Feast or Surfeit?

When the nation's stuffed sports fans waddled their way from the Thanksgiving table to their television sets, they were settling in for the third of a ten-course weekend football feast. Pitt and Penn State squared off at Pittsburgh's frigid Three Rivers Stadium* at the unlikely (but prime) hour of 9 p.m. The game time was arranged by ABC, which split almost $500,000 between the two schools to convince them that rescheduling the contest from a 1:30 p.m. start the previous Saturday made eminent sense. Penn State finally disposed of Pitt (31-10) by midnight, but the glut of games did not end till Sunday right after a staggering total of 30 commercial-crammed hours of gridiron TV. (Some of the commercials were ordered up by network-paid stage managers, who signaled game officials when they wanted a break in the action.) Burnishing the already well-polished dictum that more is better, the networks figured they were giving their viewers precisely what they wanted. Or were they? Football on the tube has traditionally been a big winner, but there are ominous signs that the saturation point may be just about at hand. CBS is already in pain over a three-year decline in the number of viewers tuned in to its Sunday National Football League (National Conference) telecasts, and NBC's ratings for its N.F.L. (American Conference) games slipped the past two years after four years of growth. So far this year NBC's ratings have inched up, but CBS's have continued to fall.

The down trend is most pronounced at ABC. Its Monday Night Football telecasts, featuring the logorrheic Howard Cosell, are appearing in 11% fewer households this season than last. Part of the slippage is due to the popularity of two comedy shows, Maude and Rhoda, aired by CBS. For its part, NBC two weeks ago blitzed ABC'S Denver-Kansas City game by a margin of better than two to one with the first telecast of The Godfather.

Swelled Schedule. Whatever their concern, the networks take pains not to show it. CBS and NBC are late in the first quarter of a four-year contract with the N.F.L.; together they are providing viewers with up to three games every Sunday. In addition, this year's television schedule has been swelled by as many as four additional college and World Football League contests per week. To fight off the perils of glut and decline, the networks are redoubling their efforts to make the games glossier with replays, added camera coverage and visiting-coach commentaries. If ratings continue to sink, such remedies may not be the answer. Less football might.

* The contest had to be switched from Pitt Stadium, which has insufficient lighting to televise a night game.

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