As 'The T.O. Show' Ratings Improve, Terrell Owens Calls Out Jim Rome

I have no idea how long Twitter will be around -- NFL teams are cracking down on player, media and fan usage -- but I will enjoy the mindless entertainment it provides in the meantime.

A perfect example: last week, Terrell Owens used Twitter to defend himself against Jim Rome, who made note of the abysmal ratings for VH1's "The T.O. Show" on his nationally syndicated radio show.

"Keep hating jimmy romeo! while u're @ it, tell the people really how ratings r calculated & how ridiculous & inaccurate u r about my show."

(Random aside: remember the self-righteous English majors predicting the end of the world when everybody started using e-mail last decade? Grammar and sentence structure somehow became unimportant because of the immediacy of the medium. I'm pretty sure these people are mobilizing as Twitter grows in popularity.)

To be fair, after two episodes, "The T.O. Show" finished 798th in cable rankings, tying the 5 AM showing of "Fresh Prince." I think that's a clownable offense, even if Jim Rome is doing the clowning.

Good news, though: ratings are up! Via the T.O. Tweet Machine:

Ratings of #TheTOShow & the alleged not-so good ratings according 2 jimmy romeo. Yo jimmy, talk about my show & this link

If you're too lazy to click the link, here you go: for the week of August 9, the "T.O. Show" had 1.8 millions viewers for the Monday, 10 PM ET showing. "Rome Is Burning," Jim Rome's half-hour ESPN teevee show, pulled 965,000 viewers on that same Monday in the 4:30 PM ET time slot.

I eagerly await Rome's response, hopefully via Twitter. (Best-case scenario: the ESPN Twitter Memo will prevent Rome's rebuttal. I think that's something we can all support.)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)

8-14-2009 @ 8:57AM

Jack said...

Mike,

What did this article have to do with President Obama? Are you so in love with the commander and chief that you need to involve him in everything?

8-13-2009 @ 11:43AM

parrisloc said...

yeah t.o

8-13-2009 @ 11:52AM

leutfried said...

Bland comments + yelling = Jim Rome

8-14-2009 @ 9:58AM

rbearfield said...

a couple of big headed wannabes. they both suck.
they also have love affairs with their hands.

8-14-2009 @ 2:49PM

junior said...

Superstar????? 4 teams later and in Buffalo.

8-14-2009 @ 3:33PM

hookmrl said...

speaking of 2 useless idiots that all they do is run there mouths

8-14-2009 @ 7:41PM

Cleetus Awreetus said...

Can you say locker room poison boys and girls? I thought you could. It's a terrible day at the practice field, a horrible to practice, could you be my, would you be my, won't you be my dead weight.
Any team dumb enough to grab up this cretin deserves what they will get.

8-13-2009 @ 11:51AM

Brody said...

I gotta say, I'm not a TO fan and I generally hate reality television - but the TO show is actually kind of entertaining. The guy actually comes across as kind of normal.

It's not like I'm tuning my TV to it. But if my wife is flipping through and we notice it's on, we'll stop and watch it.

8-13-2009 @ 8:37PM

rwg1170 said...

You're wife has the remote????????

8-14-2009 @ 12:08AM

laurarvail1 said...

rwg1170 - what do want to bet she drop-kicked him across the living room, and went for a tiger tiger on the defense, when he fumbled the remote?

8-14-2009 @ 2:37PM

Hugh said...

You should ask your wife for permission to hold the remote once in a while, Shirley.

8-13-2009 @ 2:15PM

grimyspyman33 said...

leutfried said...

Bland comments + yelling = Jim Rome

Not even.

Bland comments + grating monotone + super-douche attitude = Jim Rome. It's the only show on espn I have to turn off. Awful.

8-13-2009 @ 3:53PM

vrhinehart1 said...

i am a big fan of TO. I enjoy watching the show.

8-13-2009 @ 4:19PM

jonesmith112127 said...

I love TO so much

8-13-2009 @ 4:34PM

ashton said...

I actually watched the show when he was back home and confronted his dad, for being absent in his life. There was also a very heart felt moment with his grandma whom has alzheimer's, and never speaks but managed to tell him that "he would be okay". Not the biggest T.O. fan but put a lot in perspective about who is and where he came from. A lot of ppl like myself can relate. I encourage more to watch. The previews i saw from the future episodes, can't say much about, but I think it confronts a lot about relationship dynamics of today b/t the black/ athlete and females of different races.

8-14-2009 @ 12:25PM

hartfordmwm said...

Ashton..WTF are you talking about? The "relationship dynamics" between black atheletes and woman of other races? LOL
First of all,woman of all races chase ANY celebrity if given a chance. But,overall, the vast majority of woman have little interest in black men in general.That is whats real.
That is a black man fantasy perpetuated by Hollywood.You watch way too much MTV.