In the world of TV sports, Lance Armstrong and Brent Musburger are in the news. On Jan. 8, OWN Network announced that Oprah Winfrey landed an exclusive interview with fallen hero Lance Armstrong. ESPN also made headlines on Tuesday when network officials publicly apologized for Brent Musburger’s fawning remarks about Katherine Webb, Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron’s girlfriend the reigning Miss Alabama.
Oprah will speak exclusively with Lance Armstrong in his first no-holds barred interview since being stripped of his titles and dropped from millions of dollars in endorsement deals. According to OWN, Armstrong will address the alleged doping scandal, years of accusations of cheating, and charges of lying about the use of performance-enhancing drugs throughout his storied cycling career.
The interview, which takes place from Armstrong’s home in Austin, will air on “Oprah’s Next Chapter” at 9 p.m. EST on Thursday, Jan. 17 on OWN.
In other TV sports news, ESPN officially apologized on Jan. 8 for Brent Musburger’s on-air musings about Katherine Webb during the BCS championship game. When the cameras cut to a shot of the beauty queen and AJ McCarron’s girlfriend in the stands, Musburger gushed that she was a beautiful, lovely lady and added, “You quarterbacks get all the good-looking women.” He then commented, “If you’re a youngster in Alabama, start getting the football out and throw it around the backyard with Pop.” Many TV viewers were surprised by Musburger’s comments and thought they were overboard, creepy or awkward. Almost immediately, Webb’s name began trending on social media and her Twitter account added nearly 100,000 followers in a few short hours.
On Tuesday, ESPN officially apologized for Brent Musburger’s comments and released the following statement.
We always try to capture interesting story lines and the relationship between an Auburn grad who is Miss Alabama and the current Alabama quarterback certainly met that test. However, we apologize that the commentary in this instance went too far and Brent understands that.
According to Fox News, Katherine Webb’s parents actually defended Musburger and asked critics to cut him some slack. “On one hand, you can look at it as being kind of like the dirty old man, but I’m used to this and I think if you really look into what he was trying to say, he was trying to be complimentary, and I think they need to give Brent a break,” dad Alan Webb told Fox 5 Atlanta.
On Jan. 9, Katherine Webb appeared on "Today" and talked to Matt Lauer about becoming an overnight media sensation after Murburger’s comments. She said that she took no offense to the sportscaster’s comments. “I think the media has been really unfair to (Musberger). If he would’ve said something along the line that we were hot or sexy or made any derogatory statements like that, I think that would’ve been a little bit different, but the fact that he said that we were beautiful and gorgeous, I don’t see why any woman wouldn’t be flattered by that,’’ Webb stated on Wednesday.
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