The 6PM TV Traffic Jam

It's a topic that becomes relevant for NASCAR fans starting once again on Monday. As the 2012 racing season gets underway, host Steve Byrnes will crank up another year of RaceHub on SPEED. This series became the de facto daily NASCAR TV show in the middle of last season.

In order to make way for a new block of afternoon talk shows, ESPN2 moved the NASCAR Now program from 5PM to a much earlier afternoon timeslot. The 5 year-old series that had finally come into it's own never recovered. This season brings more of the same. It's 3PM ET again for NASCAR Now on ESPN2 when the series starts in February.

Byrnes and company put a one-hour show together Monday through Thursday all season long. Despite the carefully controlled agenda, RaceHub puts out a ton of quality news, interviews and features. It's an important show that keeps a weekday NASCAR presence on national TV.

On September 12 of last year SPEED changed the air time of RaceHub from 7 to 6PM ET. This move was made without explanation and by a senior management team no longer in place at the network. "Puzzling TV Changes At SPEED" was the TDP post that discussed some of the inherent problems in committing the series to this timeslot. Click on the title to read the original column.

In addition to going head-to-head with the traditional East Coast hour of local and national TV news, RaceHub faced another significant problem. Most NASCAR fans also are fans of other sports. Coming off a lead-in from the powerhouse Pardon The Interruption, 6PM on weekdays is the time for ESPN's franchise series SportsCenter.

ESPN puts a ton of resources into this show that primarily serves to preview the key sports match-ups of the day. In addition, any breaking sports news is also featured. Where sports fans are concerned, the 6PM SportsCenter is the king of the TV hill.

This month, VERSUS was rebranded as the NBC Sports Network. Part of a massive allocation of sports resources was the commitment by NBC to establish a daily sports news program. The new series, airing up against SportsCenter at 6PM, is called NBC SportsTalk.

Hosted by sports TV veteran Russ Thaler, SportsTalk is currently focused squarely on the stick-and-ball world long dominated by ESPN in terms of covering daily sports news. It's very clear that the new management at NBC is ready for a fight. Appearing on the show are a wide variety of personalities from different TV networks, websites and publications.

What NBC has cleverly done with SportsTalk is unite the sports media resources outside the ESPN bubble into a powerful mix of experts, analysts and commentators. What makes the series click are the diverse points of view freely presented.

As RaceHub enters the 6PM battle once again, it resembles SportsCenter in that the show line-up is comprised of FOX and SPEED personalities almost exclusively. There have been no independent journalists, traveling media members or NASCAR critics featured. Any difference of opinion comes from within the FOX/SPEED family of on-camera personalities.

RaceHub's strength is in it's geographic proximity to most of NASCAR's shops, vendors and suppliers. This allows for easy access to personalities across the NASCAR spectrum. The results have been simply tremendous in terms of additional exposure for drivers, teams and sponsors. Danica Patrick is the in-studio guest on Monday's show.

SPEED's programming schedules confirm RaceHub at 6PM ET through February. That is surprising given that SPEED's 7PM hour is filled will repeats of shows like Pass Time and Pumped!

Looking down the dial at SportsCenter and SportsTalk in the height of the NFL playoff season might suggest to SPEED that the original 7PM timeslot would make a lot more sense. Perhaps, even re-airing RaceHub again at 7PM would reap better benefits for the network than repeats of lifestyle shows.

The regular cast of characters returns with Byrnes. Danielle Trotta is the full time field reporter, Matt Clark is the pit crew coach and Jimmy Spencer is...well...Jimmy Spencer. The FOX and SPEED personalities on the show include Larry McReynolds, Jeff Hammond, Bob Dillner, Ray Dunlap and Randy Pemberton.

Before the season gets underway, perhaps you can share your perspective on this NASCAR TV series, the personalities involved and the impact it has on your viewing habits. Just click the comments button below to add your opinion. Thanks as always for taking the time to stop by.

ABC Moves "Bachelorette" To Charlotte For Emily Maynard

Reality TV is in pretty tough shape. The backlash against the reported deception and scripted marriage and divorce of Kim Kardashian continues to grow. Clones of cheap-to-produce shows about storage lockers, pawn shops and repo men now dot the TV landscape.

Amid this chaos, ABC continues to push ahead with the franchise shows that draw female viewers of all demographics. There is just something about The Bachelor and The Bachelorette that women cannot resist.

Last year viewers of the Bachelor saw Emily Maynard selected by Brad Womack to be his wife forever. The loving relationship lasted until June and never made it to the altar. What it did make was a reality TV star out of Maynard. Now, she gets to take center stage in a melodramatic reality with NASCAR wrapped all around it.

In stories from People magazine and Entertainment Weekly, Maynard has reportedly agreed to become The Bachelorette for ABC as that reality TV franchise rolls on. As you may remember, Maynard was engaged to Ricky Hendrick, the son of NASCAR team owner and car dealer Rick Hendrick, before Ricky lost his life in a tragic plane crash back in 2004.

Shortly thereafter, Maynard revealed she was pregnant with his daughter and now Ricki is a happy and healthy young girl. In agreeing to take on this central reality TV role, Maynard made it clear she did not want to be away from her daughter. ABC reportedly responded by moving the entire production of the series to the Charlotte, NC area.

On The Bachelor, Maynard played out her Hendrick connection in an interesting and rather scripted scene at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway where Womack brought some of the ladies for a "date." It pointed out just how much the Hendrick and NASCAR connection can be used to exploit the mostly female audience.

The management at LVMS had no idea who was involved in the production, but NASCAR itself did work with the Bachelor production team when it came to the involvement of the NASCAR Racing Experience, a drive or ride along race car program.

This time, Maynard's connection with the Hendrick family will be out in the public eye on national television. The specific shooting locations for the program have not yet been reported, but NASCAR country figures to play a strategic role. It will also be interesting to see if any NASCAR personalities, many of whom already have extensive TV experience, make an appearance.

The Mooresville and Concord areas are ripe with colorful locations that have racing connections. There is little doubt as the word filters out that this series is coming the phones will be ringing with offers of locations that the production team can use to create some additional "reality TV."

As this is an ABC property, expect to see promotional integration with the NASCAR on ESPN programming as the season rolls on. Filming of the series begins in March and the first episode hits the air in May.

We invite your comments on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Wednesday NASCAR TV/Media Notes

As we move closer to the actual start of the season, the TV and media news is starting to heat up a bit. Here are some items from this week.

Bob Pockrass from Scenedaily.com said on Twitter that he recently talked to Carl Edwards and was told that Edwards has not yet made up his mind about working for ESPN on the Nationwide Series telecasts. I find that hard to believe, but there continues to be no comment from ESPN on the issue. Edwards recently confirmed he will not be driving in any Nationwide Series races in 2012.

A media favorite, Monica Palumbo, left her Miss Sprint Cup duties at the end of 2011. Sprint dropped a hint this week about who is replacing her. The hint was that the new Miss Sprint Cup team member had interviewed every 2011 X-Games gold medalist. Pretty good hint and I bet it starts some folks on a mission. Let me know if you think you have the answer.

Kind of a bombshell here. Apparently, Showtime is scaling back the Inside NASCAR show this season in a big way. As some of you might remember, this started out as a very expensive weekly hour show produced by the NASCAR Media Group from Charlotte, NC. It was cut to 30 minutes last year and now it is being slashed. I'm hearing only 11 episodes, one for the Daytona 500 and then none until the Chase begins. Still waiting for Showtime contacts to return emails to confirm.

Pete Pistone from SiriusXM radio mentioned earlier this week that he was told this season NASCAR on FOX will be using a side by side commercial format. This is a tough sell, as FOX is a broadcast network and has a totally different logistical method of running commercials. It is certainly possible for those truly national spots, but it cannot work for local station breaks. The FOX guys are working on a statement that should be coming Wednesday or Thursday on the topic.

Let's address some Hall of Fame issues. The actual dinner and induction ceremonies are going to take place on Friday night in Charlotte. The NASCAR Media Group is going to record the festivities and will edit the jacket ceremony, dinner and induction speeches into a show for SPEED that will air Sunday at 6PM ET.

The entire concept of the January induction was meant to hype Daytona and the start of the season. Instead, it happens at the height of the NFL mania currently engulfing American sports fans. There is no doubt that NMG will do a solid job, but there has to be a better way of handling this in the future.

I'm not a Barrett-Jackson fan, but this media release from Penske Racing got my attention:

"Tune into the Barrett-Jackson auction Thursday, January 19th at 8 pm ET on SPEED as NASCAR’s Roger Penske and Brad Keselowski along with Bruce Halle and Michael Zuieback from Discount Tire and members from Paralyzed Veterans of America will be in attendance to auction off the car Keselowski drove to his first win at Penske Racing. The auction of the 2010 No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Charger, which won the Aaron’s 312 at Talladega Superspeedway, will benefit Paralyzed Veterans."

Stewart-Haas Racing sent along a note that Tony Stewart will appear on an episode of Last Man Standing with Tim Allen scheduled to air in February. Click here to see some behind the scenes pictures of the shoot. I am certain we will hear more about this over the next several weeks.

Ben Grossman at Broadcasting & Cable just interviewed NASCAR Chairman Brian France. While much of the conversation was things we have heard before, France did point a finger at ESPN and talk about future TV negotiations. Here are those two questions.

B&C: You say you’re pretty aggressive about what your TV partners need to do for NASCAR. What do you want from them?

France: We are always the sport that is under-covered given the ratings and size of the events. In particular, ESPN. They just have so many platforms. So we are pushing real hard with them to have a more integrated approach. We have hired people to service them better, so we can help them accomplish that. They have the most assets to be deployed; it doesn’t mean everyone else doesn’t have some big ones and good ones. We are going to work to make them a better partner.

B&C: Your TV deals are up in 2014, but when do your negotiating windows open with your current partners?

France: Not for a little while, but we are having conversations, because a lot of our partners have been clear they would prefer to renew. All things being equal, our first hope is that the incumbents do renew. . . I think [talks] could heat up at any time, that’s my sense. It’s not cold now, we are having conversations, my sense is things will happen sooner rather than later, and sooner than they normally would in a cycle of renewals.

This week marks five years since Benny Parsons was taken from us by lung cancer. Younger viewers may not have known this wonderful man, but veteran NASCAR fans certainly did. His knowledge about the sport and pleasant nature on the air helped to form an image of the sport that helped it to travel outside of the southeast and become truly national.

Former NBC and TNT announcer Bill Weber is a tremendous writer. He scripted a tribute to BP that aired during the TNT coverage. Click here to see it. You can also use the YouTube index to the right to locate other BP material, including the famous Buffet Benny segments on ESPN.

Please feel free to comment on the above topics. If any additional news rolls in, it will be posted right here. Thanks again for stopping by.