Golf writers boycotting
Tiger's statement
Other shorts: Programming notes: Spike orders 'Back Nine'
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Feb 19, 2010
Golf writers boycotting Tiger's statement
Tiger Woods' first public appearance in three months is bound to be big news today, but you won't hear about it from the Golf Writers Association of America. The group of nearly 1000 writers is boycotting the statement being given by Woods today, objecting to the participation parameters laid out by Woods' team. Woods will not allow any questions from the reporters in attendance, which will include three wire reporters in addition to the TV cameras. The GWAA board voted to skip the event, where most reporters are being housed in a building a mile away from the TPC at Sawgrass clubhouse in Florida where Woods will deliver his statement. Just what that statement will be remains unclear, although reports out this morning claim that Woods, who has been taking a break from the PGA Tour since word of his multiple marital infidelities surfaced in November, is headed back to sex rehab, where he's been the past few weeks.
Programming notes: Spike orders 'Back Nine'
pilot
Spike has shown some eerie foresight where Woods is concerned. Roughly a year ago, the network began developing a golf-themed comedy called "Back Nine" that included a sex-addicted caddy character named, you guessed it, Tiger. In a case of life imitating art, or at least imitating basic cable, Woods went to rehab for treatment of sex addiction earlier this year. Not surprisingly, Spike has now ordered a pilot for "Nine," which stars John Schneider as a fading former U.S. Open winner who competes in small golf tournaments in an attempt to return to the PGA Tour. Meanwhile, in other programming, A&E has ordered a 16-episode second season of “Steven Seagal: Lawman,” with the new season filmed during Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The first season of “Lawman” averaged 2.1 million total viewers, according to Nielsen. Comedy Central has plans for two hour-long stand-up comedy specials to be taped at House of Blues locations, with the first one taking place on April 16 in Boston. And throughout March PBS will roll out “Visions of Canada,” a documentary that looks at Canada from east to west. The program will first air on New York’s WLIW on March 1.
Nielsen: Sony grabs Games advertising gold
Sony is standing atop the podium for Olympic advertising. A new analysis from Nielsen released this morning finds that Sony was the most-watched brand advertised during primetime on the first three nights of the Olympic games, with one commercial that drew an average 30.7 million total viewers. "We Are the World's" Haiti relief spot was second at 29.7 million, followed by Nike at 28.9 million. Those were well above the 24.7 million average for all commercial brands. The Nielsen study also found that freestyle skiing was the most-watched Winter Games sport over the weekend, based on a minute-by-minute viewing analysis. Freestyle averaged 26.93 million viewers, barely edging downhill skiing at 26.7 million. Luge was third at 26.16 million, followed by snowboarding at 25.5 million. Perhaps surprisingly, figure skating, considered the marquee event of the games, ranked only fifth at 25.45 million, though the men's and women's competitions had yet to air. Finally, Nielsen finds that hockey has generated the most online buzz among Olympic sports, followed by luge, in which a participant died during a practice session last week.
Wait till Elvis hears this: Enquirer up for Pulitzer
In the newspaper business there’s a lot of snobbery about what a real newspaper is all about, and for the longest time the National Enquirer was considered exactly what a real newspaper should not be about, with its trashy stories and lurid headlines. But the supermarket tab just got a huge boost to its credibility. The panel that awards the Pulitzer Prizes for outstanding journalism has agreed to consider the paper for its annual awards in reporting. The paper submitted stories from the John Edwards scandal, in which the former candidate for the presidency was caught in an extra-marital affair that led to the birth of a child out of wedlock. The paper broke the story and decided to apply for a Pulitzer. The panel is pretty mum on the whole process of how it considers entries, but insiders have said the panel has accepted the paper’s submission for this year’s awards.
Richmond weekly cans reporter for expletive email
A friendly reminder to reporters not looking to be fired: make sure the name in the “to” field of your email is correct before hitting “send.” And if you can't do that, at least clean up your language. Chris Dovi, a reporter for the Richmond, Va., alternative newspaper Style Weekly, was fired this week for sending an email that used an obscenity to describe blind motivational speaker William Weeks. Dovi likely would still have a job if he’d have sent the email to his editor as intended. Instead the email went to Scott McCaskey, Weeks’ public relations representative. Dovi was apparently frustrated by McCaskey’s repeated attempts to get him to cover a Feb. 25 presentation in Richmond, and in the email in question he referred to Weeks as a “blind f@¢%&r.” Style Weekly hasn’t commented on Dovi’s firing but released a statement that said his email “violated the core values we hold sacred at Style.” Dovi told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that he shouldn’t have been so flip.
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