Programming: What's the Score?

Fair play may be the rule on the football field, but in the announcer's booth it is the sponsor who calls the plays. During a recent ABC telecast of a game between Southern Methodist and Texas A. & M., the announcers referred to the S.M.U. team as the "Horses," the "Colts" and the "Ponies"—but never by their accepted nickname, the Mustangs. Reason: one of the show's sponsors was the Chevrolet Camaro, which is in direct competition with the Ford Mustang.

The most widespread abuse, however, is an old sucker play that might be called the double reverse runaround. Each network runs a post-game show that reports final scores of other contests and, like everything else in TV, the advertising revenue for these "wrap-ups" is dependent upon ratings. Thus in the fourth quarter of a televised football game, announcers conveniently neglect to give the scores of other games lest they discourage viewers from staying tuned for the wrapup.

Equally hard to come by are the scores of games being aired at the same time on another network; the fear is that the rival might have a game more worth watching, and that the viewer, God forbid, would flip the dial. Late in one recent game an ABC announcer cried: "Here's another final in . . . It's —oh, I'm sorry, I'm not supposed to give any more scores."