Another football guy to Dance with the Stars
How would you like to watch this man do the mambo? Don’t be stunned. It could happen.
Professional athletes have done well on Dancing with the Stars. Kristi Yamaguchi, ice skating star; Apolo Anton Ohno, Olympic speed skater; Helio Castroneves, race-car driver. It’s also true that pro football players have done very well. Former Dallas Cowboy great Emmitt Smith won in 2006, and Miami Dolphins’ Jason Taylor came in second this year.
Therefore, it’s not surprising to hear that the producer of DWTS are courting another grid iron great, but this one? Warren Sapp, a recently retired defensive tackle, says that he’s been invited to Dancing With the Stars and he’s thinks he’s going to do it.
Warren says he’s been asked, but I’ll believe this when it’s announced by ABC. I’m not saying he’s lying, I just think something may have been lost in the translation.
When asked by the St. Petersburg Times if he’s been approached by Dancing, he said, “Yeah, it’s something that sort of came out of nowhere. But I enjoy the idea of training for something else. My whole life has been football. I could hang out in L.A. for a few weeks. My daughter would love it. There’s nothing wrong with my smile. I don’t think I speak Ebonics. I think I will (do the show).”
It’s true that Warren has a nice smile, and he is a personality. He’s larger than life, some would say — literally. Sapp is a big man. Not big as in built and gorgeous like Jason Taylor.
Warren has been called fat and flabby and perpetually out of shape, and that was by football writers. Can you imagine what the judges would say of his paso doble? There’s nothing graceful or handsome about Warren Sapp. He was a powerful player for the University of Miami, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and (to a lesser extent) the Oakland Raiders.
But he’s no dancer. If DWTS really has asked him to participate, he’ll be eliminated fast.
Bravo Sets Up Housewives Down South
For its latest locale, Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise has picked a real peach.
The cable network confirmed Thursday that it is planning to set the third installment of its hit reality series in Atlanta.
A preview of what audiences can expect from the privileged southern belles who producers have picked to represent what living in Georgia’s capital is really like is scheduled to air July 30 at midnight.
“Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise has resonated with our viewers across the country, and we think they will be equally fascinated by the lavish lifestyles and personalities of these Atlanta wives,” Bravo executive VP and general manager Frances Berwick said Thursday. “They let us peek inside their exclusive, affluent community and see how they live their often-dramatic lives and manage families and careers. There is truly never a dull day for them.”
The camera-ready hausfraus this time around:
- Deshawn Snow: nonprofit founder, wife of Cleveland Cavaliers baller Eric Snow
- Kim Zolciack: single mom, aspiring country-music singer
- Lisa Wu Hartwell: real estate firm owner, jewelry and baby-clothing designer, model, actress, writer…and wife of Oakland Raiders linebacker Ed Hartwell
- NeNe Leakes: nonprofit founder, wife of real estate investor, two sons
- Sheree Whitfield: single mother of three, clothing-line owner
All of whom are at the center of the Atlanta social scene, Bravo promises.
Things I Hate About TV: Sunday sports running over into primetime
Let me start this rant by saying that I like sports. No, I love sports. I’m a fan. I get the DirecTV NBA package and the major league baseball games. I can talk to you for hours about stats and players and great games. That said, I hate the way Sunday sports programming drifts over into primetime. This happens primarily on CBS and Fox with the NFL games in the fall and winter, but the other networks have been guilty of staying with the game and then still insisting on showing the primetime schedule after the game is over — even if that means that an 8 o’clock show begins at 8:45 and your DVR gets all screwed up and you wind up with only 15 minutes of a show you wanted to see!
What I don’t get about the reasoning of the programmers is that they don’t use common sense. If a football game or golf tournament goes past 7 o’clock, why not trim the first show of your schedule? You can dump Andy Rooney and still show most of 60 Minutes. It’s not a perfect system, but if I have to choose between a complete 60 Minutes or seeing Cold Case at the scheduled time, I vote for the latter. Otherwise the 10 o’clock show doesn’t end till well past my bed time. (Gosh, I sound like such an old fart!)
The networks have to stay with sports now because of the most famous incident ever in the history of mucking up a sports broadcast. It was called the Heidi game. November 17, 1968. The New York Jets were playing the Oakland Raiders (when both teams were great, by the way — Joe Namath was the Jets’ QB). The game was being broadcast on NBC and the Jets were winning 32-29 with 65 seconds left on the clock. Thinking that there was no way the Raiders were going to come back to beat the Jets, NBC hastily switched from the game at 7 o’clock (EST) to begin broadcasting the special movie of the night, Heidi. Timex, who was sponsoring the special TV movie version of the Swiss children’s classic, were promised 7-9 p.m. and that’s what NBC delivered.
Sports fans were outraged, especially when the Raiders came back to score 14 points in nine seconds and won the game! What most people don’t recall is that NBC had second thoughts after switching off the game. They were inundated with calls from football fans, but it was too late and too complicated to reconnect the feed for the broadcast. Because of that infamous game, NFL contracts with the networks include a provision that all games be shown in a team’s market area to the conclusion, regardless of the score. There’ll never be another Heidi game.
The networks, however, can alter their primetime lineups — and that’s why I hate spillover Sunday sports. Tiger Woods is great to watch in the afternoon, but by the time dinner’s over, I want him in the clubhouse and my TV screen to return to regularly-scheduled primetime programming. Okay? Okay.