Remote patrol

Remote patrol

By SHARON GINN
Published June 2, 2006

NEWSMAKERS

ESPN can't seem to get enough of the cut-in. After weeks of showing every Barry Bonds at-bat live, the network has decided to do the same for golfer Michelle Wie as she attempts to qualify for the men's U.S. Open. Beginning at noon Monday, ESPN will cut in live to Wie's shots as she plays in the sectional qualifying tournament in Summit, N.J.

For the first time, FSN will launch its own national sports show, a 30-minute nightly highlights program that will premiere July 3. Hosts of the FSN Final Score will vary from night to night; the focus will be on the highlights, said executive producer Rick Jaffe. The show will be simple and fast-paced.

Longtime tennis analyst Cliff Drysdale is missing ESPN2's French Open coverage due to an unspecified illness. Drysdale joined ESPN in 1979 and has covered 37 Grand Slam events for the two networks. An ESPN spokesman said Drysdale expects to be well enough to report from Wimbledon later this month.

Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer will sit with CBS's Jim Nantz for what the network says is their first television interview together. The first half-hour of the two-part interview airs Sunday at 1:30 p.m., with the rest inexplicably scheduled to be aired July 2, long after everyone has forgotten what was said in the first segment.

Lightning teammates Vinny Lecavalier , Brad Richards , Tim Taylor and Vinny Prospal will square off in the latest edition of the Golf Channel's Big Break All-Star Challenge (airs 10:30 p.m. Tuesday). Each of the four will face a series of golf challenges similar to those seen in the network's the Big Break reality series. All winnings will go to a charity of the athlete's choice. The episode was taped in May at the Westin Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor.

Let the summer filler programming begin: ESPN Classic's original comedy series Cheap Seats returns Monday for its fourth season (11:30 p.m., with older episodes airing Tuesday through Friday nights in the same time slot). Hosts Randy and Jason Sklar open the season by mocking the brilliant adolescents at the National Spelling Bee.

Bright House Networks' local sports station, Catch 47, was betting the University of Tampa Spartans would reach the NCAA Division II baseball final. The station airs Saturday's championship game live at 8 p.m. After the game, Fred McGriff will serve as analyst for Catch 47's tape-delayed coverage of Friday's Tampa Yankees-St. Lucie Mets game.

Overnight ratings for the Indianapolis 500 were down 18.8 percent from last year, but ABC's race coverage still outpaced Fox's coverage of the Coca-Cola 600 - at least nationally. ABC earned a 5.2 overnight Nielsen rating for Sunday's race, down from a 6.4 in 2006, and Fox pulled in a 4.7 rating, down 7.8 percent from last year's 5.1. In the Tampa Bay area, however, it was a different story: Fox's coverage of the Coca-Cola 600 walloped Indy coverage, earning a 7.1 rating to the Indy 500's 5.6.

Wednesday night's Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final was the highest-rated NBA game in ESPN history and drew the largest audience for any basketball game the network has aired. Detroit's 91-78 victory over Miami earned a 5.5 rating, representing an average of nearly 5-million homes. The previous marks were set in Game 6 of the 2004 Eastern Conference final, which drew a 5.0 rating and an audience of 4.4-million homes as Detroit eliminated Indiana.

[Last modified June 2, 2006, 00:57:12]