Nbc

A title like Dog Eat Dog for an NBC reality game show evokes all sorts of ugly imagery. Fortunately, it is not to be taken literally. Not only are there no canine banquets, but also no one is forced to eat worms or lie down with rats a la Fear Factor. At current-day NBC, this amounts to high-mindedness. However, Dog Eat Dog is decidedly lowbrow. It's also low-rent. The grand prize for making an idiot out of yourself in front of millions of people is a paltry $25,000. NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker vowed to bring down the cost of programming, but $25K is cheap even by daytime basic-cable standards.

Laying up more sports media notes while being thankful that no one tries to throttle me while I'm typing the way opposing players do to LeBron James when he drives to the basket: NBC really, really wants to see someone hit the ball into the water this weekend at The Players Championship (tomorrow and Sunday, 2 p.m., on WBAL/Channel 11 and WRC/Channel 4). How much? At a typical hole, the network would deploy four microphones. For No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass, with its famous island green, NBC has installed 21 microphones, including 15 designated as "Splash Mics," along with 10 cameras.

Is David Letterman destined for prime time?There is mounting evidence that NBC is now trying to find a way to keep both Jay Leno, host of "The Tonight Show," and David Letterman at the network. One way to do that: Move Mr. Letterman to prime time.Reports were circulating in Hollywood Wednesday that NBC was considering the creation of a Monday-through-Friday prime-time show with Mr. Letterman as host. Under such a plan, Mr. Leno could still remain as host of "The Tonight Show," while Mr. Letterman, who's made no secret of his unhappiness with his late night slot, could boost his visibility dramatically.

NEW YORK -- In a direct challenge to the very existence of the Fox television network, NBC will file a petition with the Federal Communications Commission today asserting that the stations that form the heart of Fox are illegally foreign-owned.NBC will ask the FCC to rule either that Fox must drastically reduce its level of foreign ownership or that all other U.S. networks may seek unlimited foreign investment.NBC contends that if the FCC explicitly sanctions the ownership arrangement that underpins Fox, in which more than 99 percent of the equity is held by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Over the past three decades, some of the greatest moments in pro football history have aired on NBC.From the New York Jets' startling upset of the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, to the Dolphins' dramatic overtime win over Kansas City on Christmas Day in the 1971 playoffs, to perhaps the greatest game in league history, the 1981 AFC divisional playoff match between San Diego and Miami, when a gimpy Kellen Winslow seemingly willed San Diego to a 41-38...

LOS ANGELES -- A week of wild network spending continued yesterday with NBC agreeing to pay Warner Bros. Television a record $13 million an episode for the rights to air "ER" through the 2000-2001 television season.The ensemble drama about a hospital emergency room has been the most popular show on television the past three seasons. And with NBC losing high-rated "Seinfeld" and rights to carry professional football games, the network had little choice but to pay the price: $286 million a year for the rights to 22 episodes, which is more than 6 1/2 times the $1.9 million per episode it now pays.

The end of "Seinfeld" means more than just the loss of a great sitcom for NBC.It marks the end of a brilliant programming strategy -- forged in the early 1980s by NBC's programming director Brandon Tartikoff and his boss, NBC chairman Grant Tinker -- that made NBC billions of dollars as America's favorite prime-time network.NBC has been riding that train for more than a decade, with "Seinfeld" as its engine since 1993. But, with Jerry Seinfeld's decision this week to end the series come May, it looks as if that era of golden comedy programming and ratings dominance could be coming to end."

Australians are mad at NBC for its decision to broadcast the Olympics on tape, thinking disappointing TV ratings in America will persuade the International Olympic Committee never to take on the 15-hour time difference and bring the Summer Games Down Under again. It's easy to blame the network when you're sitting at the tennis venue watching Venus and Serena Williams playing doubles for a gold medal in a match that could have been shown live in prime time on the East Coast but instead will be shown 24 hours later.

A feature in which Sun writers and critics sound off about the movies. Thanksgiving is over, so it's time to start gearing up for Christmas. Which means, of course, that It's a Wonderful Life will be showing up on TV soon. It wasn't long ago that the 1946 movie - starring Jimmy Stewart as a small-town banker so despondent one Christmas Eve that he contemplates suicide, only to be stopped by an apprentice angel struggling to earn his wings - seemed to air nearly every day. Since the film had fallen into the public domain, any station could air it, whenever it wanted.

NBC is losing its stranglehold on Thursday nights. ABC is suddenly on the rise with a hit on Wednesday night. And CBS is winning all kinds of new viewers, including younger ones. The old network order seems to have gone topsy-turvy this new fall season, and the irony is that the best things are coming to those who have mostly stayed the same. Just six months ago, industry gurus were claiming that the fall season was dead - and that the future lay in year-round programming. Meanwhile, conventional dramas such as NBC's Boomtown were being dropped left and right to be replaced by cheaper and hipper reality television shows.