Prime

THE WORD came down 90 minutes before the Ravens lined up for last night's opening kickoff. No Deion. They might as well have told me to go home and watch Everybody Loves Raymond. I would have gotten a better parking space and my wife only charges me $3 for nachos, so it would have been a win-win, but I was already at M&T Bank Stadium and it was only the third Monday Night Football game the Ravens have played in Baltimore. Monday night is supposed to be special. Ex-Raven Tony Siragusa was telling me that before the game, right before the Ravens announced Deion Sanders had been declared inactive.

Fox will expand its prime-time schedule to six nights a week by launching a Wednesday lineup on July 1, the network said.The 8-to-10 p.m. slate will feature the season premiere of "Melrose Place," the mega-hyped "Beverly Hills, 90210" spinoff starring newcomers Grant Show, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Josie Bissett, Thomas Calabro and others. The complete Wednesday schedule will be announced soon, Fox says.Fox now broadcasts prime-time fare Thursday through Saturday nights from 8 to 10 and Sundays from 7 to 11.

For what the Prime Rib charges, everything about dining there should be prime. Prime service. Prime presentation. Prime food.It isn't.The prices are prime. As in $21 for a filet mignon. Or $19 for two crab cakes. No salad. No potato. No vegetable. Those are ala carte. You'll pay $3 for a baked potato, $4.25 for a dish of creamed spinach, $4.50 for a small dish of sauteed mushrooms.We know the Prime Rib is successful -- try getting a prime-time Saturday reservation there with less than two weeks' notice.

Los Angeles -- Soap opera stars often complain they feel like the deprived stepchildren of their counterparts on evening sitcoms and dramas. The rivalry between daytime and prime-time shows is emphasized when it comes to handing out kudos.The television academy gives out Emmys in two separate ceremonies: one specifically saluting daytime programs and the other strictly honoring prime-time shows. For the past 17 years, theDaytime Emmy Awards have been shown during the day in late spring, while the 42-year-old Prime-time Emmy Awards have been presented in an evening broadcast in late summer, usually amid more fanfare and increased viewership.

Although the just-completed Olympic Winter Games, broadcast from the Italian Alps by NBC, were a disappointment for the network in terms of viewers, its Baltimore affiliate managed nonetheless to claim the peak in February's local ratings race. Nationwide, NBC drew an average 12.2 percent of prime-time viewers for the Olympics, 37 percent fewer than for the winter games in Salt Lake City four years ago. But viewership of the Turin games in Baltimore and elsewhere in Maryland was higher, doubtless aided by the participation of a native daughter, Harford County figure skater Kimmie Meissner.

LONDON -- The drama of British forces actively engaged in the air, land and sea operations as the gulf ground offensive began persuaded Queen Elizabeth II to make her first address to the nation at war since she ascended the throne in 1952.Noting that the British were "rightly proud of our armed forces" and that the allies were facing "a fresh and yet sterner challenge," she said: "I hope that we can unite in praying that their success will be as swift as it is certain and that it may be achieved with as small a cost of human life as possible."

Once upon a not-so-distant time, NBA championship series games aired on tape delay, the league was riddled by rumors of rampant drug abuse and, to borrow a marketing phrase, things weren't so fantastic.Not so anymore, and no place does the rebound show up better than in the NBA's television situation, which is peaking at just the right time: when talks for a new contract are on the horizon.The league's current $1.1 billion contracts with NBC and Turner Sports expire after next season and the list of potential suitors when discussions begin later this year is a mile long and they're all bringing lots of cash.

Prime time has become nail-biting time for NFL teams.The past two weeks, both Sunday night games have gone into overtime and both Monday night games were decided on the final play of regulation.It may be tough to top those games, but the NFL has another pair of intriguing prime-time matches set for this weekend.On Sunday night, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the surprise team in the league, bid for a 4-0 start, playing host to the Miami Dolphins.Then, the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are 2-0 at home against Pittsburgh, make their first "Monday Night Football" appearance against a visiting Steelers team that is 10-1 under coach Bill Cowher on Monday nights.

Struggling Prime Retail Inc., one of the nation's largest factory outlet shopping center owners, said yesterday that it has agreed to sell two centers in Colorado for $96 million to an undisclosed buyer. The Baltimore-based company, which has sold several centers over the past year to trim its huge debt, said it will use proceeds from the sale of the two Colorado properties to make payments on a mortgage loan with a $338.9 million balance and a shorter-term, high-interest "mezzanine" loan with a $31.1 million balance.

Troubled outlet mall owner Prime Retail Inc. hopes to sell six shopping centers - 10 percent of its portfolio - to pay down debt, a company spokesman said yesterday. Baltimore-based Prime, the world's largest owner of factory outlet centers, wants to sell malls in Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, California, Massachusetts and New York totaling 1.3 million square feet, said Prime spokesman Steven A. Sless. The centers could be sold as a package or individually, Sless said. The offering "is consistent with our previously discussed and announced strategy of considering the sale of additional, selected assets of Prime Outlets' portfolio" of 46 properties, he said.