Local NBC affiliate once again pioneers with sports. And COVID sidelines Fins voices
A six-pack of media notes on a Thursday:
▪ Here’s a South Florida first, and it’s a neat one:
NBC 6 is about to become the market’s first TV station with only women in on-air roles in their sports department.
Jorge Andres, who has shared anchor duties with Ruthie Polinsky in the past year, left NBC 6 this week. He will do national broadcasting and writing work for Telemundo, with a focus on the NFL and golf.
NBC-6 hired Hailey Sutton, a sportscaster in Montgomery, Alabama, to replace him.
Sutton will report during the week and anchor on weekends.
Polinsky, who has done good work since coming to NBC 6 from Providence, Rhode Island, will anchor on weeknights.
And Giselle Espinales, the sports department’s producer, capably handled fill-in anchor duties last week and is available as a third anchor. Espinales is married to Will Manso, the lead sports anchor at WPLG-ABC 10 and Heat studio host on Bally Sports Sun.
It’s unclear if there’s another station in the country with an all-woman sports department, but it’s another sign of great progress for an industry that has been historically male-dominated.
And it’s only fitting that this is happening at NBC 6, which at one time hired the first woman sportscaster at a local television station, Jane Chastain.
▪ Bally Sports Florida is soon expected to begin auditions to find a replacement for Marlins TV analyst Todd Hollandsworth, whose contract was not renewed.
The Marlins would endorse having a rotation of analysts — including Bally studio analysts Gaby Sanchez and J.P. Arencibia and Tommy Hutton. And while it hasn’t been ruled out, I would be surprised if Bally goes that route because the network once experimented with that approach, using Eduardo Perez and others, and wasn’t pleased with the results.
The view here is that splitting the package among Sanchez, Arencibia, Hutton (who’s willing to work a small package of games) and perhaps a fourth analyst makes sense because it’s more interesting to hear different perspectives during the course of a long season, and all three are highly qualified.
It takes a special talent, like Hutton, to have enough substantive things to say to keep the broadcasts compelling for three to four hours a night, 150 times a year. Hollandsworth could never pull it off.
Perhaps the Marlins will find someone of Hutton’s quality to do every game alongside play-by-play man Paul Severino. But a strong case could be made to do a rotation. Even if the Marlins don’t do a rotation, Sanchez and Arencibia could emerge as candidates.
▪ This is the only Sunday of the season when CBS and Fox both get double-headers.
The NFL assigned Tampa Bay-Carolina to CBS to give the network a more appealing game in the 4:25 p.m. window. CBS typically would have had the Chargers-Raiders game — which will determine a wild card berth — but that game was flexed to NBC on Sunday night.
In that late afternoon window, CBS is sending the Tampa Bay game to 57 percent of the country, Buffalo-Jets to 35 percent and Dolphins-Patriots to 8 percent.
If the Colts win at Jacksonville on Sunday, Indianapolis will make the playoffs. But CBS is sending that 1 p.m. game to only 11 percent of the country, with 83 percent (including South Florida) getting Baltimore-Pittsburgh instead.
As for Fox, the network doesn’t have a compelling 1 p.m. game among its four; 60 percent of the country (including South Florida) will get Green Bay-Detroit.
Fox gets an important late game (49ers-Rams), which will be sent to 80 percent of the country. The 49ers make the playoffs with a win or a loss by New Orleans against Atlanta, another 4:25 p.m. Fox game.
Here are Sunday’s regionalization maps, courtesy of 506sports.com.
▪ For the first time, ESPN will get two Saturday games on the final weekend of the season. The games will have marquee teams (Kansas City and Dallas) but neither game (Chiefs-Broncos nor Cowboys-Eagles) has much playoff significance.
K.C., Dallas and Philadelphia have clinched playoff spots.
ESPN’s lead college announcing team, Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit, call the Chiefs game, then work the Alabama-Georgia national title game on Monday.
▪ Herbstreit, incidentally, created a stir last week when he seemed to criticize players who skip bowl games that aren’t part of the four-team playoffs.
“I think this era of players doesn’t love football,” Herbstreit concluded.
Herbstreit later expanded on his thoughts on Twitter: “Just wanted to clarify some of my comments from earlier today. Of course some players love the game the same today as ever. But some don’t. I’ll always love the players of this game and sorry if people thought I generalized or lumped them all into one category.”
Herbstreit was off base in his initial comment; players who sit out bowl games are mostly protecting themselves from an injury that could damage their pro prospects and future earnings. Those decisions have nothing to do with passion for the game.
▪ The Dolphins are hopeful that WQAM radio analysts Joe Rose and Jason Taylor — who missed the Tennessee game because of COVID-19 — will be back for Sunday’s home finale against New England but don’t know for sure. Rose - who hosts WQAM’s morning show — has been off the air all week but is doing OK, according to an associate.
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 4:29 PM.
