Under Review

?With Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide and Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker scheduled to meet at Saratoga in the Travers Stakes on Aug. 23, ESPN will give the showdown the kind of coverage normally afforded an NBA Finals game. "Given the spotlight that's on horse racing with Seabiscuit and the rivalry of Funny Cide and Empire Maker, we believe this has the potential to be the most-talked-about race since Cigar's record 16th straight win [in 1996]," says Mark Shapiro, an ESPN executive vice president. Assuming neither of the horses is scratched, ESPN will air SportsCenter from Saratoga on the morning of the race as well as a three-hour SportsCenter from there starting at 5 p.m. ESPN had slotted one hour for the Travers but expanded its coverage after the Belmont Stakes, which drew 24 million viewers on NBC—the highest-rated race in more than a decade.

?Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren wants to host a Sunday-afternoon sports show. Van Susteren made her mark in 1994 as a legal analyst for CNN during the O.J. Simpson murder trial, and on her current show, On the Record with Greta Van Susteren (Monday through Friday, 10 p.m.), she has covered the Kobe Bryant, Patrick Dennehy and Jose Canseco cases. "It's probably unrealistic that a news channel will do a sports show, but it's my lark," says Van Susteren. "People are always surprised that I know sports—but I do. That's why a Sunday sports show would be a dream."... Craig James, one of ESPN's top college football analysts from 1991 to '96, has returned after working as an NFL analyst at CBS for six years. He'll be an analyst on ESPN2's college football telecasts.