Drama at ‘Puppy Bowl IX’ Came Long Before The Game

When you watch the Puppy Bowl — Animal Planet’s annual alternative to the Super Bowl — on Feb. 3, some things will stand out as new.

The hedgehog cheerleaders, who replace last year’s Piggy Pep Squad.

The “Puppy Cam” extreme closeups.

The underwater shots from the puppy hot tub. What you won’t see is any evidence of the behindthe- scenes drama that accompanied the production of Puppy Bowl IX, a “contest” in which shelter pets romp around on a gridiron playing field.

Unlike the Super Bowl (on CBS), Puppy Bowl is produced ahead of time.

This year it was scheduled to be taped in New York on Nov. 1-2 — the Thursday and Friday after deadly Superstorm Sandy struck on Oct. 29.

Dan Schachner, the 38-year-old actor who returns to his hosting role as “The Ref,” had a big issue with Sandy. The storm knocked out power, water and heat in his apartment building on East 20th Street in New York. He, his wife and their two boys, ages 4 and 6, used a rental car to move out to a hotel in New Jersey.

The studio in Chelsea where the shoot was slated to occur, remarkably, had power, according to Animal Planet rep Jared Albert.

But the puppies were cast from 25 shelter and rescue organizations around the country, and they had trouble traveling to New York after the storm.

Some key lighting and other gear was delayed, and the volunteers who work with the dogs during the taping couldn’t get in, either.

Schachner and his family were able to move back home in three or four days.

And the Puppy Bowl shoot was rescheduled for Nov. 11-12 at another New York location. Discovery Studios “did an amazing job and pulled it off ,” Albert said.

In addition to new camera angles and hedgehogs, a highlight, at least for Schachner, was the first time he’d seen a double simultaneous touchdown.

“It was pretty incredible,” he recalled, with a touch of awe. “You know, we’re a little loose with our rules. All you have to do is drag a toy into the end zone, and that counts as a touchdown. So, we had two puppies doing that at the same time and we actually counted it as a double touchdown.

“Not quite NFL rules, I grant you, but definitely Puppy Bowl rules.”

Puppy Bowl — watched by an average 1.6 million viewers during its two-hour premiere last year — airs from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET.

Esser Guides Chambers To a Smart Vegas Bet — On the Crimson Tide

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers makes technology bets aligned with his customers’ interests — and evidently, he’s also willing to place a literal wager to show his support.

At Cox Communications’ event unveiling a next-generation tablet app at CES in Las Vegas last Monday (Jan. 7), Chambers said Cox president Pat Esser was a big University of Alabama booster, given that one of his daughters attended the school.

Right before Alabama totally demolished the University of Notre Dame for college football’s national title that night, Chambers, a West Virginia alum and fan, held up what was presumably a wager on the Crimson Tide and — pointing at Esser — said, “My sports book is with you today.”

No word on how much scratch Chambers won. He certainly was all smiles at the event, where organizers aired the ESPN telecast following the presentation.

—Todd Spangler

For Speed’s Bob Varsha Life After Formula 1 Begins At Barrett-Jackson

Bob Varsha, the Speed channel longtime anchor on Formula 1 telecasts, no longer has that particular assignment, with U.S. TV rights to the top international racing circuit moving to NBC Sports Group from the Fox camp this year.

Instead, Varsha is looking ahead to what he calls the 53 hours of Scottsdale and Daytona, spanning nine days and both ends of the country.

The marathon starts with 39 hours of live coverage of the Barrett-Jackson collector-car auction in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Speed coverage starts this Tuesday (Jan. 15) at 7 p.m. and ends on Sunday (Jan. 20) at 6 p.m., with 10-hour telecasts on Friday and Saturday in between.

The action builds up into Saturday primetime — some 30 hours into the broadcast — when two dozen Salon Collection cars come on the block, each likely to sell for seven figures, Varsha said. Those rare beauties will include a 1968 experimental Shelby Cobra “Green Hornet,” which could sell for $2 million.

Barrett-Jackson is truly a marathon: Varsha said he and co-anchor Matt Stone barely leave the booth for more than a few minutes at a time.

Varsha’s next assignment, fittingly, is the Rolex 24, a 24-hour endurance race in Daytona Beach, Fla. Speed’s live coverage starts at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26.

Varsha said it was “disappointing, personally and professionally,” that the network group he calls home (via contract for another year) didn’t retain F1.

NBC hired his Speed on-air colleagues, analysts Steve Matchett and David Hobbs, play caller Leigh Diffey and pit reporter Will Buxton. They served as a ready-made F1 broadcast team, as all were out of contract and able to move, Varsha said.

He said he’ll keep watching F1 — but might not always tune in live. Some of the races, in Asia for example, air live on the U.S. East Coast at 2 or 3 a.m. “That’s why DVRs were invented.”

Varsha — who worked his first F1 race in 1987, for ESPN — also said he’ll enjoy being at the track to call the Rolex 24 and later Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series events on Speed. Makes a nice change after all those years of calling Formula 1 races from a studio in Charlotte, N.C.

— Kent Gibbons