Week 7 broadcast maps: Favrkings-Steelers will be most widely seen game

There's nothing attractive about this week's slate, except maybe the novelty of the New England-Tampa game from Jolly Ol' England. The game does draw the network's No. 1 crew of Nantz-Simms, but has all the earmarks of a blowout. The late game's are so bad that we expect angry fans to call CBS and demand that the network interrupt the Jets-Raiders broadcast and show "Heidi" instead.

 

Minnesota-Pittsburgh, as we noted in our real and spectacular picks, is the game of the week and draws nearly national coverage from Fox in the early hour. But the game will be called by No. 2 crew of Albert-Johnston-Siragusa so that the network's No. 1 tandem can stay on the Dallas payroll.

 

Siragusa, by the way, lost out this week to Erin Andrews in our homepage Troll Poll of hottest sideline reporters (54% to 20%).

 

With Joe Buck still on baseball duty, Thom Bennaman teams up with Troy Aikman on Fox's No. 1 crew. There's no truth to the rumor, though, that Buck has purchased a home next to Cowboys Stadium. Chicago-Cincinnati enjoys widespread distribution throughout the Midwest and beyond, while the impending New Orleans-Miami blowout generates mostly limited regional coverage: the Saints are very, very good, folks, but not good enough yet to be a major-league draw in the eyes of the networks.