A crystal ball isn’t needed to predict what will happen Feb. 6.
Super Bowl XLV in Arlington, Texas, which Fox will televise, will produce the largest audience in the history of the hyped event.
How’s that for going out on a limb?
Actually, the annual increase in TV sports viewing makes this an easy prediction.
But there’s another reason.
The NFL regular season on the five networks and the first weekend of playoff games drew spectacular TV ratings, indicating NFL fever won’t drain away.
The average regular-season audience was 17.9 million viewers, up 8 percent from 2009 and the highest average since 1989.
This year, the four games on the first weekend of the playoffs averaged a record 32.3 million viewers.
A tougher look through another Feb. 6 crystal ball: Pittsburgh 31, Green Bay 21.
College wrapup.
Auburn’s 22-19 victory over Oregon in the BCS championship game on ESPN was the most-watched event in cable history (27.3 million viewers) but was down 11 percent in viewers from the Alabama-Texas game in 2010, televised by ABC.
This year’s BCS championship game being aired on cable, combined with neither Oregon nor Auburn being a traditional glamour team, probably accounted for the slight loss in audience size.
A belated round of applause for Kirk Herbstreit’s astute analysis during the telecast of the BCS title game. Also, play-by-play man Brent Musburger performed well. And that’s a pat on the back from someone who isn’t a Musburger fan.
Basketball blackouts.
Readers often ask why some Nuggets games televised nationally on TNT, ESPN and ABC are blacked out locally on Altitude.
Contracts, signed before the season, designate that the three networks have exclusivity in NBA games of their choosing, which pre-empts some locally produced Nuggets games.
For the record, Thursday’s Nuggets-Heat game at the Pepsi Center, televised by TNT, had 1.9 million viewers. It was the cable network’s smallest audience of the season.
ESPN and Altitude televised the Nuggets-Spurs game Sunday in San Antonio.
Drew and Dave.
Drew Goodman of Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain and The Denver Post’s Dave Krieger, an ink-stained wretch who dabbles in broadcasting, have been selected Colorado’s sportscaster and sportswriter of the year in statewide voting by their peers.
Goodman, beginning his 10th season this spring as the Rockies’ TV play-by-play man, has won the award eight of the past nine years.
Krieger was honored for his column writing in The Post.
Awards will be presented to all state winners during a May banquet in Salisbury, N.C. The national winners are Mike Tirico of ESPN and Peter King of Sports Illustrated.
Tennis, anyone?
While the sports world was watching the Jets upset the Patriots in the AFC semifinals Sunday, ESPN2 began its 140 hours of live coverage (plus numerous tape repeats) of the Australian Open in Melbourne. Competition runs through Jan. 29 with Cliff Drysdale and Dick Enberg, who introduced coverage with a colorful essay, covering most of the matches.
Audience ratings for professional tennis have been on a downward spiral in recent years.
Doing the Fox trot.
KCNC-4, known as “the Broncos station,” will air its annual season-ending roundup at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Hosted by Gary Miller and Vic Lombardi, the half-hour program will feature, among others, John Elway and new Broncos coach John Fox.
Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Reach him at tvtime@comcast.net.
Irv, Joe are back on the air today
Irv Brown and Joe Williams are joined at the hip when it comes to Denver sports talk radio.
Together for nearly 30 years, Brown and Williams move to the 1-3 p.m. weekday slot today on Mile High Sports Radio (1510 AM and 93.7 FM).
Brown ended his KPEN 1600 AM career in mid-November before undergoing hip surgery.
Williams, initially a bit reluctant to continue radio gabbing, worked until mid-December.
“Joe was going to vacation a lot,” Brown said. “But he decided there were only so many art galleries he could visit.”
Mile High’s Renaud Notaro and Karl “Hungus” Allis move to 6-8 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
