The NHL trade deadline is tomorrow do any morning show/midday/afternoon personalities intend on doing something cool on their shows for the deadline??  Also what do you guys think about Sportsnet deciding to drop last years pizza/hot chicks party?  Probably for the best eh?

Trade deadline coverage a tribute to excess

Chris Zelkovich Toronto Star

The sports television arms race has escalated to even sillier heights.

After both TSN and Rogers Sportsnet announced that their annual blanket coverage of Tuesday's NHL trade deadline day would grow by two hours and start at 8 a.m., The Score one-upped them by telling the world its day-long talk fest would start at 7:30 a.m.

``That could change," warned Score programming head Richard Garner. ``We are starting first."

That was the situation as of yesterday, so it's possible by the time this thing plays out somebody will being going to air on Monday.

Of course, this is what trade deadline day is all about. It's as much about showing whose coverage is biggest as it is about putting a handful of trades under a microscope for 10 hours.

And the coverage is indeed big:

TSN is boasting of having 20 ``insiders" to dissect trades and rumours. Joining the usual suspects are former Leafs GM John Ferguson Jr.

Sportsnet will cover things more traditionally this year, including doing some of the show from Vancouver. It has added NHL types Doug MacLean, Keith Primeau and Brian Lawton.

The Score will focus on viewers, with call-in and email segments. Former Leaf Mike Johnson has been added.

It all seems a bit much, but there is demand. Last year, TSN was the big winner, averaging 150,000 viewers over a paltry eight hours – more than four times what it normally draws at that time. And that represented the lowest ratings since 2002.

Another million – four times the daily average – checked out the trade stuff at TSN's website.

Sportsnet executive producer Mike English says the interest justifies the vast expanse of coverage.

``The numbers are there," he says. ``If they weren't I don't think anybody would do this."

There's little denying that.

``It's just a colossus," says TSN host James Duthie, who has seen this grow from a two-hour special to today's monster.

``It's become an unofficial Canadian holiday. I think Dalton McGuinty got it wrong with Family Day.

``He should have made it deadline day."

But there's more to this than satisfying viewers.

``This is the ultimate multimedia exercise where we get to flex our muscles and deliver it to your TV, computer or cellphone," says TSN production head Mark Milliere.

Sportsnet is promising to do a bit more flexing this year, getting away from an ill-fated attempt to combine alleged entertainment, table hockey and pizza deliveries with reporting.

``You could look at last year as a one-year experiment," says English. ``I'm not going to say it was unsuccessful, we did have 60,000 viewers consistently throughout the day, but there was a sense we wanted to get back to the traditional way of doing it.

``It will still incorporate some of the fun aspects. You may see the pizzas rolling roll, but you're going to see a lot of good analysis and reporting, too."