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Where’s the remote?
How popular is college basketball? Some perspective: The Saturday telecast of the big Cal-UCLA game drew a 3.6 rating in a five-county Southern California area, with each point representing 50,064 households.
Four other programs shown at the same time - reruns, to boot - drew higher ratings: “Three’s Company,” “Family Ties” and “Baywatch.”
Chinese swimmers for a hundred, Alex
In an unprecedented effort to take their product right to the sofas of America and make a few bucks besides, organizers of the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta have turned to TV quiz masters Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak.
“Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune,” two of the most-watched shows on TV, have been declared the “Official Game Shows” of the Atlanta Olympics.
Announced last month by Atlanta Centennial Olympic Properties and King World Productions, distributor of the shows, the partnership will include 44 editions of “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel” with Olympic themes.
Soccer shocker
We know this may be difficult to believe, but three people associated with international soccer have been accused of “bringing the game into disrepute” and “ungentlemanly behavior.”
The latest villains are Wimbledon team manager Joe Kinnear, team captain Vinnie Jones and Liverpool forward Robbie Fowler. After his team was denied a goal recenly, Kinnear supposedly called a referee “a cheat,” then confronted officials as they left the field before a policeman intervened. Jones, meanwhile, was warned for an abusive verbal attack on Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan in the locker room hallway.
But Fowler’s alleged misconduct - “improper gestures at spectators” - is the clincher. “The police received complaints, including an allegation that Fowler pulled up his shorts to expose his bottom,” a team spokesman said.
Is it any wonder soccer is the butt of so many jokes?
I’ll let ya live this time
Jackie Kallen and James Toney, boxing’s most contentious couple, have kissed and made up. Sort of.
“James is still like a part of my family,” said Kallen, who, despite a very messy, very public spat with the exIBF super middleweight champ, still manages him. “It’s not like he hasn’t ever had a temper tantrum.”
Toney’s biggest “tantrum” came after his November loss to Roy Jones Jr., a loss he blamed on Kallen. After promising to fire her, Toney capped an argument with Kallen by saying he’d be back with a gun and “shoot up Jackie and her whole bleeping family.”
Toney never made good on his threat, and Kallen says, “Right now, he’s all nice and sweet as a baby. It’s like nothing ever happened.”
Yet.
The last word …
“Everybody is a star now and winning is secondary. Oliver Miller had one good series against the Lakers (1993) and he was out of control from that point on.”
- Phoenix Suns forward Charles Barkley