A year after replacing Joe Theismann with Ron Jaworski in the Monday Night Football booth, ESPN craved viewer feedback on its $1.1 billion-a-year property. And so the network assembled focus groups in three cities this past off-season and determined that viewers want the announcers to talk more about football (shocking!) and aren't fond of distracting graphics (you don't say?).

But even after more tinkering, ESPN's presentation of MNF still has issues, despite consistently good work from Jaworski and Mike Tirico. Tony Kornheiser remains largely superfluous, at times irritating, and ESPN's new graphics seem more intrusive than they need to be.

As wonderfully gifted as Kornheiser is as a writer and a host on Pardon the Interruption, Monday's captivating Cowboys-Eagles game reinforced that his skills simply do not translate to the MNF booth. There is a fine line between offering big-picture perspective and stating the obvious, and Kornheiser crosses that line too often.

On Monday, he felt compelled to tell us repeatedly what a great game we were watching and variations of that: how ''everyone inhales and runs as fast as he can,'' how ''nobody is taking a play off,'' how ''the amount of energy is astonishing,'' how the amount of ''scoring is astonishing,'' and, oh yes, how the Cowboys are a big deal.

He emphasizes obvious points, noting Donovan McNabb produces when healthy and that Terrell Owens' behavior has overshadowed his accomplishments. Last week, Kornheiser drove everybody nuts when he compared Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers to BrettFavre several times during Packers-Vikings.

Kornheiser must stop telling us what we see -- and what most of us already know -- and focus on two areas:

• Relaying newsy nuggets and anecdotes gleaned from research and interviews. One of the rare examples of that Monday: He said Zach Thomas' migraines were a result of a deviated septum, and he's fine now.

• Engaging Jaworski in discussions about strategy and other NFL issues and asking him occasional questions of interest to viewers. Kornheiser has done some of both in two-plus years on MNF, and this usually produces his best work, especially when he challenges Jaworski's opinion on coach's decisions.

Occasional whimsical observations are fine (he wondered last week: 'Why do tennis players lay down on the middle of the court after winning?''), but Kornheiser must be cautious and not over-swing for puns. On Monday, for example, after viewers heard the ESPN Deportes' Spanish-language call of Felix Jones' kickoff return, Kornheiser said: 'I took high-school Spanish, and that either means `Nobody is going to touch him' or 'Could you pick up my dry cleaning in the morning?' It's one of those two.''

ESPN said it did not receive any viewer complaints, but Kornheiser -- after consulting with the network's production team -- said later, on the air: ``I said something before I shouldn't have said. I apologize for it.''

As for the new graphics, ESPN wisely placed the score/time graphic on the bottom of the screen, rather than having it drop down from the top. But it's larger than it needs to be because ESPN, the Worldwide Leader in Self-Promotion, separates it into two lines, the bottom half containing the words ''ESPN and Monday Night Football.'' Unfortunately, though, down and distance are left on screen only part of the time between plays.

So what's good about MNF? For starters, the exceptional super-slow-motion replays. Tirico capably handles play-by-play and redirects the broadcast when Kornheiser ventures off course. And, thankfully, ESPN no longer invites celebrities into the booth.

AROUND THE DIAL

• The past two weeks, Fox frustrated by not switching viewers away from lopsided games in the fourth quarter to more competitive ones -- first with the Cowboys' 28-10 win over the Browns, and then with Sunday's Giants' 41-13 win over the Rams. In Sunday's case, Fox did not do what was necessary technically the day before the game to allow it to switch audiences outside New York and St. Louis. That was a careless oversight.

According to NFL rules, networks can switch viewers (outside the markets of the involved teams) from lopsided games, but only if the margin is at least 18 points. Fox does a good job switching to other games when the game you're watching ends, but not before.

• Monday's Cowboys-

Eagles game was the most-watched program in cable TV history (18.6 million viewers) . . . Somebody please tell CBS' Bill Macatee that the Dolphins receiver is Derek Hagan, not Daren Hagan . . . Ian Eagle and Solomon Wilcots work Dolphins-Patriots for CBS on Sunday . . . ABC is sending Miami-Texas A&M to 19 percent of the country and will broadcast its simultaneous Notre Dame-Michigan State game on ESPN in South Florida at that time instead of its regional North Carolina-

Virginia Tech game.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.