The NHL TV Set, Part 4: Become Part of GE/Universal Conglomerate, Show Clips of “Walker, Texas Ranger” During Games

 

 

General Electric Owns, like, Everything

This is part four of our four-part series “The NHL TV Set”, in which we explore alternate scenarios for the NHL on national TV.

We hope there are some Conan O’Brien fans who get that one.  Anyway, this entire week has been about us presenting alternate routes for the NHL to go on national TV, as The NHL On NBC “Game of the Week” returns this Sunday at 12:30 PM with Penguins-Rangers.  If you’re a hockey fan, you need to be watching.  If you don’t want to, leave the TV on the game and go into another room, so we can trick people into thinking tons of people watch hockey.

We’ve gotten a little off track.  Oh, yeah, anyway, the point is maybe we shouldn’t be thinking about where else we can go.  Maybe we should ask ourselves this: How can we improve our relationship with NBC?

I have a thought.  Why not ask Universal to pay a rights fee equal to what VERSUS pays, and air NHL hockey across three NBC Universal networks.  It’d be The NHL On NBC, USA and CNBC.

Studio Show: NBC will set up an all-purpose hockey studio for all three networks at 30 Rock.  Bill Patrick will host USA Network’s coverage, while Bob Neumeier or Bill Clement run CNBC’s shows, depending on Neumeier’s availability..  Analysts will be Pierre McGuire and John Tortorella on a regular basis (a la Engblom and Jones on VERSUS) while mixing in regional announcers any time they have a block of days off, such as Daryl Reaugh, Eddie Olczyk, Jim Fox and Joe Micheletti.  Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury will remain on-site hosts for the NBC games.

Game Coverage: USA Network, saddled with Monday Night Raw, will get a Tuesday/Wednesday package, essentially replacing the VERSUS games.  CNBC will air a Friday night doubleheader, and occasionally Sunday games to remind people that hockey can be found on TV on Sundays.  NBC will keep it’s “Game of the Week” Sunday package.

Personalities: Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk will be the lead team for The NHL On USA, and are joined by Pierre McGuire on NBC and Bob Neumeier reporting on USA.  Other broadcast teams for USA/CNBC include:

Dave Strader/Brian Hayward
Chris Cuthbert/Joe Micheletti 
Ralph Strangis/Peter McNab
Randy Hahn/Darren Pang 
John Forslund/Billy Jaffe
Rick Peckham/Andy Brickley
Jim Hughson/Craig Simpson

Playoffs and Finals: Both USA and CNBC will air doubleheaders during the first and second rounds of the playoffs, with NBC jumping in on Saturdays and Sundays.  USA will air both Conference Finals Tuesday-Friday, while NBC will air Saturday/Sunday games and CNBC will air Monday while USA has raw.  USA will air the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals, after which NBC will take over.

Thank you for reading all four parts of this series.  We hope you’ll tune into NBC this weekend for the return of the NHL.  We’ll have the ratings Monday.