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ESPN Sucks 3rd Version
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Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
Damaramu said:
Well, First of All™, sports aren't really that interesting, but I guess YMMV.
But Second of All, and most importantly, it's one thing to want that, but people who keep expecting ESPN's main channel to go back to that might just be stupid. I mean, people keep acting like this is a new development, but it ain't. This isn't something that just happened this year, or last year, or even in the last five years. ESPN been done told y'all that this is what the game was gonna be. They told y'all 21 damned years ago: November 1st, 1996 is when ESPN launched ESPNews. You don't have to try and read between the lines on this: when they launched a dedicated channel for nothing but antiseptic sports news and highlights two decades ago, that was ESPN announcing to the world, rather explicitly, "Yo, we're creating this new channel for this shit, because our main channel ain't gonna be this, any more. And we're going to give you time to get used to it, but change is coming, so get ready."
They warned you. They gave you a good fourteen years notice. And then, in October of 2010, they launched the app. That was ESPN hollering out, "Last call! We gave you time to get ready for the change, and now the change is here. And all you people who still want the old stuff, we still have it, but here's where you've got to go to get it. The 'main' channel ain't gonna be this no more." I don't understand why people get so indignant about a format change that has been pretty blatantly telegraphed for twenty years. Y'all been done had time to find an alternative, if ESPN isn't giving you what you want (which they still are, for the record, just maybe not necessarily on your terms); why do people keep hate-watching ESPN, like there's no other way of getting scores and highlights? And why, for fuck's sake, when they provide you a faster, more convenient way of getting what you want (on demand, no less), do people complain about it, anyway?
Sex Machine Gun
Kotzenjunge
Yeah, I've only watched games themselves on ESPN with the exception of a morning after a high profile Packers or Volunteers win for many years now. I don't want to pile on for all the same reasons others do, for me it feels like stupid, empty calories of content and though three of my four fantasy football leagues are through the ESPN fantasy app, I don't pay much attention to their analysts or rankings.
It's just kinda there now, like CNN, where I can watch it for like, five minutes, see what the world's going on about at that time while finding out other information, and then move on knowing that I saw all I really needed to see.
It's just kinda there now, like CNN, where I can watch it for like, five minutes, see what the world's going on about at that time while finding out other information, and then move on knowing that I saw all I really needed to see.
Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
I mean, I get where you guys are coming from, more or less. I don't think that it's unreasonable at all to just want sports, and antiseptic scores and highlights. I think it's silly, but that's more of a taste issue... I don't even know, is it contradictory to think that something is reasonable and silly at the same time?
The disconnect for me is that ESPN gives that to you, and people still complain about it. Okay, they don't give it to you like they used to, but the way that they give it to you now is better: on demand, in the palm of your hand. You don't want to listen to people giving opinions that you don't agree with? Guess what, you don't have to: you're two swipes away from all the scores and highlights you want, and you don't even have to wait half an hour for them to get around to the highlights from the game(s) that you actually care about.
That's the other thing that people seem to forget about: even back how they used to do it, it wasn't that great, unless you were a fan of a big market team, or a big-time college program, or a team with a generational, crossover superstar. If you root for a school that plays in the MEAC, or like the Milwaukee Brewers, or the Jacksonville Jaguars or, god forbid, the Sacramento Kings, it's waaaaay better now than it was back then. Like one of the reasons why I personally quit watching Sportscenter until they put Michael and Jemele on #SC6 is because I got sick and tired of having to sit through sometimes 55 minutes of bullshit for a 30-second Kings highlight. Being able to pull up the app and go straight to that shit is, like, a one million percent improvement. Now, instead of sitting through an hour of bullshit, just to get one tiny morsel, I actually sit through an hour of the show, because I actually care about the opinions of the people hosting the show. To my point of view, that's how it should be.
The disconnect for me is that ESPN gives that to you, and people still complain about it. Okay, they don't give it to you like they used to, but the way that they give it to you now is better: on demand, in the palm of your hand. You don't want to listen to people giving opinions that you don't agree with? Guess what, you don't have to: you're two swipes away from all the scores and highlights you want, and you don't even have to wait half an hour for them to get around to the highlights from the game(s) that you actually care about.
That's the other thing that people seem to forget about: even back how they used to do it, it wasn't that great, unless you were a fan of a big market team, or a big-time college program, or a team with a generational, crossover superstar. If you root for a school that plays in the MEAC, or like the Milwaukee Brewers, or the Jacksonville Jaguars or, god forbid, the Sacramento Kings, it's waaaaay better now than it was back then. Like one of the reasons why I personally quit watching Sportscenter until they put Michael and Jemele on #SC6 is because I got sick and tired of having to sit through sometimes 55 minutes of bullshit for a 30-second Kings highlight. Being able to pull up the app and go straight to that shit is, like, a one million percent improvement. Now, instead of sitting through an hour of bullshit, just to get one tiny morsel, I actually sit through an hour of the show, because I actually care about the opinions of the people hosting the show. To my point of view, that's how it should be.
Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
So, Katie Nolan made her ESPN debut on Highly Questionable yesterday. It didn't sound today as though she was penciled in as Bomani's permanent replacement, but she was very good on the show, and if they bring her back, I wouldn't hate that, at all.
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ESPN laying off 150 employees
"The majority of the jobs eliminated are in studio production, digital content, and technology and they generally reflect decisions to do less in certain instances and re-direct resources."
"The majority of the jobs eliminated are in studio production, digital content, and technology and they generally reflect decisions to do less in certain instances and re-direct resources."
Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
Well, I guess I can finally stop recording SC6.
Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
Really good interview with John Amechi on LeBatard's show today, re: Michigan State and the Nasser scandal.
KingPK
KingPK
They're paying Katie Nolan over a million a year to do a podcast and a Snapchat segment on SportsCenter. They have a late-night show in development too but you'd think after the bloodletting they did last year all the people they laid off must be really happy to read that. I don't blame Katie for this at all; her agent fleeced the shit out of them.
Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
You know, for a while there, it actually looked like ESPN was trying to get good...
Ever since John Skipper left, that network has gone straight into the shitter. The only good thing to happen since Skipper stepped down is High Noon, and they're about to fuck that up, too.
And, of course, now Jemele Hill is leaving which, I'm happy for her, because it sounds like it was her choice, but I'm pissed off for me. AFAIC, she was the best they had.
Ever since John Skipper left, that network has gone straight into the shitter. The only good thing to happen since Skipper stepped down is High Noon, and they're about to fuck that up, too.
And, of course, now Jemele Hill is leaving which, I'm happy for her, because it sounds like it was her choice, but I'm pissed off for me. AFAIC, she was the best they had.
Big Beard Booty Daddy
Canadian Destroyer213
Michelle Beadle said she's not going to watch any NFL games this year and ESPN decided to remove her from Get Up.
Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
Hawk 34 said:
How do you figure?
Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
The Mole said:
I've never seen a full episode of Get Up, but what I saw didn't strike me as a show that was devoted to "HARDCORE SPORTZ TALK~!", so I don't feel like it's necessary for a host to have watched football all Sunday to be able to contribute to what they do. Mileage varies, of course.
Well, they have supposedly changed it to a more Sportscentery-type show to help compensate for its sagging ratings. From what I understand, it's made a difference as far as quality as concerned but I'm not sure about the ratings.
Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
The Mole said:
If people would rather Get Up be more like Sportscenter, why wouldn't they just watch Sportscenter, instead? Like I said upthread, watching Sportscenter just seems like such a stupidly inefficient way to get analysis/scores and highlights in 2018.
Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
Switching gears, a big part of the charm of the Dan LeBatard Show is the Shipping Container, which for those who don't know are their four producers, and the show's guest booker. But, they just did two whole assed segments of the show with three of the four producers out on the beach... which makes me wonder why they need four producers in the first place? Is it just a matter of LeBatard using his clout to get his friends jobs?
Gert
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Mr. S£im Citrus said:
It's so funny to me, the people who want Get Up! or SC6 to fail always talk about the classic days of Sportscenter, but I agree that it is such an outdated format, that the detractors are full of shit or telling on themselves.
I generally agree that it is an outdated way of receiving sports info but for someone my age, who was junior high/high school age in the early mid 90s Sportscenter was a wave of fresh sports air. I guess if you didn't live that you would never really know how groundbreaking that show was. When I was a little kid I would have to ask my dad to look at the paper in the morning for scores and trades and stuff. I've def. outgrown Sportscenter but I can't deny it's cultural influence esp. for people my age
Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
strummer said:
I get that. This also indicates that there's a lot of "You hadda be there" mixed in with some of the stuff I already said. We were living in northeast IL while I was in high school, and my parents didn't get cable until I was in the eleventh grade, which was the second year of the Bulls' first three-peat. Since I'm not actually from Illinois, I had neither any attachment nor interest to any Chicago pro or IL college teams so, as you might imagine, for a Kings fan living in Bulls Country during the height of their heyday, Sportscenter was never the business for me. I could sit through an hour of Sportscenter, and the existence of the Kings might literally go unacknowledged. If I made sure I was paying attention to the time, I could just about catch the score on the ticker, at the top or bottom of the hour. Highlights? Forget about it!
So yeah, I sadly don't have any particularly fond nostalgic view of the way things were on ESPN. I hate to throw the word 'privilege' around, but people who primarily follow the glamour sports, and the glamour teams probably have a blind spot to what the Sportscenter experience is/was like to people who primarily only follow "irrelevant" sports, or "irrelevant" teams. That's why I could never see the point of watching Sportscenter, or any other non-live-action sports programming on ESPN, other than because you vibe with the hosts of the program.
I don't really watch Sportscenter anymore (basically not at all) but to be honest I miss the old format NFL prime time more than anything. Obviously it is a redundant show today but back in the 90s it was like the only show with expansive highlights and not just in the key games. And this is from someone who can't stand Berman.
Also ESPN started to delve into issue related shows in the late 90s with the Kornheiser radio show. There were probably others but I only really listened to Tony. Always had the impression that he didn't even like sports that much but he loved the peripheral issues that surrounded them. It was basically the first "non-sports" sports show I remember. I specifically recall him interviewing a beat writer about off season hot stove baseball and basically sabatoging his own show by feigning interest.
Also ESPN started to delve into issue related shows in the late 90s with the Kornheiser radio show. There were probably others but I only really listened to Tony. Always had the impression that he didn't even like sports that much but he loved the peripheral issues that surrounded them. It was basically the first "non-sports" sports show I remember. I specifically recall him interviewing a beat writer about off season hot stove baseball and basically sabatoging his own show by feigning interest.
Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
I still listen to Kornheiser's podcast today. It's less that he doesn't like sports, and more that 1) he hates talking to athletes, because he doesn't think that they have anything interesting to say, and 2) he doesn't have much use for the analysis aspect of sports coverage. But, give him an excuse to talk about golf, or football, and then see how much he doesn't like sports.
The other thing about Kornheiser is that, although he likes sports, I don't think he necessarily got into the business to be a sportswriter/analyst. He started working for the Washington Post in the Style section, and eventually was writing for the Style and Sports section; he didn't become a full-time sportswriter until five years after he started working for the Post. The radio show, and everything that happened after that, was something that sort of just happened: he got a local radio gig mainly due to a popular string of columns he wrote during Washington's run to the Super Bowl in 1992, which he parlayed into the ESPN radio gig, which he parlayed into TV, etc (FYI, I know all this because I've been listening to his show since around 1999, and he re-tells this story every 2-3 years or so). Derailing a conversation about Hot Stove baseball, I totally believe it, I'm sure I've heard him do that several times; that's a perfect example of an aspect of sports he's not really interested in. That's also one of the reasons he prefers talking to other writers, because they much more willing to go "off script" in an interview, without defaulting to boilerplate rhetoric.
Long story short, my whole point was that Kornheiser doesn't dislike sports, he just comes from a different perspective as someone like a Greenberg or a Van Pelt, who's ambition since college has been to do exactly what they're doing now.
The other thing about Kornheiser is that, although he likes sports, I don't think he necessarily got into the business to be a sportswriter/analyst. He started working for the Washington Post in the Style section, and eventually was writing for the Style and Sports section; he didn't become a full-time sportswriter until five years after he started working for the Post. The radio show, and everything that happened after that, was something that sort of just happened: he got a local radio gig mainly due to a popular string of columns he wrote during Washington's run to the Super Bowl in 1992, which he parlayed into the ESPN radio gig, which he parlayed into TV, etc (FYI, I know all this because I've been listening to his show since around 1999, and he re-tells this story every 2-3 years or so). Derailing a conversation about Hot Stove baseball, I totally believe it, I'm sure I've heard him do that several times; that's a perfect example of an aspect of sports he's not really interested in. That's also one of the reasons he prefers talking to other writers, because they much more willing to go "off script" in an interview, without defaulting to boilerplate rhetoric.
Long story short, my whole point was that Kornheiser doesn't dislike sports, he just comes from a different perspective as someone like a Greenberg or a Van Pelt, who's ambition since college has been to do exactly what they're doing now.
Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
Is Stugotz Jewish, or did he just marry into a Jewish family? Because he's spoken on the radio show about his daughters' Bat Mitzvahs, so I'm kind of wondering why he's working on Yom Kippur?
Also, this "Wake and Take" shit is gawd awful.
Also, this "Wake and Take" shit is gawd awful.
Big Beard Booty Daddy
Canadian Destroyer213
Mr. S£im Citrus said:
He's Jewish. Real name is Jon Wiener. Most non religious Jews work today. I've never taken off, but then again I love bacon cheeseburgers.