A real good shift for the Bruins
Team outrates Sox on Sunday
Even a month ago, it would have been unthinkable to look at the weekend ratings and see a Bruins game outrating the Red Sox. However, that's just what happened Sunday when the Bruins-Canadiens (8.7) drew a higher number than Red Sox-Blue Jays (8.5).
Granted, they weren't going head to head, with the Bruins at night and the Sox in the afternoon. And the Sox had stiffer competition, going up against the Masters (5.8). The Bruins were opposite Padres-Giants (0.9) on ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball."
Tonight and Thursday, the Sox and Bruins go head-to-head on New England TV. NESN airs Bruins-Canadiens each night, going to its "alternate-channel status" for Sox-Orioles, which again will be seen on a lineup of happy-to-carry-the-game affiliates. Baseball will be found on CN8 (Channel 3) on
A bonus for those watching the Bruins Sunday was that the game was in a wide-screen format on iNHD2, at least in Comcast households. The explanation (wink, wink) is that Comcast left the channel open in case the afternoon Sox game went 20 innings, and while the hockey game technically wasn't true HD -- the signal was "upconverted" along the way -- the pictures were sensational. HD subscribers should check the channel where they normally find NESN, however. Best guess is they'll find the Sox.
Meanwhile, Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez maintained his reputation as a leading man when it comes to TV ratings. The Sox-Jays Saturday night game did a 10.5 rating, peaking at a 13.3 at 8:30.
Nationally, Sunday's Masters on CBS did a 7.3 rating (19 share) for the expanded coverage, with the start moved up an hour to 1:30 p.m. because of the possibility of inclement weather.
It was the Easter holiday, and the number of US households using TVs during the Masters telecast was down 15 percent from last year (from 48.8 percent to 41.7 percent). In Boston, the number of households using TVs was even smaller (34.2 percent). The Masters telecast did a 5.8 rating (17 share) here, with the audience rising to 9.2 and 8.1 in the last two quarter-hours from 5:45-6:15 p.m.
Voices carry
Factoring crowd noise into a broadcast requires a lot of work for little measurable gain, but the contrast between the Bruins-Canadiens on WBZ radio and NESN Sunday night was startling. The radio broadcast had little background sound while the TV rocked with the chants of "Go Habs Go!" "Ole! Ole!" and "Fray-zur," the latter mocking referee Kerry Fraser. In comparison, the booing of the national anthem was more of an "are they doing what I think they're doing?" sound . . . Then there was the leather-lunged Fenway fan heard on Sunday's telecast, doing a takeoff on the Dunkin' Donuts ad by yelling at Curt Schilling, "Throw it wicked hahd!" . . . Wouldn't you like to hear Johnny Miller call the Masters, just once, to see if he could remain politically correct among the Green Jackets? It's always jarring to hear the CBS crew referring to the fans as "patrons." . . . During the 10th inning of Boston's 6-4 12-inning victory Sunday, Gabe Kapler was at bat, and Blue Jays third baseman Eric Hinske was playing deep with two outs and Manny Ramirez on third. Sox analyst Jerry Remy said, "Drop one down [i.e. bunt], win the game." Kapler instead popped out to end the inning . . . The 600,000 Adelphia customers in New England (and 1.7 million customers throughout the Northeast) had ESPN HD and NESN HD added to their service last week. Adelphia director of product marketing David Daniels says next up as a new service for subscribers is a TiVO-like digital recorder and, after that, a combination HD box/digital video recorder. "I think the digital recorder actually will have more impact on viewing habits than the HD screen," he said . . . ESPN had more in-game interviews Sunday night, with play-by-play man Jon Miller, who calls Giants games in addition to his ESPN work, chatting with San Francisco manager Felipe Alou during the broadcast and Sam Ryan interviewing Giants starter Brett Tomko after he came out of the game. Interesting that ESPN has hired Ryan to do the same job Tom Caron did so well for the Sox last year. With Caron assigned to studio duty (he did a Sox-Bruins doubleheader Sunday), Eric Frede is working the stands and had a wild one Saturday with the bearded "Damon disciples." . . . NESN, with nine straight hours of live programming Sunday (1-10 p.m.), averaged a 7.9 rating through that time block.
Staggered runners
Marathon watching will be a bit different this year with the women getting a separate start at 11:31 a.m., six minutes after the wheelchairs roll away from the Hopkinton Green. Channels 4 and 5, plus ESPN2 will have wire-to-wire coverage . . . Bizarre but true: Channel 5 is doing a mini-reality series -- "Boston Marathon Challenge" -- during its 5:30 p.m. newscasts this week, with four runners competing for an official number. The finalists: Tim Sullivan, Medford; Phil Gallant, Franklin; and Providence College sophomores Colleen Carr of Milton and Katherine Mueller from Cleveland . . . 1976 BAA race winner Jack Fultz is on CN8's "Sports Pulse" Thursday at 10 p.m. . . . Channel 56 has been doing "Marathon Moments" all week and Mike Ratte hosts a "Sports Zone" special Thursday at 10:30 p.m., previewing the Marathon and Sox-Yankees weekend series . . . The Globe's "Sports Plus" in its new 11 p.m. Wednesday time slot looks at the Yankees series with Bob Lobel, Gordon Edes, and Dan Shaughnessy. There is also a Bruins report from Montreal by Kevin Paul Dupont . . . A couple of Dereks -- Lowe and Jeter -- are on The Golf Channel's "Golf Talk" with Vince Cellini at 8 tonight.
Bill Griffith's e-mail address is griffith@globe.com
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