time since 2004 that a network sent its top announcer crew to an early afternoon game on a day when that network owned the doubleheader rights.
Here are the only such instances in the past 12 seasons where the top team on the doubleheader network called a game in the early window:
2013 week 17 - CBS placed Jim Nantz and Phil Simms on Ravens-Bengals in the early window. Note: Since 2006, the NFL has allowed both CBS and Fox to televise a doubleheader on the final Sunday of the regular season. So the week 17 late doubleheader window is not exclusive to one network like it is for a typical NFL Sunday.
2011 week 17 - Fox assigned Buck and Aikman to Panthers-Saints at 1:00.
2008 week 12 - Fox sent Buck and Aikman to call 49ers-Cowboys in the early slot despite having rights to the late doubleheader slot (then at 4:15).
So the 2008 instance is the actually the only time since 2004 that a network holding exclusive doubleheader rights put its top team on an early game. For comparison, I found 23 cases of this between 1994 and 2004, so the relative rarity in recent years helps illustrate how important the late afternoon doubleheader window has become to the TV networks.
Another interesting aspect about the upcoming weekend is that CBS is sending its #1 team of Nantz/Simms to call a late afternoon game (Colts-Raiders) despite the fact that CBS has the singleheader. The 4:05 games tend to get limited regional distribution as they are aired against the featured 4:25 contest, so generally, the top crew gets assigned to an early game on a singleheader weekend.
But how unusual is this combination? Only twice since the 1998 season has the DH network assigned its top team to an early game while the singleheader network put its #1 crew on a late game that same day.
2004 week 14 - Fox had the doubleheader but sent Buck and Aikman to call Seahawks-Vikings while CBS placed Nantz and Simms on a late singleheader game (Jets-Steelers)
2002 week 11 - On this CBS doubleheader day, the #1 team of Greg Gumbel and Simms handled Bills-Chiefs early while Fox assigned its top team of Buck, Aikman, and Cris Collinsworth to call 49ers-Chargers in the late singleheader window.
For completeness, I found four other cases of this odd combination between 1994 and 1998.
In 1974, ABC made several key changes to its NCAA football coverage. The network elevated Keith Jackson to #1 play-by-play status and moved previous top announcer Chris Schenkel to the studio. This was also the season that ABC hired the college-aged Jim Lampley and Don Tollefsonto serve as sideline reporters.
However, ABC did not regularly pair Jackson with lead analyst Bud Wilkinson. Instead, the network experimented by using a collection of active coaches whose teams were on an off-week to join Jackson in the booth and serve as guest commentators. And rather than adding a coach to the booth as a second analyst to supplement Wilkinson, ABC used the coaches as the only analyst on these games.
ABC did use Wilkinson with Jackson on some games that year. Bud worked other regional telecasts alongside Bill Flemming.
The list of guest analysts used by ABC in 1974 included the following then-active head coaches:
Darrell Royal (Texas)
Ara Parseghian (Notre Dame)
Steve Sloan (Vanderbilt)
Pepper Rodgers (Georgia Tech)
Joe Paterno (Penn St)
Paul "Bear" Bryant (Alabama)
Woody Hayes (Ohio St)
along with Nebraska athletic director Bob Devaney who had recently retired from coaching the Cornhuskers. ABC used Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer as the analyst for the Sugar Bowl that season (as his Sooners were on probation and banned from bowl games).
ABC ditched the idea after one season. But early in the 1975 season, ABC did use Devaney as a guest analyst on one game and did the same with Parseghian (who retired from coaching after 1974) on another.
A few of the coaches on this list became TV analysts after retiring. Parseghian was hired full-time by ABC in 1976 and moved to CBS in 1982. He served as the lead analyst for a time on each network. Royal and Rodgers both worked some regional games for ABC in the early 1980s.
Here is the game that Joe Paterno called. With his thick Brooklyn accent and subdued voice level, Paterno was difficult to understand at times.
And here is a clip from the game with Woody Hayes in the booth. Hayes actually had some on-air experience as he conducted a local TV show which ran weekly during the football season for 28 years on Columbus station WBNS. But he didn't seem to add much insight as an analyst on this telecast.
In 2012, ESPN Classic aired a series of specials looking back on the Munich Games. Here is the video of the USA track controversy episode and a summary of that show that I wrote at the time.
A quick guide to the Cosell portions of the clip:
3:05 - interview with Robinson
5:22 - interview with Hart
10:41 - interview with Wright
15:35 - Cosell follow-up commentary
39:03 - interview with 400m medalists Wayne Matthews and Vince Collett regarding their controversial national anthem ceremony
I tracked the strokes televised by CBS during the final round of the PGA Championship. On Sunday, CBS showed 367 strokes from round 4. I included a few shots CBS aired from earlier 4th round coverage, but did not count highlight strokes from the 3rd round. CBS started at 2pm ET and the final putt dropped at 7:23 for an average of 1.14 strokes per minute - a increase over the rate of 1.05 from the 2015 PGA.
CBS showed all 67 strokes by winner Jimmy Walker and bypassed only six from runner-up Jason Day. Henrik Stenson was shown 56 times as CBS devoted over half of its televised strokes to those three. With no re-pairing of the field after the 3rd round, the contenders were spread out. This enabled CBS to bounce around the course as several players were in contention with the leaders on the front 9. CBS showed 25 golfers playing strokes with 10 players getting coverage of at least 12 shots. The highest finisher not shown by CBS was Patrick Reed (T13).
For comparison, here are the shot charts from the other 2016 majors:
I tracked the strokes televised by NBC during the Sunday round of the Open Championship. I started tracking at 9am ET to provide a decent comparison to the other majors I have tracked. The final putt was at 1:30pm so the tracking covered 4.5 hours.
NBC aired all but one stroke from winner Henrik Stenson (skipping a tap-in on 12th) and all but two from runner-up Phil Mickelson (bypassing tap-ins on #2 and #5). With those two separating themselves from the field, NBC focused heavily on that pairing. In fact, NBC devoted a whopping 56% of all televised strokes during this period to the Stenson/Mickelson duo (who didn't even tee off until 35 minutes into the tracking).
NBC televised only 224 shots during this period which worked out to 0.83 strokes per minute. This was a sizable decrease from the ESPN shot rate of 1.23 that I measured from the 2015 Open Championship and the lowest rate for any major that I have tracked. The lack of competition from the rest of the field clearly contributed to the low rate. NBC chose to aggressively spotlight the drama and excellence of the lead group (and take numerous commercial breaks) rather than fill time with relatively meaningless golf action from the rest of the pack.
For comparison, refer to the shot tracking data I compiled for CBS from the 2016 Masters and Fox from the 2016 US Open, In that Masters post, you can find links to the shot charts I did for the 2014 and 2015 majors.
NBC showed a total of 24 golfers during the tracking period. The highest finisher not shown during this span was Soren Kjeldsen who tied for 9th.
Here is the complete shot chart:
Player
Shots shown
Finish
Pairing
Phil Mickelson
63 (of 65)
2
1
Henrik Stenson
62 (of 63)
1
1
Rory McIlroy
14
T5
11
Andrew Johnston
13
8
2
JB Holmes
10
3
3
Bill Haas
8
T9
2
Sergio Garcia
7
T5
5
Dustin Johnson
5
T9
8
Steve Stricker
4
4
3
Tyrrell Hatton
4
T5
7
Jason Day
4
T22
15
Lee Westwood
4
T22
22
Darren Clarke
4
T30
20
Zach Johnson
3
T12
9
Emiliano Grillo
3
T12
11
Haydn Porteous
3
T30
13
Tony Finau
2
T18
4
Kevin Na
2
T22
8
Thomas Pieters
2
T30
14
Jordan Spieth
2
T30
26
Jim Furyk
2
T59
26
Thongchai Jaidee
1
T22
14
Rafa Cabrera Bella
1
T39
16
Rickie Fowler
1
T46
24
Soren Kjeldsen
0
T9
4
others
0
total
224
Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 = final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.
I tracked the shots televised by Fox during the 4th round of the US Open. With the final pairing getting underway at 3:30 pm ET, I began the monitoring at 3:00 to provide a fair comparison to the other tournaments where I have performed similar Sunday tracking.
Fox showed 354 unique strokes during the tracking period. The final putt dropped at 8:16 so this worked out to 1.12 strokes per minute. This shot rate significantly trailed the 1.33 of the 2016 Masters on CBS. This was also a decrease from the 1.18 shown by Fox during its 2015 coverage of the US Open. Fox spent quite a bit of time discussing the controversy over the potential one-stroke penalty which was eventually applied to Johnson's score after the round, so that might explain part of the dropoff. (Note: From the 2016 Masters post, you can find links to the shot charts I compiled from the 2014 and 2015 majors).
Fox showed all but four of the strokes played by winner Dustin Johnson and all but four from third-round leader Shane Lowry. Fox showed just 20 golfers playing strokes. Nine players were covered for at least 15 shots. The highest finisher not shown during the tracking period was David Lingmerth who finished 12th.
Also notable: Fox went commercial-free for 52 minutes starting at 7:25.
Here is the complete shot chart:
Player
Shots shown
Finish
Pairing
Shane Lowry
72 (of 76)
T2
1
Dustin Johnson
64 (of 68*)
1
2
Scott Piercy
40
T2
4
Jason Day
29
T8
5
Sergio Garcia
25
T5
4
Andrew Landry
24
T15
1
Branden Grace
23
T5
3
Lee Westwood
21
T32
2
Jim Furyk
15
T2
13
Daniel Summerhays
8
T8
3
Bryson DeChambeau
8
T15
5
Brooks Koepka
6
T13
19
Jason Dufner
5
T8
7
Jordan Spieth
5
T37
15
Kevin Na
3
7
7
Zach Johnson
2
T8
6
Kevin Streelman
1
T13
6
Yusaku Miyazato
1
T23
12
Jon Rahm
1
T23
23
Angel Cabrera
1
T37
28
David Lingmerth
0
12
20
others
0
total
354
* Johnson took 68 "shots" plus one penalty stroke for a score of 69
Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 = final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.
I tracked the number of strokes CBS showed for each player during the Sunday round of the Masters. I counted a total of 411 strokes televised by CBS. The telecast began at 2pm ET with the final putt at 7:10 which worked out to an average of 1.33 strokes per minute - a sizable increase from both the 2015 Masters and 2014 Masters.
CBS covered 41 strokes from winner Danny Willett. CBS first showed Willett on hole 4 and started airing all of his strokes partway through hole 13. CBS televised every stroke from third round leader Jordan Spieth. Dustin Johnson was featured second most often for a total of 55 shots. Nine players got coverage of at least 24 strokes.
The highest finisher not shown by CBS was Daniel Berger who tied for 10th. CBS televised strokes from 28 different players.
This is the third year that I have compiled these televised shot charts. For comparison, the chart from the 2015 PGA Championship contains links to all the charts from the other 2014 and 2015 majors.
Here is the complete shot chart (including the highest finisher not shown on the telecast):
Player
Shots shown
Finish
Pairing
Jordan Spieth
71 (of 71*)
T2
1
Dustin Johnson
55
T4
3
Danny Willett
41
1
4
Jason Day
37
T10
3
Smylie Kaufman
37
T29
1
Soren Kjeldson
32
T7
5
Lee Westwood
26
T2
4
Hideki Matsuyama
25
T7
2
Rory McIlroy
24 (#)
T10
6
Paul Casey
11
T4
10
Bernhard Langer
11
T24
2
Matthew Fitzpatrick
6
T7
13
Brandt Snedeker
5
T10
5
Davis Love III
5
T42
17
Bryson DeChambeau
4
T21
14
Henrik Stenson
3
T24
23
Adam Scott
3
T42
18
JB Holmes
2
T4
8
Louis Oosthuizen
2
T15
8
Bubba Watson
2
T37
24
Romain Langasque
2
T37
28
Justin Rose
1
T10
7
Kiradech Aphibarnrat
1
T15
15
Billy Horschel
1
T17
9
Emiliano Grillo
1
T17
10
Matt Kuchar
1
T24
9
Shane Lowry
1
T39
19
Larry Mize
1
T52
26
Daniel Berger
0
T10
6
others
0
total
411
* Spieth took 71 "shots" plus two penalty strokes for a score of 73
# includes a provisional stroke televised by CBS on hole 4
Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 = final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.
On Wednesday night, ESPN aired footage from the famous Texas Western victory over Kentucky in the 1966 NCAA championship game. The black & white video was shot from a wider view than a conventional telecast, but it still provided a fascinating glimpse into this historic game which grew in significance over the years.
The ESPN telecast supplemented the footage with audio from the Kentucky radio broadcast. Embarrassingly, ESPN misidentified the announcer as "Walt" Sullivan both in a promotional press release and in an on-screen graphic.
The voice was actually that of longtime Kentucky radio announcer Claude Sullivan. Many other sites propagated this ESPN error without performing any fact checking. (Note: Sometime after the airing, ESPN updated its press release to reflect the correct name of the announcer.)
Sullivan never mentioned race during his game commentary. On multiple occasions, Sullivan misidentified (or failed to identify) Texas Western players, especially early in the game. He seemed to focus more on what he viewed as the "poor" play of the Wildcats rather than praise the Miners. The game action was interesting as there were several travelling violations called (which Sullivan referred to as "walking"). It also provided a reminder that this era featured the one-shot non-shooting foul.
The footage appeared to be from a coaching film. It certainly wasn't from the original telecast as it contained no graphics. ESPN added some supplemental graphics to periodically display the score. Of course, ESPN had previously stated that it was re-airing the original telecast only to later back down from that claim.
ESPN2 will re-air this special on Sunday 4/3 at 11am ET. I assume the ESPN production crew will edit the above graphic by then.
The TV career of Al McGuire got its start on an event he wasn't even broadcasting. During the final seconds of the 1977 NCAA Tournament championship game with the outcome no longer in doubt, the NBC cameras zoomed in on the Marquette head coach. Earlier, McGuire had announced he would retire from coaching after the season at the relatively young age of 48. Curt Gowdy describes the scene as McGuire, on the verge of an unexpected championship, is overcome by emotion.
In rewatching this clip, I was struck by two things: 1) how McGuire (unintentionally) dominated the end of the telecast and 2) the prophetic quote from Gowdy at the 17:46 mark accompanied by a prophetic split screen image with a circle around McGuire (more on that later):
And McGuire who says: "I'm an entertainer. I entertain the fans."
and then this starting at 18:25 from Dick Enberg:
It's going to be sad for us to say goodbye to Al McGuire... Thank you Al McGuire... for the many great moments you've given us.
In fact, the college basketball TV entertainment factor was about to be ratcheted up several notches. The goodbye would be brief and even greater moments were on the horizon.
When McGuire retired from coaching, college basketball was a essentially a regional TV sport with just one national telecast per week. Just two seasons earlier, NBC had added the first regular season national network TV package with Enberg and Billy Packer as the announcers.
For the 1977-78 season, NBC hired McGuire who was a novice to television and added him to the mix. However, rather than place him courtside with Enberg and Packer, NBC initially stationed McGuire next to a monitor away from the court and only cut to him periodically during the telecasts (starting him off as the ultimate sidekick!). And NBC would place his image on a small corner of a split screen during his in-game commentary. After a few weeks of this awkward arrangement, Enberg and Packer convinced NBC to move McGuire alongside them to form a true 3-man broadcasting team.
Nothing about Al McGuire was scripted. Rather than attempt to fill the role of a traditional basketball analyst, McGuire simply "played" himself on the air. And, just as importantly, NBC allowed the true personality of McGuire to shine instead of trying to make him conform to a more conventional style.
He spoke sparingly at the beginning and his vocal delivery wasn't always smooth. But he had a feel for basketball and he eventually developed a feel for broadcasting. He described things in simple terms and offered opinions on in-game coaching decisions he would make. His unassuming style began to resonate with fans.
Al McGuire, Dick Enberg, Billy Packer
When he was a head coach, McGuire didn't watch film of opponents and left the strategic advance planning to his assistants. He made his imprint during games when he reacted to the situation at hand and made the appropriate adjustments. As a broadcaster, he took a similar approach. He didn't study rosters or statistics before telecasts. Instead he would ask a coach or scout to fill him in on a few key players for each team. When the TV lights came on, he would rely on his instincts for the game. He let the action on the court guide his commentary.
McGuire's distinctive voice, with his Brooklyn accent, just sounded so cool and drew me in. He brought a lot of colorful terminology to the airwaves: a tall player was an aircraft carrier, a down to the wire game was a white knuckler, a fancy move was French pastry, the lane area was the paint, and when a game was clinched, it was tap city. His style was enthusiastic and his commentary provided insight into his unusual coaching mindset.
As a coach, McGuire was unconventional to the core. In 1970, he turned down an NCAA Tournament bid and instead took Marquette to the NIT. (The NCAA no longer allows this.) He received two technical fouls in the 1974 NCAA championship game and blamed himself for costing his team a chance to win. He recruited many inner-city players from disadvantaged backgrounds. He implemented a "senior star" system in an attempt to get his veteran players noticed by professional scouts. He helped pioneer some stylish basketball uniform designs which were later banned by the NCAA.
Away from the arena, he loved to talk about motorcycles rather than basketball. Even though he earned decent money, he drew great pleasure from negotiating prices at flea markets. He was brilliant at reading people and relating to them. And he brought those traits into the broadcast booth.
A 3-man announcing team was very uncommon at the time, especially in the fast-paced game of basketball. But because co-analysts Packer and McGuire had such contrasting styles, it clicked. Enberg was emerging as one of the best play-by-play announcers ever. Packer followed the sport intensely (covering ACC games during the week) and focused on player matchups and strategy. McGuire added emotion and flair - the entertainment angle. The trio developed tremendous chemistry and meshed so well together. The resulting blend showcased the strengths of each.
Packer and McGuire frequently disagreed on the air which brought even more attention to the telecasts. The tandem would argue about everything from goaltending calls to coaching decisions to whether the undefeated Indiana State team deserved to be ranked #1 in 1979. Al would often playfully needle Packer about the ACC.
Because NBC generally covered just one national game a week, it was a huge event when the network came to town for a featured Sunday afternoon telecast. And McGuire, the former isolated sidekick, was quickly becoming the star of the show.
I recall tuning in and wondering what McGuire would say about Ralph Sampson or Bob Knight. Or what wacky predictions Al might make. When I played rec basketball in college, I remember McGuire's catch-phrases making their way into the action. When we watched the TV games, the banter between Packer and McGuire was a huge topic of conversation.
The Enberg/Packer/McGuire run lasted only four seasons. CBS acquired rights to the NCAA Tournament starting in 1982 and lured Packer away from NBC. McGuire continued to work regular season games with Enberg on NBC for several years before moving to CBS himself in 1992 and getting to call March Madness games again. After hiring Enberg in 2000, CBS did reunite the trio for one game that season. But McGuire only called two games after that and health issues forced him to miss the 2000 NCAA Tournament.
McGuire sadly passed away in 2001 from leukemia at age 72. But his legendary storytelling lives on, partly due to a one-man play written by Enberg titled McGuire and performed by actor Cotter Smith.
The following clip of McGuire on himself (at the 12:00 mark) captures the essence of McGuire:
For college basketball, Enberg is arguably the best play-by-play announcer of all time and Packer is arguably the best analyst ever. And yet they peaked during those four special seasons alongside McGuire when they formed my favorite all-time broadcasting team. Here is the classic trio on the call of a game from 1980:
College basketball on TV exploded in popularity starting in the late 1970s and I believe that McGuire was a key factor in that growth. By the late 1980s, the sport had national telecasts on all three major networks plus ESPN. But Enberg, Packer, and McGuire paved the way.
Al McGuire was indeed an entertainer and unique as a TV analyst. I thank him for all the great moments he provided. This post is part of a TV Sidekick Blogathon hosted by Classic Film and TV Cafe. Please check out the complete schedule of blog posts for this event.
