The Worldwide Leader...

Somewhere in cyberspace (someone will find it) there's a photo of the first Super Bowl coin flip. Four players, one or two officials, and that's it.

Those were the days, my friend. The game mattered, not the other extra crap that entities like ESPN/Fox promote so much (and the NFL loves, of course).

If I never see another sideline shot of TO (or Jerry Jones or Charlie Weiss or some other B-list celebrity who has a shitty TV showf ), I could die a happy man.

 

I never said you should. That wasn't the point of this thread. The point of this thread was to say ESPN doesn't do its thing well. That simply isn't true.

As for the references to Dennis Miller and ABC... Considering distribution, ESPN is doing MUCH better numbers than ABC's eroding MNF numbers did on that network for its last few years.

In fact, last night's number beat the ABC MNF number for the same week last year. Again, when you consider the distribution gap, it's stunning.

The fact is, ESPN is doing something folks like. It's time to get over it, and as I said on another thread, worry about your own house for a minute.

 

ESPN is obviously doing something people like. The ratings and its growth as a network (and, for that matter, being able to pay Jemele Hill 400 K for a 2-year contract on its web site) show that.
That said, I'm tired of it, too.
The wife and I usually watch MNF at our local watering hole - we both work weekends covering/watching sports, and it's a good way to unwind.
I didn't hear much of the commentary, so I can't comment on that.
But I did pay attention to the halftime highlights, and they were atrocious - looked like they were made for 8 year olds with ADD.
Whipping back and forth, trying to draw parallels between a game and the World Series, soft-focus shots and breakneck changes.... what happened to just showing highlights and talking about them?
And I'm not even going to get into Chris Berman. He's just horrific and stale on his own.
I understand I don't represent mainstream America. But I don't have to like how ESPN is relating to it.

 

ESPN is doing better with Monday Night because its audience is ALL sports fans. Smart ones, dumb ones, what have you. It doesn't have anything to promote but itself. No Desperate Housewives to push, no promos but for the next game. It used to run ten trillion house ads a week for Sportscenter. Now they're all MNF promos.
I don't think the bells and whistles have much to do with the better ratings. In political terms, ESPN is doing a great job of delivering its base on Monday nights.

 

You obviously missed the eight-minute Dancing With the Stars promo.

And Lugnuts, if you were to compare last year's MNF and this year's MNF, I'd guess you'd probably find better matchups this season with teams from larger Nielsen cities.

 

Jets-Falcons was not quite the attraction that Cowboys-Giants is.

 

Take that a step further with the World Series. Singers before the game, primetime in 35 degrees, all of that peripheral crap that Fox does

 

That might be true, but am I alone or not in the belief that the collective standards and even intelligence level of the viewing public has gone down to the point that they are attracted to what is the loudest, flashiest and most shocking thing on the tube? Plus you add in the fact that everything is advertisement/product-driven. Can anyone think of anyone who could even remotely challenge ESPN down the road? At least Yahoo! has temporarily knocked off ESPN.com as far as popularity.

 

I did not make my point clear. When I wrote of ESPN's promotion, it's what they do to hype MNF during the week, not what goes on during the game itself. Those moments are why God gave man his greatest gift-the remote.

 

I'm afraid many of ESPN's annoying little habits are the way of the future. It's for the time-strapped, short-attention-span sports fan who happens to have TiVo and a video iPod. As I'm watching the World Series, it's hard to say that ESPN is any more annoying than Fox, which has Joe Buck doing in-game advertisements. The latest one was that Taco Bell would "end the world's hunger" if someone hits a home run.

Sad but true.

 

This is a great thread.

I've written a few columns in my short career citing some of the silly things ESPN does. Steve Phillips as a pseudo-GM in a pseudo-MLB press conference for EVERY TEAM in the big leagues during the preseason was one of the worst.

A few other observations you might not catch, but get really annoying:
- Why when Stuart Scott promos anything NFL, he has a football in his hand?
- Why when Mark Schlereth (or most of the NFL personalities ESPN employs) is talking about football, it's "football team," "football coach," "football player," "football game," and not just "team," "coach," "player" or "game," like the rest of the world would say? A little redundant on an NFL-only show, don't you think?
- Why play the same sportscenter, over and over, from midnight to noon every day?

However, the reality of the situation is that ESPN is king, and no one else is even close. Anytime I turn it on, I get up-to-the-second sports news. Some things, on the other hand, are entertaining, too. What's better than Bill Walton's "Throw it down big fella!" during an NBA broadcast? And I enjoy College GameDay, both football and basketball. Being on a campus, among the student body before a game is cool (yes, even Lee Corso and Lou Holtz).

This is life, my friends. It's ESPN or nothing. You learn to tune out the bad stuff after a while.

 

That's a huge pet peeve of mine. I just want to see the damn game. Give me two guys calling the game who know what they're talking about...I don't want to see some country singer doing the seventh inning stretch or a dumbass interview with a manager during the game or see some dipshit starring on a network TV show eating popcorn in the stands. I wish someone would realize that real sports fans just want to see the game without all the horseshit...and no one watches those games to see Joe Buck shill for Taco Bell or to see Jo Dee Messina sing.