SI View The Week in Television

don't miss

Saturday 3/23 CBS 4:30 PM, 7 PM
Sunday 3/24 CBS 2:30 PM, 5 PM
--NCAA Men's Tournament
Only three times has a Final Four consisted of at least three
No. 1 seeds, which is something to keep in mind as the field of
64 is cut to four this weekend.

Sunday 3/24 NBC 6:30 PM
--Lakers at Kings
The conference's two top teams as of Sunday meet for the second
time this season in Sacramento, where the Kings had the league's
best home record (30-3).

Wednesday 3/27 ESPN2 10 PM
--U.S. vs. Germany Men's Soccer
The road to the World Cup for the U.S. (led by Landon Donovan,
above) goes through Rostock, Germany, for a match that marks the
Americans' first visit to Germany since reunification in 1990.

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

sizzling & fizzling

[sizzling]

--Fighting for Ratings
Putting pseudo-celebrities like Tonya Harding and Paula Jones in
headgear and having them smack each other silly was a ratings
bonanza for Fox. Celebrity Boxing drew an 8.9 rating among the
desired 18-to-34 male demographic. Fox is considering having
another card in May.

--Give Her an A
In another piece of outstanding work on ESPN's Outside the
Lines, Lisa Salters provided a cautionary tale about illiteracy
among college athletes through the story of Kevin Ross, who was
functionally illiterate while playing basketball at Creighton
from 1978 through '82.

--Behind the Family Feud
With Bob Knight features seemingly airing around the clock, CBS
distinguished itself on Saturday with a John Feinstein piece
about the history of the feud--and its recent resolution--between
Knight and onetime protege Mike Krzyzewski.

[fizzling]

--Help Fans of Females
In the spirit of gender equity, ESPN should give viewers a
real-time scoreboard of other live games (as CBS does for the
men) during the NCAA women's basketball tournament. Fans deserve
better than periodic studio updates and sports tickers.

--Listening Void
The Sporting News Radio Network has lost two of its best voices
over the past two months. Last week Jay Mariotti, whose show
aired weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., left the network while
overnight man Bob Kemp, an oasis of intelligence amid sports-talk
cacophony, resigned on Feb. 1. Both Mariotti and Kemp left for
personal reasons.

--NFL Report Card
In a stinging report to its clients last week Morgan Stanley Dean
Witter says that ABC, CBS and Fox will lose a total of $2.9
billion on their combined $17.6 billion NFL contracts.

COLOR PHOTO: ROBERT BECK