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ESPN Sucks 3rd Version

Mr. S£im Citrus

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I mean, apparently he's observing the fast, though. And, in the third hour, the other guys on the show started ripping on him for being there in the first place.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

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I wish I loved anything in life as much as Mina Kimes loves football. Like, I'm only 90 percent sure that I love my own kid as much as Mina Kimes loves football.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

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https://twitter.com/AlwaysLateESPN/status/1082335348443791360


If you tell me that Always Late is an hour of this every week, you can have my five dollars.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

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God damn it, how come I never get to be the first person to get in on the scam, LOL! You know she's not going to do this for the next dude that tweets a "sob story" at her:


https://twitter.com/katienolan/status/1083195734122479616
 

KingPK

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This week's Sports? features Katie doing an ad read to the tune of Hit Me Baby One More Time.

It is the best thing I've witnessed so far in 2019.
 

KingPK

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Fuck March Madness, Sports? did its Third Month Crazy Time bracket for best ad read. What a stacked field and I can't argue the winner.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

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Ain't that a bitch! I was looking forward to finally getting to check out her show, when I pick up this Disney+ bundle, and I'm finally about start paying for ESPN+, and they're just going to just put the shit on regular cable.
 

fazzle

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NFL Primetime is coming back with Chris Berman and Tom Jackson, but on ESPN+
 

AA484

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https://twitter.com/XLNB/status/1172558574301507584
 

Master Thrasher

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https://deadline.com/2019/10/deadspin-editor-fired-for-ignoring-stick-to-sports-rule-1202772185/

I know it isn't ESPN but this is kind of a big story. The firm that bought the Gawker blogs from Univison sent out a memo telling their writers to stop talking about politics. Barry Petchsky broke that rule and fired him. A bunch other writers from the Gawkerverse have put in their resignations.
 

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Yeah, so basically Deadspin's dead. Barry got fired and one of Deadspin's biggest draws, Drew, resigned. So they probably are dead in the water.

To keep it on topic, I wouldn't be surprised if ESPN pick up Drew. Just to gain all that sweet, sweet views.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

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Watching this segment where Rachel Nichols, Brian Windhorst and Kendrick Perkins were talking about LeBron's comments about the Astros cheating scandal illustrates why, for me, The Jump is the best sports talk/debate show of its basic genre, that's on the air. I can't imagine First Take giving Molly Qerim the time to articulate her personal opinion on anything, like how Rachel gets on The Jump.
 

Gert

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Mr. S£im Citrus said:
It was. To quote LeBatard, the show being canceled was a victory for dumb people.

He and you are right. I didn't watch it. I would download the podcast occasionally, but it was a good show, and I don't understand why ESPN would do this. They sure as hell aren't cutting Bo or Pablo, so I think this was a dumb move.

And the people doing victory laps are losers. I don't understand that mindset. If you don't like something just don't watch, but I can't think of a time I have celebrated a show or project of someone's failing.
 

MFer

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ESPN had another round of layoffs recently. As a result, more of their website content has gone behind the insider paywall, including some of the previously free fantasy football columns.
 

HarleyQuinn

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I've tried getting back into/watching Sportscenter and a lot of its struggles are that the "highlights" which used to be central for me in catching up on games/seeing the 'box' score a bit have continued to be truncated and completely dispersed throughout. I've seen college football highlights get thrown at the end of the show where literally 1 clip is shown, a score is shown, and that's it...

Was watching an SC episode from 12/10/95 and the first 13 minutes were just NFL highlights (about 8 games worth) & a few press conference soundbites. The Spurs/Knicks after was almost 3 minutes of highlights in total. It all just felt so much tighter and concise whereas now it feels like 1 game gets covered, box score is shown, then talking heads discuss stuff for 5-7 minutes so that the first 13 minutes is just 1 game.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

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ESPN had another round of layoffs recently. As a result, more of their website content has gone behind the insider paywall, including some of the previously free fantasy football columns.
They fired one of LeBatard's producers, without giving him a heads up, so Dan took Friday, Monday and Tuesday off from the show, hired the producer back, as his personal assistant, and has spent the first two segments of the show today trolling ESPN (brought back "Dan's Favorite Color" in the first segment, spent the entire second segment just reading football box scores from last week).
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

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I've tried getting back into/watching Sportscenter and a lot of its struggles are that the "highlights" which used to be central for me in catching up on games/seeing the 'box' score a bit have continued to be truncated and completely dispersed throughout. I've seen college football highlights get thrown at the end of the show where literally 1 clip is shown, a score is shown, and that's it...

Was watching an SC episode from 12/10/95 and the first 13 minutes were just NFL highlights (about 8 games worth) & a few press conference soundbites. The Spurs/Knicks after was almost 3 minutes of highlights in total. It all just felt so much tighter and concise whereas now it feels like 1 game gets covered, box score is shown, then talking heads discuss stuff for 5-7 minutes so that the first 13 minutes is just 1 game.
And I'm in a completely different boat: neither one of those options works for me. That's why I haven't watched a second of Sportscenter, since they canceled "The Six." Like, I've said this before, if you're primarily a fan of:
  • Small market NBA teams
  • "Non revenue generating" college sports
  • Lower tier college sports (HBCUs, specifically), and/or
  • Women's sports
... then there has never been a point, in the entire history of ESPN, that Sportscenter has ever been the business. And, if they talk about any of those sports, at all, it's either going to be a 10-30 second spot, in between the sports they care about, or jammed into the ass end of the show. From my point of view, a Sportscenter that's nothing but scores and highlights is an egregious waste of an hour; who has time for that?
 

HarleyQuinn

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From my point of view, a Sportscenter that's nothing but scores and highlights is an egregious waste of an hour; who has time for that?
That kind of Sportscenter was what I grew up with watching it in the morning. I'm not saying it has to be that style at 6 PM but if I'm up at 6 AM or 7 AM getting ready for work and wanting to just catch some highlights/recaps of games, I'd rather have that then talking heads discussing a game's results longer than the actual highlights. If I wanted talking heads, I can just go out to my car and turn on the radio.

ESPN has a crapload of talking head shows in the late morning/afternoon/evening. Those shows aren't gonna be airing any highlights of games unless it's maybe a specific show e.g. NFL Live or whatever. 10-12 AM = First Take, 2 PM = Jalen & Jacoby, 2:30 PM = Highly Questionable, 3 PM to 5 PM = 1 Hour for NBA, 1 Hour for NFL, 5 PM = Around the Horn, 5:30 PM = Pardon the Interruption.

As for coverage, ESPN is focused on the Big 3 sports because they get the TV Ratings/Matter to people. I'd love for them to show more from a MAC/Mountain West College Football game or WNBA games but that's never gonna be the case. I'd rather they just not show anything than half-ass it with a single highlight with 2 minutes left in the program is my issue.
 

Baby Shoes

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I feel like SportsCenter in that highlight format was great in the 80s/90s because I think of my dad being a Boston sports fan who moved across the country and could not easily access many games, let alone all games, like present day. It was a good way to keep on top of your teams that isn’t as needed now. But growing up with that format, I did lose interest when it became a ten-minute piece on a team or coach I didn’t care about overwhelming the highlights and recaps.
 

King Kamala

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I feel like MLBTV and NBATV do a much better job with their sports recap shows.

I'm guessing ESPN brass thinks doing SportsCenter the old way would bore millennials and Gen Zers but barely anyone under the age of 40 is watching SC. And people who are under 40, grew up with '90s SC.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

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As for coverage, ESPN is focused on the Big 3 sports because they get the TV Ratings/Matter to people. I'd love for them to show more from a MAC/Mountain West College Football game or WNBA games but that's never gonna be the case.
I hope that you didn't interpret my comments as me not understanding why they do it. I get why they do it. I'm just explaining why I am generally lacking empathy for people who complain about how Sportscenter has changed into something they don't like, because for me, and people who primarily consume sports like listed above, that's how it's been for us, this whole time.
 
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