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NBC may slam XFL
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March 26, 2001: 10:01 a.m. ET
Network sports chief says league must improve ratings during playoff to return
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - NBC Sports is getting close to pulling the plug on its little-watched XFL football league, according to a published report.
Dick Ebersol, chairman of the network's sports unit, told the Washington Post that he wants to see numbers through the league's initial playoff season, but that it needs to show improvements to come back next year. The network has a two-year agreement with its partner in the made-for-TV league, the World Wrestling Federation Entertainment (WWF: Research, Estimates).
 "We all want to see it work," he told the paper. "The evidence through 75 percent of the regular season is not promising....It's going to have to show a marked swing in the ratings in the postseason for it to have a real shot beyond this year, just from an advertising standpoint."
The paper said the league's overnight ratings from Saturday night's Las Vegas-Los Angeles game drew a 2.1 rating, the same as the overnight number a week ago. The national number for a week ago, released Thursday, was 1.6, which makes it the lowest-rated program on a major network in prime-time history. The national number for the most recent week also is expected to fall below the overnight rating that measures major market viewership, the paper reported.
NBC, a unit of General Electric Co. (GE: Research, Estimates), turned to WWFE to start the XFL after it lost the contract to broadcast NFL games.
The XFL's playoffs are set for April 14 through April 21, and Ebersol told the Post that a decision on renewing the league is due no later than late April.
A spokesman for WWFE could not be reached for comment Monday. Vince McMahon, the chairman of WWFE, told the New York Times last week that the league can survive without NBC, but that it needs a national network. Besides NBC some of the games are carried on upstart network UPN, which is owned by CBS-owner Viacom (VIA: Research, Estimates).
"I hope NBC steps up with us, but if they can't, they can't," McMahon told the Times. "We won't hold their feet to the fire. We won't point fingers. A deal has to work for both partners."
But, he added: "If we have no network TV partner, we have no league. We've had preliminary talks with UPN, and they are interested."
Shares of World Wrestling Federation Entertainment gained 65 cents to $12.75 in early trading Monday. 
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