The demise of SI

I started losing weekly interest in SI when they started mixing the athletes with Hollywood celebs. They had a page dedicated to what player from what team was dating whom, or what nightclub they were spotted at and with whom.
They also had a page of (attempted) comedy, featuring one-liners from one of Dave Letterman's (?) joke writers.
That's not why I subscribed to the magazine.

I started subscribing again (in exchange for soon-to-expire airline miles) but you can tell it's not close to what it used to be.
I got my renewal notice at the same time that I got the May 24 issue, which devotes a whole page to "Lost", a series that I never watched, or had the desire to watch. I didn't need ABC cramming that show down my throat and I don't need SI doing it either.

 

You would like to think the launching of ESPN The Mag would have had a positive effect on SI - but I think it went in the other direction. More blurby, more graphics, shorter articles.
But I suppose that's the way it goes in media. There is more competition and it seems whatever your product, newspaper, TV or radio you are seeking the widest audience and lowest common denominator.

 

They finally had competition outside of Sporting News and felt they had to add in some of those ESPN gimmicky things to avoid getting over run...at least that's my guess.

I don't mind some of that stuff, but do enjoy the more in-depth pieces on sports or people you wouldn't otherwise hear about.

 

Never happened.

 

It was brilliant when it was run by Howard Cosell.

 

Just rewatch Season Two. It isn't bulletproof, but it's twenty times the show it is now. Talent is everything.

 

That, sir, is a brilliant, if obscure, reference.

 

Extremely obscure...but it was "Saturday Night Live." The show everyone mocks is/was "Saturday Night."

 

I think the name of the one that exists now was actually changed to "Saturday Night Live" awhile back, but your point is correct. Originally, it was merely "Saturday Night" -- hence Chevy Chase's tag line, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" Howard's show was "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell."

Neither to be confused with the Bay City Rollers' hit of the same vintage, "Saturday Night."