Wednesday TV/Media Notes

Here are some TV and media items crossing the desk this week:

It's been a little quiet as we wait for the final TV ratings from the Sprint Cup Series race in Phoenix. The overnight numbers were a 5.0 rating with a 10 share. That is down from the previous season and is the lowest overnight rating in five years. We will have more on the ratings race when final PIR numbers are released on Wednesday. Click here to view the Jayski.com TV ratings chart.

ESPN is promoting a gain of a little over 10% in Nationwide Series ratings, reporting a 1.7 cable TV rating with an audience of 2.4 million homes. That is slightly above any of the spring Phoenix races the network has covered. One can only imagine how many new fans tuned-in to see Danica Patrick, only to have her fade quickly.

Speaking of ESPN, word is that Ryan McGee and Marty Smith will be hosting the Wednesday 3PM version of the NASCAR Now program. This show does not re-air and there is no show Thursday or Friday due to college basketball tournaments. This is truly DVR theater in any time zone.

This weekend in Las Vegas, ESPN will only be showing the Nationwide Series race. All the practice and qualifying coverage will once again be on SPEED. Allen Bestwick is working the Nationwide Series for ESPN this season with Marty Reid reassigned to IndyCar telecasts, a few Nationwide races and some hosting assignments for NASCAR Now.

SPEED is reportedly happy with the revamped Trackside program. The network passed along that the show got higher ratings in this format than it ever did in the old style with a large panel discussion. That means Krista Voda, Kyle Petty, Rutledge Wood and Marianela Pereyra will be around for a while.

The network also continues the push to get the SPEED2.com broadband channel cleared in more subscriber homes. The target is for 30 million homes by summer. You can type in the web address and follow the links to see if your provider has the service. It is like ESPN3.com, a place for programming that cannot find a slot on the TV channel.

For those cable TV viewers expecting an episode of Inside NASCAR on Wednesday night, things have changed. "Showtime Suspends NASCAR TV Show" was a recent post that documented the fact that the post-Daytona show was it until September. Neither Showtime or the NASCAR Media Group will explain, but money appears to be the issue. Click on the column title to read it in full.

Despite having the cash, Showtime was a foolish location to put such a large amount of fresh NASCAR TV content every week. The audience was tiny and the fact remains that only ESPN2 and SPEED have weekday NASCAR TV review or preview shows. It would have been nice to have TNT or another basic cable network host a weekly NASCAR show.

Over on the new NBC Sports Network, the struggle continues to get a place for NASCAR in the daily 6PM hour of sports news and interviews called NBC SportsTalk. Marty Snider appeared after Daytona for a wrap-up, but has not been seen since. NBC either needs to jump in the pool or get out.

As NBC continues to struggle with the reality of appealing to cable TV viewers, ignoring a major professional sport is perhaps not the way to go. There are plenty of reporters and journalists available to update NASCAR after a racing weekend.

We will add any breaking news to this post, in the meantime please feel free to comment on any of these topics. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Day Two: NASCAR on FOX from Phoenix

Good weather was a blessing as the NASCAR on FOX team covered the Sprint Cup Series race from the Phoenix International Raceway.

Chris Myers returned to lead the Waltrip brothers through the pre-race show. There was no outdoor stage, but the guys in the TV booth began their portion of the telecast with a liveshot from the roof of the PIR tower.

While the Daytona 500 is always an exception, PIR is the beginning of the long TV grind. FOX returned almost immediately to the formula the production team has used for years. Tight shots mixed with in-car cameras and replays used for incidents.

The coverage took several hits as the caution flag came out repeatedly while the network was in commercial. This actually became funny as time went by, FOX just could not buy a break.

PIR offers some of the most scenic camera views from high above. Once the racing settled in, FOX chose to focus on the formula of showing designated cars rather than the best racing on the track. This has been an ongoing fan debate for years and is the way the network feels they should present this product.

Mike Joy still directs traffic in the booth, but Darrell Waltrip is the show. Once again, there were times when the brothers Waltrip were talking back and forth during race action. It made Larry McReynolds seem a bit out of place.

Michael Waltrip is enthusiastic, but his role as a multi-car team owner in this series makes interpreting his comments tough. No matter how pure the intention, his words have to be filtered through the reality of Sprint Cup ownership.

After the halfway point of the race, the FOX director fully committed to showing the race in what we call "hyper-tight" style. Despite Joy in the booth trying to point out the racing on the track, the pictures viewers saw at home were of small clumps of cars without any larger perspective.

Since 2007, replays have become a central part of the FOX coverage. The downside of mixing tight shots with in-car cameras is that the vast majority of things happen outside of the two or three cars chosen to be on-camera at any given moment. This was the case again in Phoenix.

FOX went side by side with commercial breaks at approximately 5:30PM ET. The telecast was scheduled until 6PM and we were originally told the side by side commercials would be for the last hour of scheduled coverage. In addition, FOX executives said the network would try to expand this format during the season.

Down the stretch, the FOX team focused on the chase for the lead and continued to update the situation on fuel. The tight shots continued until the final lap, when a nice wideshot famed the finish line as the top five cars were shown finishing.

It's been a "hyper-tight" world for FOX and this style of production continued. The post-race was 12 minutes long as the network was beyond the scheduled coverage. Three of the top four finishers and the current series champion were interviewed before the network signed-off.

We invite your opinions on the NASCAR on FOX coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from Phoenix. To add your TV-related comment, just click on the comments button below. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Sunday Features Mark Martin And Return Of Chris Myers

The NASCAR on FOX gang returns after the mess of Daytona to nice weather and smooth sailing in Phoenix, AZ.

Chris Myers returns to TV after dealing with the tragic passing of his teenage son in a traffic accident. Michael and Darrell Waltrip will be with Myers on the pre-race show.

Mike Joy will call the race that features Mark Martin starting from the pole. Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds will be alongside in the TV booth. Steve Byrnes, Matty Yocum, Krista Voda and Dick Berggren are the pit road reporters.

This week features Jeff Hammond rolling out his roving reporter role at a short track. Not exactly the location for unique stories, keep an eye on how often Hammond is seen in the telecast and what topics he chooses to address.

The pre-race show starts at 2:30PM and the green flag is at 3:15PM. MRN carries the radio coverage and will once again be streaming coverage for free at motorracingnetwork.com on both the website and mobile version as well.

We will be hosting our live chat on Twitter. Use the #TDP1 hashtag to see our conversation and add #TDP1 to your comments to join the conversation. You can see my account at twitter.com/thedalyplanet to start if you are new.

There will be a full post up immediately after the race for your long-form TV comments on the NASCAR on FOX telecast from PIP. Thanks everyone!