USC football: Kick-off times announced for Utah, Syracuse and UCLA

USC's Nov. 26 game against UCLA at the Coliseum will kick-off at 7 p.m. and will be televised by FSN, USC announced Wednesday.

The school also announced that the Trojans' Sept. 10 game against Utah, the first game in the new Pacific 12 Conference, would kick-off at 4:30 p.m. on Versus, and that the Sept. 17 game against Syracuse will kickoff at 3:30 on FSN or 5 p.m. on FX.

Kick-off for the Oct. 1 game against Arizona is still to be determined.

Here is the Trojans' schedule, all times PDT:

Sept. 3--Minnesota, 12:30 p.m. (ABC)

Sept. 10--Utah, 4:30 p.m. (Versus)

Sept. 17--Syracuse, 3:30 p.m. (FSN) or 5 p.m. (FX)

Sept. 24--at Arizona State, 7:15 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)

Oct. 1--Arizona, TBA

Oct. 13--California (at AT&T Park, San Francisco, Calif.), 6 p.m. (ESPN)

Oct. 22--at Notre Dame, 4:30 p.m. (NBC)

Oct. 29--Stanford, 5 p.m. (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2)

Nov. 4--at Colorado, 6 p.m. (ESPN2)

Nov. 12--Washington, 12:30 p.m. (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/FSN)

Nov. 19--at Oregon, 5 p.m. (ABC)

Nov. 26--UCLA, 7 p.m. (FSN)

--Gary Klein

NFL Network picks Brad Nessler as its play-by-play man

Brad Nessler, best known for his college football work on ESPN, will join Mike Mayock this year and do the play-by-play in a two-man booth for the NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football schedule.

Mayock, who also works on NBC’s Notre Dame football broadcasts and for the NFL Network’s draft coverage, will be Nessler’s analyst.

Last season, the Thursday night broadcast had a three-man booth with Bob Papa calling the games and Joe Theismann and Matt Millenas co-analysts. The arrangement was widely criticized, mostly for the overwhelming amount of talk from Theismann and Millen.

Nessler and Mayock will both ramp up busy schedules. Mayock will continue with his Notre Dame duties and Nessler with college football.

NFL Networks senior vice president Mark Quenzel, said, “I think I prefer a two-man booth. I think the dynamic we have between Brad and Mike lends itself to a two-man booth. I’ve seen them work both ways but I prefer a two-man booth."

Nessler, who will be 55 in June, said he will continue with a full ESPN schedule next fall as well as doing the NFL games. “It’s going to be very hectic for about a five-week stretch,” he said. “I talked about it with my bosses at both networks, or all three if you want to talk ESPN, ABC and NFL.

Kings' first-round playoff series to be televised by FS West and Prime Ticket

The Kings’ first-round playoff series against the San Jose Sharks will be shared between FS West and Prime Ticket. 

Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Miller will handle the play-by-play while former Kings player Jim Fox will be the color analyst. Heidi Androl will join the broadcasting team in San Jose. Androl and Patrick O’Neal will continue their duties for postseason games at Staples Center.

When FS West or Prime Ticket and Versus are both televising a game in the first round, the Versus telecast will be blacked out in Los Angeles.

For radio, all Kings playoff games will air on KLAC-AM (570).

Click below the jump for the local lineup.

USC football: Matt Barkley gives fans a quarterback's point-of-view experience

USC quarterback Matt Barkley was outfitted with a camera on his helmet during the Trojans' practice and scrimmage at the Coliseum last weekend.

The intent by FoxSportsWest.com was to give fans a point-of-view experience as Barkley commanded the huddle and ran plays.

The result can be seen here.

Barkley is the second USC player to wear a camera during practice. Receiver Robert Woods had one on his chest during a workout.

The Woods experiment was interesting, but Barkley's helmet-cam captured images that were easier to view and had video-game qualities.

RELATED:

Coliseum will feature 6,000-square-foot video board

First look at Trojans' 2011-12 nonconference basketball schedule

-- Gary Klein

Photo: Southern California Trojans quarterback Matt Barkley (7) at spring practice at Howard Jones Field. Credit: Kirby Lee / US Presswire

ESPN Deportes to debut L.A. studio show

ESPN Deportes has finally made it to Southern California, home to the largest concentration of Hispanics in the United States.

On Monday, the seven-year-old Spanish-language cable network will debut the weekday sports and entertainment show Nacion ESPN, its first studio program from ESPN’s facility across from Staples Center.The hourline show will air weeknights at 7 PT followed by a rerun at 10. 

But the location won’t be the only thing that makes the show unique. It will also have the largest budget and the most expensive set of ESPN Deportes’ eight studio shows. The hosts will be David Faitelson, for two decades one of the most recognized sports reporters in Mexico, and Adriana Monsalve. a pop singer and TV personality in her native Venezuela before joining ESPN Deportes as a SportsCenter anchor. 

"It’s very interesting for me to have a debate with a woman, a woman speaking about sports," the outspoken Faitelson said. "Maybe in the U.S. and in other countries, it's normal. But in Latin America and in Mexico, to see a woman speak naturally about sports, it's a very, very nice exercise.

"It’s refreshing. I’m excited."

L.A. Times Super Bowl chat: 3 p.m. Sunday, here at The Fabulous Forum

The only thing better than watching the Super Bowl on television is watching it while chatting online with complete strangers.

The Los Angeles Times will be providing such an outlet this Sunday starting at 3 p.m. which is about 30 minutes before kickoff.

Moderated by yours truly, Tony Pierce, blog editor of The Times, this chat will be lively, entertaining, informative and funny.

To participate you will need to log on using your Facebook account. Don't worry, though, none of your witty remarks will appear on your Facebook Wall unless you mark them to do so.

Unlike many of the chats that we do here, this one will be unmoderated, meaning if you write something it will appear instantly. But that doesn't mean you can swear or break any of The Times' Terms of Service. If anyone gets out of line the Ban Hammer will fall on them and they will no longer be able to chat.

The purpose of the chat is to have fun while sharing a common sports experience with friends and strangers online. Yes, we will talk football. Yes, we will critique the commercials. And yes, someone will probably complain about the Black Eyed Peas' performance during halftime.

Bookmark The Fab Forum (if you haven't already) and I'll see you back here on Sunday afternoon.

-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: Fans walk through the snow near the NFL Super Bowl Experience during a winter storm on Friday in Dallas. The Green Bay Packers will play the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL's Super Bowl XLV on Sunday at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Credit: Matt Slocum / Associated Press

Christmas Day NBA games draw record television ratings

It looks like the NBA and its commercial partners are having a belated merry Christmas.

The NBA announced Monday that ABC and ESPN posted their highest cumulative audience ever for their Christmas Day coverage. ABC's double-header averaged a 5.5 Nielsen fast national rating, and ESPN's three broadcasts raked in a 1.8 household rating. Compared with last year's five televised games on Christmas, household ratings increased 45% on ABC and 20% on ESPN.

The Lakers' 96-80 loss to the Miami Heat drew ABC's highest rating (6.4) for an NBA regular-season game since the Lakers' 2004 Christmas game against Miami. The game drew a 45% increase in ratings over last year's game between the Cavaliers and the Lakers and earned a 15.0 rating in the Los Angeles market.

That might explain why it truly was a silent night in L.A. on Saturday.

-- Austin Knoblauch

Fight night enriched by bantamweight tournament

A fight fan's holiday arrives early Saturday when HBO airs a junior-welterweight doubleheader headlined by Amir Khan-Marcos Maidana, the UFC has a pay-per-view welterweight title fight between champion Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck, and Showtime airs the opening bouts of its bantamweight tournament.

-- Lance Pugmire

LeBron James brings TNT plenty of viewers

Not surprisingly, TNT had a lot of people watching LeBron James' heavily hyped return to Cleveland on Thursday night as his Miami Heat beat the Cavaliers 118-90.

The network had 7,052,000 million total viewers and 4,867,000 million households for a 5.0 overnight rating, according to Nielsen Media Research. That is the network's second-highest overnight rating of the NBA season. Only the Boston Celtics-Miami Heat game on opening night was higher with a 5.6 rating.

Viewership for Thursday's game peaked in the first 30 minutes and overall beat out the NFL Network's coverage of the Philadelphia Eagles-Houston Texans game, which got a 4.1, although TNT is in significantly more homes than the NFL Network.

Through the first 14 games of the season, ratings are up for TNT's coverage of the NBA. Here is what the network is averaging over last year through the same period, according to TNT.   

• +45% total viewers (2,846,000 versus 1,965,000)
• +41% households (2,094,000 versus 1,488,000)
• +41% men age 18-34 (686,000 versus 487,000)
• +46% men age 18-49 (1,151,000 versus 789,000)

--Debbie Goffa

Photo: LeBron James performs his pregame ritual in front of Cleveland fans. Credit: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images

Will ESPN's Dan Shulman replace Jon Miller on 'Sunday Night Baseball'?

As has been reported on the Fab Forum, the longtime voices of ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" are out.

The network has offered veteran play-by-play man and Hall of Famer Jon Miller a chance to stay on as the radio voice on the Sunday night games but declined to renew the contract of color commentator and fellow Hall of Famer Joe Morgan.

Here's the thing: a report by Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says Dan Shulman probably will replace Miller while Orel Hershiser appears to be in line to take over as analyst.

While Shulman may not be at the level of Miller's perfect-pitch baseball voice, he is smooth -- and unflappable, as evidenced in the video above. The video also proves that Dick Vitale really can't stop talking.

ESPN's  Norby Williamson declined to discuss his new baseball team, but it seems to be an attempt to lure younger viewers. Hmmm. Do young people watch baseball on TV?

If nothing else, Shulman (43) and Hershiser (52) are indeed younger than Miller (59) and Morgan (67).

-- Debbie Goffa

 

 

Tom Verducci's postgame interview with Tim Lincecum proves it's not as easy as it looks

As is sometimes the case, a gifted baseball writer isn't always as gifted at conducting live television interviews. Case in point: Tom Verducci's postgame chat for TBS on Thursday night with the Giants' Tim Lincecum after the two-time Cy Young Award winner shut down the Braves.

Lincecum seemed ready to end the chat about a minute into it. After all, he does of lot of these interviews. But asking someone not once but twice -- or was it three times? -- how he feels, or how it felt, well, what was Lincecum to say?  'Did it feel as special as it looked?' 'How did it feel at that point?' And back to, 'How did it feel?'

Compare Verducci's written piece with his television interview with Lincecum. It proves it is never easy being in front a camera live, no doubt with a producer yakking into your ear.

Patrick O'Neal, son of actor Ryan O'Neal and a broadcaster for Fox Sports West here in Los Angeles, is pretty adept at on-camera interviews. But he didn't start out as a writer. And Peter Gammons, in his prime, was terrific with the written word as well as on TV (he got better as time went on).

As for former players, I turn to hockey and the Kings' Jim Fox, who is smart, glib, does his homework and gets the most out of any interview. Who would be your pick for best on-air postgame interviewer?

-- Debbie Goffa

Photo: A screen grab from Tom Verducci's interview on TBS with Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum. Credit: TBS