Tag Archives: HBO

Update: Johnson saga results in huge rating for Hard Knocks; robotic cameras used in dramatic scene

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Update:

This isn’t a surprise. Just in from HBO:

This week’s premiere of HARD KNOCKS: TRAINING CAMP WITH THE MIAMI DOLPHINS Episode #2 delivered 984,000 viewers, up 34% from last week . Last night’s edition was the second most watched episode of Hard Knocks since 2002 (trailing only the season finale of the NY Jets series in 2010, which clocked in just over a million viewers – 1.009M).

You knew the Johnson saga would deliver. However, with Johnson gone, will Hard Knocks be able to continue the momentum for three more episodes?

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Incredible stuff on Hard Knocks last night. Even though you knew what was coming, I’m sure you squirmed while watching Chad Johnson meet his fate with the Dolphins.

The access happened thanks to NFL Films using robotic cameras. There wasn’t a crew in Joe Philbin’s office. If that was the case, we probably don’t see it.

Said HBO Sports spokesman Raymond Stallone:

“The installation of robotic cameras on this series was a turning point. It happened a few years into the series and put the coaches and management at ease.

“We install tiny robotic cameras and they don’t have to worry about a camera crew hovering around the room. There are no people from NFL FILMS in the coaches’ rooms. The use of robotic cameras has really enhanced the production of the series.”

Even with the robotic cameras in place, the Dolphins still could have prevented Hard Knocks from airing the scene. Ken Fang and Fangsbites.com points out that the Jets wouldn’t allow cameras in for a meeting with Darrelle Revis following the end of his holdout.

The Dolphins, though, allowed the ax meeting to be aired. Presumably, Johnson also agreed.

Johnson had to know other teams would be watching the scene. That likely accounted for the dignity Johnson showed, a trait not always seen from him. It seemed to me he already was auditioning for someone else.

 

 

Update: HBO Hard Knocks will have footage of Philbin releasing Johnson

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Update: Just got this email from HBO:

There will be footage of Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin meeting in his office with Chad Johnson and releasing him from the team.

Should be some big ratings tonight.

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I can’t say that I was a big fan of the Chad Johnson segments during the first episode of Hard Knocks. As usual, he went out of his way to draw attention to himself. I didn’t get a kick out of it considering I think he’s washed up. If you can’t catch more than 15 passes with Tom Brady as your QB, you’re done.

Well, Johnson found a way to spice up what figures to be his last appearance on this year’s Hard Knocks (HBO, Tuesday, 10 p.m.). The Dolphins dumped him following an alleged domestic violence incident with his wife.

According to HBO, the Johnson saga will be included in Tuesday’s episode. However, it isn’t featured in this preview.

I’d look for it more towards the end of the show since it happened late last week. Should be interesting.

Hard Knocks debuts Tuesday: Can HBO make Dolphins interesting?

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The Miami Dolphins weren’t exactly HBO’s first choice for the return of Hard Knocks. The league knocked on a few other doors, namely the Jets. The whole Tebow-Sanchez thing would have been insane.

Rex Ryan, though, said no. At the end of the day, Hard Knocks is stuck chronicling the QB battle between Matt Moore, Ryan Tannehill and David Garrard.

It’s not exactly scintillating stuff, but knowing HBO’s folks, they’ll make it work. The first episode is Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET.

Here’s the trailer. Amazingly, no footage of Dolphin cheerleaders getting ready for the season. Don’t worry, the show is five weeks. If things get dull, HBO will cut to the cheerleaders.

Sunday Funnies: Before Sorkin’s Newsroom, there was SportsNight

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Saw an interesting piece in by Ian Crouch in the New Yorker. With Aaron Sorkin’s latest show, The Newsroom, starting on HBO, Crouch reflected back on another Sorkin show, Sports Night.

Inspired by the Keith Olbermann-Dan Patrick act on SportsCenter, and using the newsroom theme, Sports Night was a terrific, but unfortunately, short-lived series on ABC. The cast was outstanding (Felicity Huffman, Josh Charles, Peter Krause, Josh Malina, and occasionally Huffman’s husband, the great William Macy). And of course, there was Sorkin’s rapid-fire dialogue.

Here’s a long Sorkin rap delivered by Macy.

Here’s Charles, through Sorkin, going off on Sorkin.

And a segment on writer’s block, with the unfortunate laugh track that ABC insisted be put into the show despite Sorkin’s objections.

Want more? Here’s the youtube link for Sports Night.

 

Real Sports Interview: Jackson glad NY never called; Says Knicks ‘a clumsy team’

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Andrea Kremer catches up with Phil Jackson in the latest edition of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO, Tuesday, 10 p.m.).

At age 66 and one year removed from his final season with the Lakers, Jackson doesn’t appear overly eager to leave his Montana retreat. Judging from the view, would you?

Here’s excerpts from the interview.

On the possibility of coaching the Knicks:

ANDREA KREMER: You wouldn’t have taken the Knick job?

PHIL JACKSON: No.  I wouldn’t take…

ANDREA KREMER: Why?  This is—the ties to this job go back as far as your whole career.

PHIL JACKSON: Yeah, it’s great.  It’s great.

ANDREA KREMER: And you’ve always said New York is special to you.

PHIL JACKSON: New York is special.

ANDREA KREMER: Why do you dismiss it then, possibility, even?

PHIL JACKSON: Well, it just– there’s just too much work that has to be done with that team.  You know?  It’s just not quite– it’s clumsy.  It’s a little bit of a clumsy team.  It’s not, you know.—

ANDREA KREMER: What’s “clumsy” mean?

PHIL JACKSON: Well, they don’t fit together well.   Stoudemire doesn’t fit together well with Carmelo.  Stoudemire’s really good player.  But he’s gotta play in a certain system and a way.  Carmelo has to be a better passer. And the ball can’t stop every time it hits his hands. They need to have someone come in that can kinda blend that group together.

ANDREA KREMER: But wouldn’t you have been the perfect person to come in and blend all that talent together?  You sort of have a good history of that.

PHIL JACKSON Yeah.  Well, it didn’t happen.

On perception the game has passed him by:

ANDREA KREMER: Do you think there’s some perception out there that, you know, you are done, you’re– your health and even though you’ve…

PHIL JACKSON The game– has passed me by.

ANDREA KREMER: Do you think that’s what the perception is of you?

PHIL JACKSON: I think that’s possible.

ANDREA KREMER: Is it true?

PHIL JACKSON :Well, maybe it is.

ANDREA KREMER: Well, what do you think?

PHIL JACKSON: Well, I have never– I mean, you know, as much as I’ve been around this game, it doesn’t happen. The game doesn’t pass a person by.

On his final game:

PHIL JACKSON : It was humbling. Not the way I wanna see my players behave on the court. Andrew particularly, you know, took his jersey off and walked off the court in a way that was, you know, sense of arrogance. The game itself was bad enough as it went.So it– it was kinda like– so this is how it’s gonna end, huh? This is an interesting closure to chapter of basketball.

ANDREA KREMER : Everything you just described, the way the game ended, the way the players behaved, it was almost a repudiation of everything that you stood for.

PHIL JACKSON : Yeah. It really was.

 

Real Sports preview: Lolo Jones explains why she’s still a virgin

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Nothing sells more than a 29-year old American virgin running for the gold medal, right?

In an HBO Real Sports interview (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), Lolo Jones tells Mary Carillo why she is saving herself for her future husband.

Speaking of sacrifices, here’s Jones talking about training for the London Olympics.


Yep, that’s what I call good marketing. You’ll be hearing plenty about Lolo Jones in a couple of months.