Tuesday, July 14, 2009

News

Lehigh Valley native Matt Millen will be paired with Sean McDonough on ABC's Saturday afternoon college football coverage.

Millen is going to be a busy, busy man this year, working ABC college games on Saturdays, shifting to ESPN's Monday Night pregame set and then doing The NFL Network's Thursday Night games in the second half of the pro season.

Millen said he's had a similar, hectic schedule before he went to Detroit, but wow, this may be crazy, particularly late in the NFL season.

Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit will continue as ABC's lead announcing team on Saturday nights, while Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge will be the lead ESPN broadcasting tandem on Saturday nights.

The ever-popular Erin Andrews will be working the sidelines for ESPN with the Nessler/Blackledge team and will also brighten up ESPN's Thursday Night package with Chris Fowler, Craig James and Jesse Palmer.

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We made a big deal out of it because it was here in our backyard, but most of the sports world evidently could have cared less about the U.S. Women's Open golf championship.

Final round coverage drew a 1.3/3 overnight rating, which was down 19 percent from last year's final round coverage and down 32 percent from 2007. It was the lowest rated final round since at least 1997.

The third round on Saturday also didn't generate much interest. It was down 21 percent from 2008.

No wonder the LPGA commissioner was forced out. This is a tour and sport in serious trouble in terms of widespread appeal.

Maybe they wouldn't have saved the ratings totally, but you can bet Michelle Wie and Natalie Gulbis would have brought some more viewers to the table had they been playing and in contention Saturday and Sunday.

I got in a quick 90-second interview with Gulbis Sunday as she was whisked away from the Lexus tent at Saucon Valley.

She said she will be on the ESPYs this weekend.

As for "Celebrity Apprentice," a show I watched faithfully on NBC last winter, Gulbis said, "Joan Rivers was wild. But she treated me very well and was real nice to me. Clint Black was a good guy, too, he's really into golf."

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