The Lightning will appear on ABC for the first time this year when Ch. 28 carries Game 2 of the divisional quarterfinals at 3 p.m. Saturday.
The Lightning then is scheduled to return to Sunshine for the remainder of the first-round series.
Hoops center we're not
ESPN's coverage of the NCAA women's championship game was the network's most-viewed basketball game ever.
Connecticut's win averaged 3.8-million households, surpassing the 3.48-million for the Huskies' victory over Oklahoma in the 2002 championship. The rating was a 4.3. In the Tampa Bay area, the game only garnered a 2.2 rating.
CBS didn't have as much luck nationally with ratings thanks to a lopsided men's final, where Connecticut's win over Georgia Tech drew a 11.0 rating. In the Tampa Bay area, the rating was 10.0. It peaked after the opening tip, with 11.9 and 11.7 marks after the first half hour, but slumped to 8.7 the next quarter hour.
Filling space
The television success of the NBA and NFL drafts and the NCAA basketball selection show has given the NFL Network some ideas. And knowing the popularity of football, they are probably good ones.
When the NFL announces the 2004 regular-season schedule, it will do so live on NFL Network's signature show, NFL Total Access.
Access will air a two-hour special edition beginning at 5 p.m. to unveil this year's matchups, while NFL.com simultaneously releases them online. The date has not been set.
"Just as the NFL draft on ESPN and CBS's NCAA selection show did on those networks, we believe this program will grow into a major event for NFL Network," said Charles Coplin, the NFL's vice president of programming.
The NFL Total Access Schedule Show will be hosted by Rich Eisen. Like the other draft shows, there will be a ticker running across the bottom of the screen.
Come fly away
ESPN will debut FlyCam during Sunday night's baseball game between San Francisco and San Diego. FlyCam is a camera mounted more than 20 feet above the stands in foul territory and travels down a designated basepath (first- or third-base line from behind home plate to the foul pole) to capture overhead views of the action.
ESPN also will continue its in-game interviews. Reporter Sam Ryan conducted what is believed to be the first live in-game regular-season interview with a major-leaguer when she talked to Baltimore's Sidney Ponson in the seventh inning of last week's game.
Hoops withdrawal?
ESPN Classic will feature four "instant classics" from the 2004 NCAA men's basketball tournament - and no, the final will not be among them.
The games, beginning at 11:30 p.m. Sunday, are UAB vs. Kentucky, Oklahoma State vs. Saint Joseph's, Oklahoma State vs. Georgia Tech and Duke vs. Connecticut.
Need a Bucs fix?
How They Were Built, an eight-part series on the NFL Network explaining how each team constructed its roster, takes a look at the NFC South and the Bucs at 8 tonight.
