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The End of SportsCenter: ESPN’s Flagship Show Hits Bottom
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TMC
Mar 6, 2013, 1:52:22 AM3/6/13
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http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2013/03/the-end-of-sportscenter-espns-flagship-show-hits-bottom/
“SportsCenter” has been in decline for years, but now it is in
absolute freefall.
When ESPN added live weekday editions of SportsCenter in 2008, the
move was long overdue. Up until that point, ESPN televised the 1 AM
“SportsCenter” on repeat all morning long. Important stories that
broke early in the day — such as the 2007 death of Sean Taylor — were
not covered adequately. In addition, having the same highlights and
same commentary hour after hour made ESPN a stale location on weekday
mornings.
The live SportsCenter allowed ESPN to have fresh content and the
ability to react better to breaking news. It has also, however,
resulted in six hours of airtime that need to be filled — and hardly
ever, at this point, by highlights.
Over the years, the morning SportsCenter has become a plague of
bombastic analysis, artificial debate, and whatever is racking up hits
online. Highlights take a backseat, unless they are used in the
service of more debate.
The worst aspects of the morning “SportsCenter” were evident on
Monday. The morning shows led with a viral video (a high school
basketball buzzer beater) and then conducted separate lengthy
interviews with the player and coach involved. The fans would get to
decide whether the buzzer beater or a Jadeveon Clowney hit from
earlier in the year was the ‘best of the best’ play, a distinction
that means nothing. During the interview, Ravens RB Ray Rice called in
to congratulate the players; anchor Jay Crawford asked him which play
should win an ESPY Award — the high school buzzer beater, or Rice’s
own 4th-and-29 run during the NFL regular season.
As the topping on the ESPN sundae, star pundit Stephen A. Smith was
allowed to opine about the Blackhawks’ NHL points streak, a subject
about which he was strikingly ignorant. During the Noon ET show, he
debated Barry Melrose on the issue, because of course he did. Indeed,
this is SportsCenter — endless debate, fan interaction, and once in
awhile, some highlights.
Briefly, here is a look at the factors that have made the morning
SportsCenter some of the worst television ESPN has to offer.
Stephen A. Smith
The rise of Stephen A. Smith at ESPN would be sad if it were not so
predictable. ESPN made the right decision when it failed to renew
Smith’s contract in 2008. His hiring was one of the worst legacies of
the Mark Shapiro era — loud, obnoxious, and starving for attention,
Smith was the perfect pundit for ESPN’s mid-2000s programming.
As ESPN cleaned itself up from the Shapiro era in the late 2000s,
Smith was suddenly out of place. His role shrank until he was no
longer necessary. Afterward, he left for his true calling — the
cesspool that is cable news.
For whatever reason, ESPN let Smith back in the door in 2011. While
his initial role was confined to the radio and ESPN.com, he quickly
resumed his position as one of ESPN’s most prominent talkers. Now, he
is an institution on the morning SportsCenter, where unnecessarily
deferential anchors sit by and watch him devolve into the kind of self-
parody that even “Saturday Night Live” cannot adequately capture.
On Monday, Smith ranted and raved about the latest debate du jour —
whether the Blackhawks points streak or the Heat win streak was more
impressive. Smith’s argument in placing the Heat above the Blackhawks
was that the NHL allows games to end in ties. Of course, the NHL
eliminated ties after the 2004-05 lockout, but actual knowledge about
sports is less essential for the morning SportsCenter than having an
uneducated and polarizing take.
Endless Debate
With the “success” of ESPN’s First Take — success in quotes, as the
show typically earns less than 500,000 viewers a day — ESPN has
decided that compulsory debate is the wave of the future. It would be
one thing if the debate format was confined to the little-watched
ESPN2, but now the morning “SportsCenter” has begun to rely more on
arguments than on highlights.
Day-long debates (Should fans storm the court? Should LeBron dunk in
pregame?) now involve as many analysts as ESPN can fit around a desk.
Herm Edwards — who has transformed almost into a cartoon character
during his time with ESPN — vehemently advocates for Tiger Woods as
the biggest star in sports, but Tim Kurkjian thinks its LeBron James.
Everyone must have an opinion, even if that opinion is hardly informed
(see: Stephen A.).
The fans get involved as well. Like a presidential debate on cable
news, fans’ realtime preferences get displayed on-screen. Is Seth
Greenberg persuasive enough to get fans to vote for some high-school
basketball half-court shot as the best play of 2013? Just check the
bottom of the screen.
Viral Video Fixation
The fact that the 11 AM and 12 PM ET SportsCenter led with a high
school basketball buzzer beater for nearly 15 minutes is no longer a
surprise. As The Big Lead recently reported, ESPN has mandated that
SportsCenter increase its focus on viral videos. As a result, every
single half-court shot taken by a tenth grader is national news. It is
tough, of course, to get riled up about ESPN giving some kids a moment
in the sun — and when those half-court shots are confined to the ‘Top
10′ list, it really is not that big of a deal.
However, the nature of the morning “SportsCenter” is not to let a nice
moment breathe, but to pound it into the dirt until it loses any of
its authenticity. So when a high school player hurls a halfcourt shot,
that moment of joy gets put through the ESPN meatgrinder and comes out
fodder for debate.
It is not enough for ESPN to be obsessed with viral videos of sporting
events. The network has taken to viral videos of any kind, last week
debasing the program with extensive coverage of the Miami Heat ‘Harlem
Shake’ video. Not only did “SportsCenter” show the video repeatedly,
but then Edwards taught Chris McKendry and Jay Crawford the proper
technique. The show ended with dozens of ESPN staffers doing the
dance. The only hilarious aspect of the ordeal was the fact that Bob
Ley‘s “Outside the Lines” came on immediately after.
The morning “SportsCenter” will undergo changes later this year,
according to a report by The Big Lead. It remains to be seen whether
those changes can save the show from itself. While other editions of
SportsCenter have flaws — the 6 PM ET edition has taken to asking fans
trivia questions on Twitter — only the morning edition sails headfirst
into pure schlock.
SportsCenter is not a completely lost cause. The 1 AM shows from Los
Angeles, which are weighted heavily to highlights, still resemble what
the show used to be. Not in its heyday, of course, but at least back
when it was still watchable. The 11 PM shows, which are typically
hosted by the show’s best anchors — Scott Van Pelt and John Buccigross
— are usually good as well. Before 11 PM, however, SportsCenter has
devolved into some of the most vapid programming on television.
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/42245448/
But that's all just nostalgia. ESPN hasn't been the place of The Big
Show in more than a decade, and that Olbermann thinks it possibly
could be makes me wonder if he's even watched the network in the last
10 years. A Keith Olbermann could never thrive at ESPN anymore. The
"SportsCenter" anchors now are basically interchangeable clones,
watered-down bland quipbots, designed for efficiency and anonymity.
(Exceptions, most notably Scott Van Pelt and Rich Eisen, inevitably
end up branching out and/or escaping at the first opportunity.) Seeing
Olbermann on "SportsCenter" would throw that whole program out of
whack; it's impossible to imagine him throwing it to Stephen A. Smith
and Eric Mangini for the Coors Light Cold Hard Facts without wanting
to kill himself. (Just typing that made me feel depressed, and old.)
“SportsCenter” has been in decline for years, but now it is in
absolute freefall.
When ESPN added live weekday editions of SportsCenter in 2008, the
move was long overdue. Up until that point, ESPN televised the 1 AM
“SportsCenter” on repeat all morning long. Important stories that
broke early in the day — such as the 2007 death of Sean Taylor — were
not covered adequately. In addition, having the same highlights and
same commentary hour after hour made ESPN a stale location on weekday
mornings.
The live SportsCenter allowed ESPN to have fresh content and the
ability to react better to breaking news. It has also, however,
resulted in six hours of airtime that need to be filled — and hardly
ever, at this point, by highlights.
Over the years, the morning SportsCenter has become a plague of
bombastic analysis, artificial debate, and whatever is racking up hits
online. Highlights take a backseat, unless they are used in the
service of more debate.
The worst aspects of the morning “SportsCenter” were evident on
Monday. The morning shows led with a viral video (a high school
basketball buzzer beater) and then conducted separate lengthy
interviews with the player and coach involved. The fans would get to
decide whether the buzzer beater or a Jadeveon Clowney hit from
earlier in the year was the ‘best of the best’ play, a distinction
that means nothing. During the interview, Ravens RB Ray Rice called in
to congratulate the players; anchor Jay Crawford asked him which play
should win an ESPY Award — the high school buzzer beater, or Rice’s
own 4th-and-29 run during the NFL regular season.
As the topping on the ESPN sundae, star pundit Stephen A. Smith was
allowed to opine about the Blackhawks’ NHL points streak, a subject
about which he was strikingly ignorant. During the Noon ET show, he
debated Barry Melrose on the issue, because of course he did. Indeed,
this is SportsCenter — endless debate, fan interaction, and once in
awhile, some highlights.
Briefly, here is a look at the factors that have made the morning
SportsCenter some of the worst television ESPN has to offer.
Stephen A. Smith
The rise of Stephen A. Smith at ESPN would be sad if it were not so
predictable. ESPN made the right decision when it failed to renew
Smith’s contract in 2008. His hiring was one of the worst legacies of
the Mark Shapiro era — loud, obnoxious, and starving for attention,
Smith was the perfect pundit for ESPN’s mid-2000s programming.
As ESPN cleaned itself up from the Shapiro era in the late 2000s,
Smith was suddenly out of place. His role shrank until he was no
longer necessary. Afterward, he left for his true calling — the
cesspool that is cable news.
For whatever reason, ESPN let Smith back in the door in 2011. While
his initial role was confined to the radio and ESPN.com, he quickly
resumed his position as one of ESPN’s most prominent talkers. Now, he
is an institution on the morning SportsCenter, where unnecessarily
deferential anchors sit by and watch him devolve into the kind of self-
parody that even “Saturday Night Live” cannot adequately capture.
On Monday, Smith ranted and raved about the latest debate du jour —
whether the Blackhawks points streak or the Heat win streak was more
impressive. Smith’s argument in placing the Heat above the Blackhawks
was that the NHL allows games to end in ties. Of course, the NHL
eliminated ties after the 2004-05 lockout, but actual knowledge about
sports is less essential for the morning SportsCenter than having an
uneducated and polarizing take.
Endless Debate
With the “success” of ESPN’s First Take — success in quotes, as the
show typically earns less than 500,000 viewers a day — ESPN has
decided that compulsory debate is the wave of the future. It would be
one thing if the debate format was confined to the little-watched
ESPN2, but now the morning “SportsCenter” has begun to rely more on
arguments than on highlights.
Day-long debates (Should fans storm the court? Should LeBron dunk in
pregame?) now involve as many analysts as ESPN can fit around a desk.
Herm Edwards — who has transformed almost into a cartoon character
during his time with ESPN — vehemently advocates for Tiger Woods as
the biggest star in sports, but Tim Kurkjian thinks its LeBron James.
Everyone must have an opinion, even if that opinion is hardly informed
(see: Stephen A.).
The fans get involved as well. Like a presidential debate on cable
news, fans’ realtime preferences get displayed on-screen. Is Seth
Greenberg persuasive enough to get fans to vote for some high-school
basketball half-court shot as the best play of 2013? Just check the
bottom of the screen.
Viral Video Fixation
The fact that the 11 AM and 12 PM ET SportsCenter led with a high
school basketball buzzer beater for nearly 15 minutes is no longer a
surprise. As The Big Lead recently reported, ESPN has mandated that
SportsCenter increase its focus on viral videos. As a result, every
single half-court shot taken by a tenth grader is national news. It is
tough, of course, to get riled up about ESPN giving some kids a moment
in the sun — and when those half-court shots are confined to the ‘Top
10′ list, it really is not that big of a deal.
However, the nature of the morning “SportsCenter” is not to let a nice
moment breathe, but to pound it into the dirt until it loses any of
its authenticity. So when a high school player hurls a halfcourt shot,
that moment of joy gets put through the ESPN meatgrinder and comes out
fodder for debate.
It is not enough for ESPN to be obsessed with viral videos of sporting
events. The network has taken to viral videos of any kind, last week
debasing the program with extensive coverage of the Miami Heat ‘Harlem
Shake’ video. Not only did “SportsCenter” show the video repeatedly,
but then Edwards taught Chris McKendry and Jay Crawford the proper
technique. The show ended with dozens of ESPN staffers doing the
dance. The only hilarious aspect of the ordeal was the fact that Bob
Ley‘s “Outside the Lines” came on immediately after.
The morning “SportsCenter” will undergo changes later this year,
according to a report by The Big Lead. It remains to be seen whether
those changes can save the show from itself. While other editions of
SportsCenter have flaws — the 6 PM ET edition has taken to asking fans
trivia questions on Twitter — only the morning edition sails headfirst
into pure schlock.
SportsCenter is not a completely lost cause. The 1 AM shows from Los
Angeles, which are weighted heavily to highlights, still resemble what
the show used to be. Not in its heyday, of course, but at least back
when it was still watchable. The 11 PM shows, which are typically
hosted by the show’s best anchors — Scott Van Pelt and John Buccigross
— are usually good as well. Before 11 PM, however, SportsCenter has
devolved into some of the most vapid programming on television.
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/42245448/
But that's all just nostalgia. ESPN hasn't been the place of The Big
Show in more than a decade, and that Olbermann thinks it possibly
could be makes me wonder if he's even watched the network in the last
10 years. A Keith Olbermann could never thrive at ESPN anymore. The
"SportsCenter" anchors now are basically interchangeable clones,
watered-down bland quipbots, designed for efficiency and anonymity.
(Exceptions, most notably Scott Van Pelt and Rich Eisen, inevitably
end up branching out and/or escaping at the first opportunity.) Seeing
Olbermann on "SportsCenter" would throw that whole program out of
whack; it's impossible to imagine him throwing it to Stephen A. Smith
and Eric Mangini for the Coors Light Cold Hard Facts without wanting
to kill himself. (Just typing that made me feel depressed, and old.)
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