Watchdog

For the second year in a row – and second time ever – the most-watched prime time show for a full TV season was NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,’’ which averaged 21.5 million viewers to 21.3 million for “NCIS.’’

It’s something even “Monday Night Football’’ never achieved in its heyday and more evidence that in an ever more splintered media environment, football remains the Great Aggregator.

Even...

Well, hello there! I have returned to the media and business beat after a month following the Knicks around and . . . well, I'm glad to be back.

Kudos to the hoops beat writers for doing a job that is more difficult than it appears and for keeping the rest of us informed of Knicks and Nets doings.

Let's get back in the swing with a positive story:

SNY recently made $5,000 grants...

Please click the video below. Please don't blink more than once or twice.

Because, if you do, you'll miss the entirety of Paul MacLean's post-game news conference after his Senators lost to the Penguins, 7-3.

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Jason Collins, the first gay active male athlete on a U.S. pro team, appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" with his twin brother, Jarron Collins, on Wednesday night.

Watch the interview below, in two clips.

Part 1

Part 2

...

Difficult to believe we are coming up on five years since Mike Francesa and Chris Russo parted ways after 19 years together on WFAN.

It was so long ago that the day Sirius XM Satellite Radio announced Russo's hiring at its Manhattan studios, I walked by Lehman Brothers headquarters and observed a line of employees waiting to get into the building to clear out their desks.

Anyway, I've...

ESPN NBA analyst Chris Broussard was less that accepting of Jason Collins' decision to announce that he's gay.

On ESPN's "Outside the Lines" on Monday, Broussard called it "a sin" and "walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ."

Watch the clip below.

(Newsday's app users can watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCOXBgBjDgY)...

Giants running back John Tuggle was the last pick taken in the NFL Draft, an "honor" commonly referred to as "Mr. Irrelevant." His importance to the Giants franchise and coach Bill Parcells is profiled in Grantland's 30-for-30 shorts series.

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As the NBA demonstrated last season, playing a lockout-truncated schedule is a good way to boost ratings, since each game takes on added importance.

So it has been in the NHL this year, with many teams posting big increases. But even taking that into consideration, the three teams in the New York area have been particularly impressive.

The last time Sports Business Journal studied all...

The seventh Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival opens next week, highlighted by the much-anticipated premiere of Kevin Connolly’s “Big Shot,’’ about the brief-but-notorious reign of John Spano as the Islanders’ owner.

But that is only one of nine sports-related films that will be shown, four of which are from the “Nine for IX’’ series that is part of the network’s celebration of the 40th anniversary...

Having the Knicks reach the Eastern Conference finals against the Heat would be all sorts of fun, one reason being this: TNT would carry the series, giving Charles Barkley regular opportunities to annoy Knicks fans – and, even better, give me writing material.

Barkley, the most prominent Knicks skeptic working in media, was at it again Thursday, saying that the Nets would beat the Knicks in...