Word: espn
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...Kobe Doin' Work is his documentary about Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant that is set to air on ESPN at 8 p.m. E.T. on May 16. Billed as a "game in the life" of one of the NBA's best players, Kobe Doin' Work could just as easily have been titled Kobe on Kobe, as Lee brought the guard into the studio to record his own commentary track. (See TIME's photo-essay "Magic Johnson: A Life in Sports...
...blasphemously, in most U.S. states, it's an also-ran: the sport only obnoxious, bloodthirsty goons follow. You won't find matches televised on ESPN anymore, since the ratings outside of the playoffs were apparently underwhelming. (The underdog upstart Versus network carries most National Hockey League games now.) And the chances of happening upon a pickup game at the neighborhood rink? Unless that neighborhood sits squarely on the 49th Parallel, the chances are about as high as the score of an average hockey game...
...cracking mainstream consciousness. Versus has carried all of the Penguins-Caps series except for Game 1, which NBC broadcast on May 2, and has averaged 1.04 million viewers, according to the Nielsen Co. The series is drawing a smaller audience than last year's College Baseball World Series, which ESPN broadcast for an average of 1.4 million viewers. On May 8, only 647,000 viewers tuned in to Game 4 of the series, making it the 81st highest-rated program on cable that night. The Crosby-Ovechkin dream duel clocked in behind both a Batman episode on the Cartoon Network...
...hockey skate into this mess? Coming out of the 2004-05 lockout, Versus outbid ESPN for rights to hockey games. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman chose cash over the increased exposure any sport gets from ESPN, which is currently in 98 million homes. While the game has gotten better - new rules have increased scoring, and phenoms like Ovechkin and Crosby have given the game new blood - Bettman lost a mainstream audience to which he could market this improved product. So while Ovechkin-Crosby plays out in the wilderness, Bettman should wonder what might have been. (See TIME's picks...
...what Versus is, and I still don't know what they do," says Chicago Blackhawks chairman Rocky Wirtz, whose team will face the winner of the Detroit-Anaheim series in the Western Conference finals (broadcast on Versus, of course). The players' union has already griped about getting back on ESPN, but that's not happening anytime soon. The NHL and Versus are stuck with each other through 2011. So enjoy tonight's Game 7. Just get ready to climb up the dial...