TELEVISION STUDIES: THE BASICS the Bulls–Pacers series than to Veronica’s Closet (1997–2000) or ER.

98 TELEVISION STUDIES: THE BASICS the Bulls–Pacers series than to Veronica’s Closet (1997–2000) or ER.

That year, the women’s final at the US Open tennis out- rated the men’s by 15 percent. Every major professional men’s league in the US now has a women’s media marketing plan. Male spectatorship of TV sport in the US is in serious decline, as more and more viewers turn to the History and Discovery Channels. The perennial savior of network sportscasters, the National Football League (NFL), saw 1998–9 and 1999–2000 ratings for Monday Night Football (1970–) at a record low, while a third of its audience was female. In 1999, more men aged 18–34 viewed professional women’s softball on ESPN2 than watched Arena football, the National Hockey League, or Major League Soccer. So something is happening (Miller 2001a). A clue comes from ABC’s coverage of Super Bowl 2000, which included Giants cornerback Jason Seahorn in uniform pants during a pregame show, to which journalist Meredith Vieira offered that football is “all about the butt” (quoted in Miller 2001a). Why does this matter? Because women in the US buy well over half the cars, TVs, and PCs that are sold, and 90 percent of the produce (“Hello, Girls” 2009).

US TV executives operate from the assumption that women are attracted to biographical and conceptual narratives about stars and their sports, rather than statistics or quests for success. So NBC initi- ated “a female- inclusive sports subgenre” at the 1992 Summer Games, offering “private- life” histories of selected contestants. NBC targeted women and families in 1996 to such effect that 50 percent of its Olympic audience was adult women and 35 percent men, with women’s gymnastics one of the most popular events. Male boxing and wrestling were edged out of prime time (although there remained a disproportionate address in general of men’s versus women’s sport on screen). The network reported an increase of 26 percent in the number of women viewers aged 25–54 by compari- son with the 1992 Barcelona Games. Similar tendencies have contin- ued through successive Olympiads. In the 2004 Summer Olympics, NBC covered male athletes in individual events more than female, but airtime dedicated to women’s teams was significantly higher than for men’s (Miller 2001a; Tuggle et al. 2007).

In his widely- used manual for making TV (thirteen editions from 1961 to 2001), Gerald Millerson values “interpretative tech- niques” as crucial components of televising sport. He warns that

CONTENT 99

“although your camera can show what is happening, it will often fail to convey the atmosphere or spirit of the occasion,” so “selec- tive techniques” may be better than “direct reportage.” In the case of covering a mountain climb, this requires low angles to stress danger; a concentration on physical extremities, such as fingers; and audio of heavy breathing and slowly ascending music, so that “the illusion grows.” The ultimate is achieved if the audience responds somatically, developing “dizziness, nausea,” and other “sympathetic bodily reactions” (1990: 371).

Training in how to present TV sport lists these scopophilic and obedient prerequisites for getting a job: “Personality, audience appeal, diligence, loyalty, integrity, willingness to work, and the ability to learn.” Such positions are divided between play- by-play/ ball- by-ball commentary, expert or color remarks, highlights, male gossip shows such as HBO then Showtime’s Inside the NFL (1978–), the BBC’s Football Focus (2001–), and news bulletins. The two- or three- person commentary team derives from the stop–start nature of many sports covered, notably cricket, baseball, and US “football.” But it can also be used as a relief for sports with little respite, such as Australian- Rules Football, and it allows for special- ist statistical information and interpretation. A scorer here fulfils two purposes, providing the commentator with information and flashing it on- screen for the viewer. Spotters on the sidelines at football games give an additional perspective. Whereas the com- mentator from on- high has a seat in the grandstand, the spotter is amongst the struggle and controversy, the gossip and the medical center, providing a space for directors to cut to from action (Hitch- cock 1991: vii, 1, 3–4).

The tight interplay of technology and emotion is clear in the instructions that Australia’s Channel 9 used for many years to train