ABC Sports
the rise and fall of network sports television

"ABC Sports shaped how the world consumes sport. The American Broadcasting Company sports division is behind some of network television's most significant practices, celebrated personalities, and iconic moments. It created the weekend anthology Wide World of Sports, transformed professional football into a prime-time spectacle with Monday Night Football, fashioned the Olympics into a mega media event, and even revolutionized TV news. This cultural and institutional history of ABC Sports examines the development of network sports television in the United States and the aesthetic, cultural, political, and industrial practices that mark it. ABC Sports traces the storied division from its beginnings through the internet age to reveal the changes it endured along with the new sports media environment it spawned"--Provided by publisher

Introduction : ABC Sports and network sports television -- The "Almost Broadcasting Company" and the birth of ABC Sports -- ABC's Wide World of Sports : "The seedbed of modern sports television" and the Cold War -- "The network of the Olympics" : starring Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell -- Monday Night Football, Brian's song, and the roots of the prime-time TV event -- The news from Munich on the "Arledge Broadcasting Company" -- "What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here?" : trashsports and scandal -- "No more sacred cows" : the end of ABC Sports' golden age -- Conclusion : from Wide World of Sports to the worldwide leader in sports -- Appendix 1 : Wide World of Sports inaugural season schedule, 1961 -- Appendix 2 : ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year -- Appendix 3 : top 15 television audiences of all time as of Roots' premier -- Appendix 4 : top ten most watched Wide World of Sports episodes