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In
The Control Room By George Stahl NEW YORK (AQB)--Often as I flick the clicker back-and-forth between three or four sporting events - rarely missing a crucial moment - I have arrogantly thought "This is easy. What can't the networks do this more often with March Madness or the NFL?" Well, after watching CBS' NFL coordinating producer Eric Mann work his magic Sunday afternoon, I will no longer wonder that. Mann stands in the center of a darkened room, lit mainly by the light of the more than 100 television monitors in front of him. Above, in the corner of the room, is a scoreboard with each game's score and time left. Behind Mann is a row of people, perpendicular to him, who are watching and monitoring one game each. They keep Mann abreast of that game's developments and make sure each telecast takes the required amount of commercial breaks. Among those in front of Mann is NFL Today director Bob Matina, who has the difficult job of trying to corral NFL Today stars Jim Nantz, Craig James, Randy Cross and Jerry Glanville, as well as the rest of the studio crew. Mann and his crew coordinate the highlights, halftime shows and post-game stuff between CBS' New York studio and the various production crews, which isn't easy when you have numerous games going on and ending at the same time. Plus, on a doubleheader weekend, as last Sunday was for CBS, the network's second games start at 4:15 p.m., giving CBS 15 minutes to show the highlights and endings to the 1 p.m. games. As 4 p.m. drew near last Sunday, Mann was faced with the following situation: The Pittsburgh-Buffalo game would probably be over by 4 p.m.; the Chargers had a 10-point lead over an ineffective Lions team; the Bengals were trailing the Browns by five points; and the Patriots were losing 16-7 against the Chiefs but were driving. It was time for Mann to act. "I need everyone's attention now. We're going to take the pop-up audience [those affiliates who come in at 4 p.m. because they didn't have a 1 p.m. game] out to New England for the drive if it's still going on, just to get them out of here, and then get Pittsburgh-Buffalo on a direct throw to us." In other words, Mann wanted Nantz to welcome those people who only had a late game on CBS and then send them to Kansas City for the ending of the Patriots-Chiefs game. Mann also wanted the crew at the Pittsburgh-Buffalo contest, where the Bills appeared to be running out the clock, to send their audience back to New York City as quickly as possible so as to not collide with the 4 p.m. audience. Almost immediately those plans changed... "Pittsburgh, for some reason, just took a timeout," said the person monitoring the game. Mann reacted to the developments. "They [the Pittsburgh-Buffalo crew] throw to us across a minute-30 post-gun [a 90-second commercial break after the game]. They hit that post-gun at 58:30, and we get their audience straight at four." He then issued this warning, "They've got to make every effort to do that." However, sideline reporter Bonnie Bernstein wants to do a post-game interview in Buffalo. "She can do her interview, as long as she doesn't kill us," Mann says. Bernstein didn't, and Buffalo-Pittsburgh audience, which went to 30 percent of the country, arrived at CBS at 4 p.m. In the meantime, though, New England had scored a touchdown to cut Kansas City's lead to two points but didn't have the ball, while the Bengals were driving to try to score the go-ahead touchdown against the Browns. Mann, rolling the dice, decided to send the 4 p.m. audience to Cleveland for the ending of the Bengals-Browns game, hoping that contest would be decided one way or the other quickly, and then the take everybody to Kansas City for a possible dramatic ending there. All this before 4:11:08, which is when the network has to send everyone to commercial in order to get them to the 4:15 p.m. games in time. Nantz welcomes everybody to New York and promptly sends them to Cleveland, where there is less than a minute left. After a critical defensive pass interference, Cincinnati has first-and-goal at the two with 21 seconds left. However, only one monitor away, New England has regained possession and is driving for the possible winning field goal. "Does New England have any timeouts?" Mann asks. "No timeouts" is the answer. "Come on, Cincinnati, score right away," someone says. The Bengals, building drama, throw two straight incompletions before finally getting the needed six points on a two-yard touchdown pass. Without waiting to show the Bengals' missed two-point conversation, Mann switches the audience to Kansas City just in time to see New England kicker Adam Vinatieri line up and miss a 32-yard field goal attempt. The audience then is sent to commercial, only seconds later than the scheduled 4:11:08 time, and Mann takes a deep breath in anticipation of starting the whole process over with the late games. |
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