Deadspin: ESPN laying off hundreds today

You only cover us if our sports are popular with viewers! Waaaaaah!

 

George Packer had a really heady op ed in the NYT a few days ago on our decadent celebrity culture.Can't help but think that ESPN has played a major role in creating
a decadent athlete celebrity culture.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/opinion/inequality-and-the-modern-culture-of-celebrity.html?hp&_r=1&pagewanted=all&

 

I think Ruck's chicken-egg thing comes into play here.

 

One factor no one's mentioned is that it's true there's no NHL2Night or other shows centered one one sport, there are alternatives that weren't there when the WWL was launched, like MLB Network, NFL Network, ect. So when I tire of hearing celebrity tweets on the latest with the Lakers, I know there's alternatives.

 

Yeah, but it's not ESPN's fault that the NBC doesn't force ESPN's hand by relenting on its per subscriber demands for NBC Sports Network. And it's not ESPN's fault that NBC doesn't dedicate more resources to, say, just putting on a game during a weeknight on NBC. People would watch. It's relatively cheap to produce compared to a bombing sitcom or one of the many poor dramas NBC has on the air.

That NBC can't see its way to doing this is NBC's fault.

 

Bingo. I know MLB Network will give me good highlights and talk just about baseball, if I'm in that frame of mind. I do have to wonder how FS1 will handle its nightly highlight show.

 

Anyone who thinks FS1 will play it straight and give you "just the sports and no filler" has an amusing fantasy life.

 

I expect tits and ass, and jumping robots.

 

I'd watch that! I love jumping robots!

 

Very true. Which is why I rarely watch SportsCenter much anymore. There are plenty of other options --- both on TV and online --- where I can get what I am interested in.

 

And don't forget the NFL theme playing into each commercial break...

 

Forgive me if I'm late on this, but I saw an SI piece about Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole from Canada's TSN being hired to anchor the nightly FS1 show. Forgive me again, all you Canadians out there, because I live in the U.S. and don't have TSN, so I'm not familiar with these guys, but apparently they're very popular in Canada. The SI piece compared their chemistry and screen presence to ESPN's heyday of Patrick and Olberman. It also said the show will span a couple hours and include various segments that work in Fox's announcers/analysts. It'll originate from LA, so I'm guessing we'll see a lot of their football studio guys.

Will I watch? Once or twice to see what it's all about, but like a lot of others, when I want highlights, I go elsewhere -- especially MLB and NHL networks.

As far as ESPN and its reluctance to cover hockey, I've gotten used to it. But a few days ago I heard the Mike & Mike show do a segment where they had people call in and they read the callers a name, asking them if it was a U.S. Senator or an Ottawa Senator. And OK ... that's a little funny. But to me, it was also a not-so-subtle swipe at the NHL ... their way of saying, "yeah, we don't talk hockey on ESPN, because nobody knows who hockey players are." As a hockey fan, I thought that was BS. I usually like Mike Greenberg, but that show is all NBA, all the time now, and every so often they concoct some NFL thing to talk about. Virtually no MLB. No hockey at all. It just what they do ... it is what it is.