College Fans Must Pay for ABC Decision

There are three top college football games being played Saturday--No. 4 Michigan at No. 2 Penn State, No. 3 Florida State at No. 5 North Carolina and No. 1 Nebraska at fast-rising Missouri.

Only Florida State-North Carolina will be televised here, by ESPN.

The other two are regional ABC telecasts.

In this case, one for three is not a good average.

The ABC regional game here at 12:30 Saturday is Stanford and USC, two 4-4 teams. It’s being shown in only 17% of the country, while Michigan-Penn State is going to 55%.

At least Michigan-Penn State and Nebraska-Missouri, along with Georgia Tech-Virginia,

are on pay-per-view, provided your cable company or satellite distributor offers it.

“The pay-per-view was set up to give viewers an alternative,” ABC’s Mark Mandel said. “It’s not a money-maker. It’s a small side business.

“We realize there are going to be hard-core fans who would prefer Michigan-Penn State to Stanford-USC, but our research shows regionalization works best. We are a ratings-driven business, so we show the games that we think are going to give us the best ratings.”

THE MARV ALBERT TOUR

You’d think Marv Albert was promoting a book or movie. Interviews with Barbara Walters, Larry King and David Letterman will be aired over the next week, beginning tonight with Walters on ABC’s “20/20 Friday.”

ABC provided a transcript of Walters’ taped interview with Albert and his fiancee, Heather Faulkiner. Albert denies that he is into kinky sex and says Vanessa Perhach fabricated the information that led to forcible sodomy charges against him after a night at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Arlington, Va.

“She was trying to extort me,” Albert says, charging she had a history of getting back at men after breakups.

He also says Patricia Masten lied about what happened in a Dallas hotel in 1994.

As for being linked to a transvestite and a dominatrix called Mistress Hilda, Albert says, “I went through an experimental phase of my life.”

THE PETE ROSE TOUR

Pete Rose was in studio with Jim Rome for an hour Wednesday for a wide-ranging interview. Rose avoided answering a question about whether he bet on baseball, claiming an agreement he made with baseball didn’t allow him to answer that. Rome asked all the right questions, including why Rose accepted a lifetime ban from the sport. Rose said he accepted it because he thought he could be reinstated after one year. He recently applied for reinstatement.

Rose was also on with XTRA’s Lee Hamilton later in the day, and John Dowd, baseball’s lead investigator in the Rose case, was also a guest. The Dowd report, according to Hamilton, contained allegations that had Rose, in a two-week span in 1989, placing 83 bets on baseball totaling $194,800.

Rose told Rome the Dowd report was a pack of lies.

XTRA’s Steve Hartman may have summed it up best. “If Rose had admitted he bet on baseball and apologized, he would have been forgiven,” he said.

RADIO DAZE

AM 1150 officially becomes the Dodgers’ new flagship station today, with special Dodger programming all day from 9 a.m. to midnight to celebrate the team’s 40th anniversary in Los Angeles. The only interruption will be from 7-8 p.m., when Joe McDonnell and Vic “the Brick” Jacobs report from a big blowout party at Dodger Stadium. . . . AM 1150 has no immediate lineup changes planned, but early next year it will begin simulcasting Rome with XTRA 690 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and eliminate Rome’s afternoon show. Also, the early-morning “Big Show,” with John Ireland and Steve Mason, will be carried only by AM 1150. XTRA 690 will have its own early-morning show, featuring former USC and NFL quarterback Sean Salisbury and former CNN sportscaster John Fricke.

BREEDERS’ CUP

NBC will devote 4 1/2 hours to Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup. “It’s not a case of having time to fill, it’s a case of having to fit everything in,” said producer David Michaels, brother of ABC announcer Al Michaels. As kids growing up in West L.A., the Michaels boys were regulars at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita. . . . NBC will have its usual crew working the event, which means New York’s Tom Durkin will call the races and Southern California’s beloved race caller Trevor Denman will serve only as an analyst. Since the event is at Hollywood Park, it would seem fair to have Denman call at least some of the races.

BOXING BEAT

If Mike Tyson, at least Tyson B.E., before the ear, were fighting Michael Moorer on Saturday night, there might be talk of the pay-per-view telecast reaching 1.5 million homes. Tyson-Evander Holyfield II was seen in nearly 2 million homes, the all-time record. But Holyfield doesn’t have Tyson’s drawing power, even though he has participated in five of the top 10 pay-per-views fights of all time.

Showtime executive producer Jay Larkin said when Holyfield and Moorer fought in 1994, there were about 625,000 buys. “And we should come in somewhere under 1 million buys,” he said. . . . SET, Showtime’s pay-per-view arm, has added trainer Emanual Steward to the broadcast team of Steve Albert, Ferdie Pacheco and Bobby Czyz. One plus about that is that maybe Pacheco won’t talk quite as much, if that’s possible.

SHORT WAVES

Fox Sports West and Fox Sports West 2 this week announced their college basketball schedules. West will have 50 games, and West 2 will have 41. Both USC-UCLA games will be on West 2, which is bad news for Century Cable subscribers. Meanwhile, two other West 2 holdouts, Time Warner and Comcast, reportedly are close to deals. . . . UCLA’s game at Arizona on Jan. 3 will be on FX. . . . Tigermania hits Japan: The Tiger Woods Invitational, featuring Woods in his first appearance in Japan, will be televised on Fox Sports West on Sunday at 3 p.m. and Monday at 3:30 p.m., with West 2 carrying the same coverage Sunday at 10 p.m. and Monday at 1 p.m. Besides Woods, the skins competition includes Mark O’Meara, Nick Price and Japan’s Shigeki Maruyama.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for sports programs Nov. 1-4. SATURDAY

*--*

Event Ch. Rating Share Figure skating: U.S. Pro Championships 7 6.3 11 College football: UCLA at Stanford 9 6.2 13 College football: USC at Washington 7 5.4 14 College football: Navy at Notre Dame 4 5.1 15 College football: Georgia vs. Florida 2 2.2 6 Golf: PGA Tour Championship 7 1.9 4 Golf: Senior PGA Ralphs Classic 9 1.1 3

*--*

SUNDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Pro football: Dallas at San Francisco 11 18.4 38 Pro football: New England at Minnesota 4 8.7 22 Soccer: World Cup qualifying, Mexico-U.S. 34 4.9 12 Pro football: Washington at Chicago 11 4.8 12 Golf: PGA Tour Championship 7 2.6 6 Golf: Senior PGA Ralphs Classic 9 0.5 1

*--*

MONDAY

*--*

Event Ch. Rating Share Pro football: Pittsburgh at Kansas City 7 21.2 32

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TUESDAY

*--*

Event Ch. Rating Share Pro basketball: Lakers at Sacramento 9 7.3 11

*--*

Note: Each rating point represents 50,092 L.A. households.