Networks’ new ideas bold

Over the last two nights, we’ve seen Fox contributor Eric Byrnes and ESPN’s Kenny Mayne paddle around McCovey Cove in kayaks in search of home run balls at Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby and 78th All-Star Game from San Francisco.

In the future, ESPN would like to have one of its reporters “ride along” during an actual NASCAR race. NBC wants to put a cameraman in skates on the ice during NHL shootouts. It also wants to add tracking devices to horses in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes so viewers can better gauge their speed and position.

The suddenly gonzo correspondents of TV sports are showing up with their mics and cameras in unexpected places. It’s a smart idea. In a world of 24/7 sports coverage, TV networks have to provide viewers with access to areas that used to be off-limits. Or get left behind.

“Every broadcaster, whether Fox or anybody else, is looking to take viewers where they’ve never gone before,” says Fox Sports President Ed Goren.

Whether it’s inviting Fox cameras into the American and National League locker rooms before Tuesday’s All-Star game or putting mics on players, managers and umpires during regular season games, MLB has been opening up big time, notes Goren.

Now that ESPN is back in business with NASCAR, it would like to have one of its correspondents ride in the passenger seat with someone like Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Jeff Gordon during a race. “How cool would that be?” asks Norby Williamson, executive vice president of studio and remote production.

NBC producer Sam Flood came up with the idea of placing reporter Pierre McGuire “inside the glass,” or in a small ice-level photographer’s box between the opposing team benches, watching the pit reporters of NASCAR TV coverage.

The idea has been a big success. McGuire gave delighted viewers a blow-by-blow on the threats and insults flying over his head between the Detroit Red Wings and Calgary Flames. During another telecast, McGuire got whacked over the head with a stick. “The players were joking about who collected the bounty on Pierre,” says Flood.

David Neal, executive producer of NBC’s Olympic Coverage, is studying half a dozen ways the network’s correspondents can bring fans closer to the action at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Like the formerly stodgy MLB, Olympic organizers are providing more access than in the past, adds Neal.

“Many of these tradition-bound sports are opening themselves up rather than keeping TV at arm’s length.”