NBC golf analyst Kevin Kisner issued an apology to the golf team at CBS following his remarks on the network’s Masters coverage. Speaking on “Fore Play,” Kisner said, “I crossed the line probably too much by talking about that whole content. ... I know from my short time in the business how wild production is. It is a very difficult thing to produce a live show and make it all work and everybody does their best.” Kisner: “NBC screws up all the time and we’re just trying to do our best. And I went too far on being critical on them and I just want all the people associated with it to know I apologize. And they’re our partners with the PGA Tour and they continue to showcase in a great way the game we all love. And they’re all trying to do their best. And that was too critical of them” (“Fore Play,” 4/16).
HOT MIC: SBJ’s Josh Carpenter discussed Kisner’s comments on the “The Sports Media Podcast.” Carpenter said, “I haven’t seen widespread criticism about CBS and their golf telecast like this in quite some time with how they handled the weekend. They missed some shots.” He added Kisner “tore CBS to shreds earlier this week, and that is just something that you do not see in golf media.” Carpenter: “The networks are kind of off limits. You can have your opinions, but you never see a CBS analyst call out NBC or vice versa. I think this has to create a lot of issues for NBC.” He added he does not think Comcast Chair & co-CEO Brian Roberts “loves that one of his employees is calling out the rights holder for the Masters for the last 70-plus years.” Carpenter said, “I can’t think that [NBC Sports announcers] Dan Hicks or Terry Gannon loves that their lead analyst is coming out and just torching CBS and their production value and what they did” (“The Sports Media Podcast,” SBJ, 4/16).
