ESPN’s Erin Andrews irritated at being stalked
ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, 31, apparently is tired over all the attention she has received since being secretly videotaped while changing in her hotel room.
On July 22, she made a 9-1-1 call to Dunwoody, Ga., police in northeast Atlanta that featured a curse-laden rant, complaining about a “suspicious person” outside her Dekalb County home.
“I have been in the news recently about being in a hotel naked, and I have paparazzi outside my window, and I was told by law enforcement that if I did, to call 911,” she says in the 911 call. “These guys are sitting in their car outside my house right now.”
When the operator said she was unfamiliar with the situation, Andrews responded, “I’m the girl who was videotaped without her knowing, without her clothes on in her hotel.”
Andrews says “two assholes” are outside. “I’m in a gated community. I don’t know how they got in,” she says. “I did nothing wrong, and I’m being treated like fucking Britney Spears, and it sucks.”
“I’m so sorry,” says the operator.
When police finally arrived, they discovered a local news reporter, looking for an interview. The “suspicious person” was allowed to leave without incident….or an interview.
Andrews also recently took a pounding while working. She was clipped on the chin by a foul ball from New York Mets batter Alex Cora in a game July 10. She was treated at a hospital.
CNBC looks at thriving Ultimate Fighting Championship
Ultimate Fighting Championship is the premiere name in the sport of mixed martial arts.
CNBC takes a new look inside the biggest brand in brawling with “Ultimate Fighting: Fistful of Dollars,” a fresh take on CNBC’s original Emmy-nominated documentary from 2007. “Ultimate Fighting: Fistful of dollars” will air at 9 p.m. and midnight Wednesday, midnight Friday and 9 p.m. Sunday.
Correspondent Scott Wapner travels to Germany for the UFC’s first event in mainland Europe, and goes inside the Octagon with Dana White, the controversial front man, as well as billionaire backers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta. Wapner also profiles a stable of skilled fighters who have helped the league grow from a dying franchise to a global sensation in less than a decade.
Despite continued controversy, the UFC has gone mainstream, and Fortune 500 companies like Budweiser and Harley-Davidson are big-time backers. The sport is becoming so popular and profitable that billionaires Mark Cuban and Donald Trump are throwing their hats into the ring. Their league, Affliction, promises top fighters and revenues to match, but Dana White tells Wapner that it’s just another in a long list of competitors he’s ready to take to the mat.
CNBC takes a look at the range of promotions, endorsements and movie deals tied to the sport, as well as at TapouT, the successful apparel company created by three hardcore fans who turned their passion for mixed martial arts into a $100 million dollar business.
Shaq to challenge top athletes in new TV series
Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille O’Neal came up with the idea for his new TV series, “Shaq Vs.,” as a way to train for his upcoming season with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Shaq, a 15-time All-Star center, will challenge top athletes in their respective sports, including swimming against Olympic superstar Michael Phelps in the premiere Aug. 18. He also will try his football skills against Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, box retired world champion Oscar De La Hoya, bat against St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols, trade tennis volleys with Wimbledon champ Serena Williams and play volleyball against Olympic gold medalists Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor.
O’Neal will negotiate a handicap with his opponents and train with a coach for one week leading up to each challenge.
“These athletes may be on top of their game, but I am up for the challenge,” O’Neal said. “I plan to train hard and win, so look out.”
Shaq will compete against Roethlisberger, the Steelers’ Super Bowl-winning QB, in a 7-on-7 passing drill to be filmed this week in the Pittsburgh area.
Although he has just one season left on his NBA contract, Shaq, 37, says he wants to play three more years and is hoping he can help Cleveland superstar LeBron James win his first league title.
ESPN launches its own YouTube channel
Kenny Mayne stars in "Mayne Street" on ESPN.com.
Can’t get enough of ESPN’s videos? The network has made it easier to watch reruns of your favorites on its YouTube channel, which launched Monday at www.youtube.com/ESPN.
Content includes highlights from major sporting events as well as original ESPN programming and breaking news. “SportsCenter Right Now” — a twice-daily capsule of top sports stories – will also be featured, as well as clips from “Outside the Lines,” “E:60,” “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” “Pardon the Interruption” and “Around the Horn.” Additionally the original digital series “Mayne Street,” starring Kenny Mayne will be available, as well as special programming packages created around events like the X Games.
Joe Buck likes All-Star Game format
Fox broadcasters Joe Buck and Tim McCarver and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig discussed Tuesday’s All-Star game in a conference call this week. Here are a few of the highlights:
Buck on whether he likes the format of playing for home-field advantage format: “Tim and I are on record saying this has made the best All-Star Game of the four major sports even better. Before the format change, you would see the starters for one maybe two at bats and then they would be on their way to the airport. Now its completely different. We sit in with the managers and talk about how they’re going to manage and win the ball game, not just to get everyone in. Now personally, I love to see them go a step further. We were awfully close to a frightening situation last year at Yankee Stadium. Great ballgame but as it turned out we were maybe one out away from having J.D. Drew pitch in the ballgame. I’m glad they ended up adding another pitcher and a 33rd person on each roster but I’d love to see the starters start the game and see, for example, Tim Lincecum pitch five innings and see a real baseball game.”
Selig on whether he thinks the format of playing for home-field advantage works: “A lot of people think that the 2002 tie really drove the change in format. We had been talking about this for at least a year before. I remember as kid watching Ted Williams break his elbow in the first inning of the 1950 All-Star Game in Chicago’s Comiskey Park. He played the whole game. But later the All-Star Game had lost its desire. Since the format change, the games have been played with remarkable intensity. It isn’t like we had a brilliant recipe for how we decided how to award home-field advantage before. One year the AL got it, the next the NL got it. Do I think playing for home-field advantage is good? You bet I do. Frankly, the events over the last six years have really made me feel stronger about this.”
McCarver on his time in St. Louis and its baseball tradition: “I played in St. Louis from 1959-1969 and again in 1973 and 1974 and was fortunate to be on teams that were very successful so you would get no argument from me in saying St. Louis was and still is the best baseball town in America. My experience there was nothing but terrific. With Joe living in St. Louis and me going back, from a personal standpoint, this game is very special for both of us.”
CBS to reair Nicklaus-Snead classic match from 1963
Jack Nicklaus blasts out of a sand trap in the 1959 British Open.
From the archives of Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf comes a classic 1963 match-up between Jack Nicklaus, then 23 years old, and legendary Sam Snead, then 50 and the owner of a PGA Tour-record 81 wins. Filmed at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Monterey, Calif., the 18-hole stroke play competition pitted current and future greatness in Snead and Nicklaus, who was the reigning U.S. Open champion.
The match was filmed on Feb. 24 and came down to the final hole. It hasn’t been rebroadcast in any manner since 1963, until this Sunday, when it air at 1 p.m. on CBS.
Produced by PGA Tour Productions and digitally re-mastered to high definition, the one-hour special will feature an interview with Nicklaus regarding the match and his fondness for Pebble Beach, swing tips from both Nicklaus and Snead, mini-features on the two contestants as well as the golf course, and interviews with writers, television producers and fans who were in attendance.
Tiger boosts ratings
CBS Sports’ final-round coverage Sunday of the PGA Tour’s AT&T National, which saw host Tiger Woods win his tournament with a birdie at the 16th hole and pars at 17 and 18 to beat former OSU golfer Hunter Mahan by a stroke, scored an overnight household rating of 4.6, up 207 percent from last year’s 1.5/3 in the metered markets.
Sunday’s 4.6/11 was the highest rating for a PGA TOUR event (non-major) on CBS Sports since a 4.6/9 for the final round of the Buick Invitational (Jan. 27, 2008) and the highest rating for the final round of the AT&T National since the inaugural event in 2007.
CBS Sports’ third-round coverage Saturday earned an overnight household rating of 2.6, up 100 percentfrom last year’s third round 1.3 in the metered markets.
