Seen on Screen: NCAA Tourney Selection Show Expands to Two Hours; John Scott’ NHL All-Star Story Set for Feature Film
Story Highlights
by Alicia Montanaro, Editorial Assistant
The NCAA Basketball Championship Selection Show, featuring the first-time announcement of the pairings for the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, is expanding to two hours this year. The newly extended show will air Sunday March 13 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. ET on CBS, hosted by Ernie Johnson and Greg Gumbel from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City. Clark Kellogg, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Seth David, and Doug Gottlieb will provide analysis throughout the 35th edition of the Selection Show.
In addition, Joseph R. Castiglione, Chairman of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, will join the hosts in-studio to discuss the selection process. The NCAA Basketball Championship Selection Show will be available on CBS and via the March Madness Live app, NCAA March Madness Live…
…Mandalay Sports Media has acquired the rights to script a feature about the story of hockey player John Scott. Scott has had a unique experience this year, as he was voted into the NHL All-Star Game as a captain through an Internet write-in campaign and became the game’s MVP, before he was traded and moved to the minors. Mitch Albom, longtime Detroit Free Press sportswriter and author of books such as Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, is set to act as executive producer and write the film’s script. Mandalay Sports Media’s Mike Tollin and Jon Weinbach will produce Scott’s feature (Deadline)…
…ESPN networks will combine to televise more than 230 live hours of the UEFA European Football Championship 2016, June 10 – July 10 in 10 cities across France. ESPN will carry 40 matches including the opening and title matches. ESPN2 will show 11 matches. ESPN Deportes, the company’s Spanish-language sports network, will show 45 live matches and six tape-delayed on dates with concurrent matches. All matches will be streamed live in English and Spanish on WatchESPN. ESPN3 Surround delivers exclusive content tied to live events on ESPN linear networks, offering a companion experience in real-time that will complement the big game on television. For UEFA EURO 2016, ESPN3 Surround will carry four differentUEFA EURO 2016 streams for each match – the Spider Cam feed, the Spider Cam triple-box feed, the Tactical Cam feed, and the Tactical Cam triple-box feed – offering fans alternate camera angles, experiences and stories around the game. (ESPN and ESPN Deportes commentator assignments will be announced at a later date.)
ESPN match telecasts for the UEFA European Football Championship will include pregame, halftime and postgame studio segments. Every ESPN and ESPN2 match will feature a 30-minute pregame, halftime and a postgame shows. ESPN’s flagship news and information program SportsCenter will air in-between morning matches throughout the Tournament. ESPN Deportes, the Spanish-language home of the UEFA European Football Championship 2016 in the United States will provide the most-comprehensive coverage every match day beginning with a 30-minute pre-game edition ofFuera de Juego, a halftime show, in-between match programming, and a two-hour TV exclusive presentation of Jorge Ramos y Su Banda immediately following the last match of the day…
…Smithsonian Channel and Major League Baseball have teamed up to air the “Major League Legends” series, in order to tell the stories of four historic players and American icons: Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Lou Gehrig. Each episode is narrated by Emmy and Golden Globe winner Martin Sheen. The features take an in-depth look at the history, psychology, and mythology of each of the Baseball Hall of Famers. The first film of the series, “Major League Legends: Hank Aaron” premiered this week on February 29…
…A signature element of ESPN’s annual pre-NFL Draft coverage is returning for its seventh time this spring. In this year’s edition of Gruden’s QB Camp series, Jon Gruden will welcome seven quarterbacks to ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, to spend time with them in the film room and on the field. The 2016 Gruden’s QB Camp class will feature projected first round picks Jared Goff, the 1st team All-Pac 12 selection, and Carson Wentz, the Most Outstanding Player from the NCAA DI National Championship the past two years. Gruden’s QB Camp show will begin to air on April 12, at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN and will be broadcast across multiple ESPN networks and ABC leading up to the 2016 NFL Draft…
…This past Wednesday, all eight teams competing in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey revealed their preliminary rosters. Sportsnet and the NHL Network broadcast a three-hour special featuring the roster unveilings, including live coverage of the announcements by Team Europe, Team North America, and Team Canada. Later that night, at 7 p.m. ET, NHL Network aired a one-hour special, “NHL Tonight: 2016 World Cup of Hockey Roster Announcement,” recapping the news of the day. The World Cup will take place on September 17 through October 1 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. ESPN will televise the games in the United States, while Sportsnet and TVA Sports will broadcast them in Canada…
…For the fourth consecutive year, NBC Sports Group will present more than eight hours of live coverage of the Hockey East Men’s Championship. Coverage of the 2015-16 Championship Game and Semifinals will be televised on NBCSN and will also be streamed on NBC Sports Live Extra – NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, tablets, and connected TVs. NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra’s coverage of the Hockey East Men’s Championship begins Friday, March 18 at 5 p.m. ET with Game 1 of the Semifinals, from TD Garden in Boston, Mass. Coverage continues that evening at 8 p.m. ET with Game 2 of the Semifinals. Winners of the two semifinal games will then move on to the 32nd annual Hockey East Championship Game, Saturday, March 18 at at 7 p.m. ET on NBCSN. Steve Schlanger will manage play-by-play duties for all Hockey East Championship games on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra, and will be joined by analyst Anson Carter. NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra combined to deliver 16 Hockey East games during the 2015-16 regular season, with 10 games televised on NBCSN and an additional six games streamed live via NBC Sports Live Extra…
…The Tennis Channel will be airing three-and-a-half weeks of live tennis coverage at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, CA on March 9 and the Miami Open on March 22—the sport’s “fifth” slam events. The channel’s coverage will consist of more than 185 live hours, with 18 days of live action. 15 of these days will consist of daylong blocks of coverage. Also, this year marks the third time that Hall of Famer Jim Courier will be part of the Tennis Channel’s on air team for the BNP Paribas Open. He will be joined by fellow Hall of Famers, Lindsay Davenport and Tracy Austin. Davenport will act as an analyst for Tennis Channel Live at the Miami Open as well, alongside former players Leif Shiras and Mark Knowles. Tennis Channel’s website, www.tennischannel.com will provide news, highlights, scores, and columns from reporters Steve Flink and Joel Drucker throughout the Southern California and Miami tournaments. In addition, fans can use the network app Tennis Channel Everywhere, which is available on Apple, Android, and Amazon Fire devices, as well as Roku and Apple TV. The Tennis Channel’s 185 live hour coverage begins on Tuesday March 8 with Racquet Bracket Live: BNP Paribas Open from 8:00-9:00 p.m.…
…Before he stepped into the announcer booth on March 4 for AX TV’s hit pro wrestling series “New Japan Pro Wrestling”, legendary broadcaster Jim Ross sat down with combat sports commentator Michael Schiavello for an hour-long interview on “The Voice Versus.” Ross, who made historic calls for nearly 20 years for WWE, shared star-studded stories about topics such as his in-ring confrontations, his relationships with wrestlers such as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson”, his time with WCW, and persevering despite being diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy. During his conversation with Schiavello, Ross went into especially great detail about his unique relationship with WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon…
…The welterweight title fight between Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter that was scheduled to air on CBS on March 12 has been canceled. Since Thurman was involved in a car accident last week, his fight with Porter had to be postponed. It was thought that the co-feature featherweight fight between three-division world champions Abner Mares and Fernando Montiel could be saved and aired on Showtime. However, scheduling and programming factors prevented this from being a viable option. Mares vs. Montiel remains paired with the Thurman vs. Porter title fight, which will be rescheduled for a later date on CBS…
…Adding to the network’s Motorsports roster, which currently includes FIM WorldSBK and Rallycross, beIN Sports announced the addition of the FIM MotoGP World Championship to its lineup of global sporting events. The races, along with original programming, will become available to U.S. viewers on beIN Sports, beIN Sports en Español, and beIN Sports Connect this year. Coverage of the FIM MotoGP World Championship begins on March 20, with the Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar. beIN Sports will feature news, analysis, and multimedia elements throughout the World Championship. All programming on beIN Sports Connect is offered in HD and is available on PCs, tablets, and smart phones…
…Willow TV International will be broadcasting and live streaming the International Crick Council (ICC) Events, starting with the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India on March 8. All 35 matches from the men’s tournament and 11 matches from the women’s tournament will be televised live on the Willow Cricket Channel in HD between March 8 and April 3, 2016—the first ever broadcast of the ICC Cricket tournament in the United states. The Willow cricket channel is available on leading satellite, cable, IPTV, and Internet video platforms across the United States. In addition, Willow’s TV Everywhere service will allow authenticated subscribers to access action from the tournament on their computers, tablets, and smartphones…
…Showtime Sports rolls out its third installment of a year-long salute commemorating 30 years of Showtime Championship Boxing in March with “Legends’’. This month will be highlighted by legends Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Felix Trinidad, Ricardo “Finito” Lopez and George Foreman. Seven of the most unforgettable and important fights from these legends – some of which have seldom been re-aired since their live presentation – are available now on the network’s on demand platforms and will air will air on “Throwback Thursdays” in March at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime Extreme. The Thursday, March 10 presentation of Marvin Hagler vs. John Mugabi airs exactly 30 years after the final win of Hagler’s Hall of Fame career on March 10, 1986. Hagler vs. Mugabi was the first main event to ever air on Showtime. The classic fights, which are also are available on Showtime on Demand, Showtime Anytime and via the network’s standalone streaming service, will be wrapped with brief context and commentary from Showtime Sports host Brian Custer…
…The Nickelodeon network will introduce series with football stars Cam Newton and Rob Gronkowski. Newton, the Carolina Panthers quarterback and reigning NFL MVP, will host “All In,” a series where he will take kids on dream-fulfilling journeys. Gronkowski, of the New England Patriots, will be the face of “Crashletes,” introducing popular clips of sports action. Nickelodeon presented its upcoming programming ideas to a meeting of advertisers on Wednesday. Another new series, “Jagger Eaton’s Mega Life,” will follow the 15-year-old skateboard star as he meets people around the world. Nick is also looking to expand “The HALO Effect,” a series that profiles young activists. (AP)…
