Archive for January 31st, 2010
ESPN’s problems and Finals thoughts
I’m very upset at ESPN.
Look, normally I’m a huge fan of ESPN. The idea of a channel (or five) for sports, 24/7 really appeals to the side of me that is convinced that there is nothing else in life besides sports (that’s the majority side of me, for anyone who knows anything about me). I’m also a huge fan of having multiple channels, so that multiple myriad sporting events can be on each channel at once. I’ll be totally honest; it’s addicting. I’m one of those people who watches Sportscenter. For hours. For the same news over and over again. (quick guess: how much life do I possess? person who comes closest IN THE COMMENTS [hint hint] gets a surprise!).
I also like tennis (that’s a surprising one, no?). I do not possess the willpower, nor the time, however, to stay up until 2:00 am to watch the Australian Open women’s (or men’s) finals, no matter how good they are (sidebar: the only time I’ve canceled everything to stay up and watch sports in the middle of the night was the last World Cup. I was in India and for about the first month of my trip, I was still on American time). The idea of showing the games on tape delay (something that ESPN2 has apparently grown very fond of, as I’ve seen everything from Djokovic-Tsonga and Murray-Nadal to Dulko-Ivanovic on tape delay at between 10:00 and 2:00), while, on the surface somewhat prehistoric (you know, those times before texting and iPhones) appealed to me.
Seemed to appeal to the executives at ESPN2 as well, since they advertised that they would show the Henin-Williams final in prime time, as well as an “encore presentation” of the men’s final at 10 am Eastern time. So, even though it was a Saturday night, I canceled all my plans and settled down on the couch at 9:00 pm to see Justine the Comeback Kid and the Defending Champion duke it out in a match that I already knew Serena Williams had won in three sets. Basically, I expected to see three sets.
I saw two.
They played two. Seriously. They played around half of the first set, the second half of the second set, and the third set. For all the advertising, for all the talk about putting the game in prime time, it seemed that the two-hour time slot rampaged past my desire to see what ended up being a great women’s final. Sure, the sections shown were most likely the most “action-packed” (although having entertaining events with Dick Enberg commentating tennis is inordinately painful), but for actual fans, for thinking fans, it isn’t about the part where Justine won fifteen points in a row to close out the second set. It’s about her lead-up, how she managed to figure out Serena Williams’ defenses, about WHY she could do it earlier.
Now I understand the overwhelming compulsion to effusively show thunderous action that is the highlights of the day’s Winter X Games, and I understand that, no doubt, there were throngs of people gathered at 11:00 pm to see snowboard halfpipes or whatever (if you like Winter X Games, I apologize; I hate it when people ridicule my sports too), but for us tennis fans, it’s a utter, complete, total insult to cut off 1/3 of a match. Come on, ESPN2. Come on.
You know what makes it worse? The game itself was not much longer than the necessary space in the time slot (it was 2:07 hours for a 2:00 hour time slot) and the fact that ESPN2 was scheduling tapings all evening means that the time slot could have been expanded to accommodate the length of the women’s match; after all, it’s a tape delay. And you know what’s worse than that? The actual play that they showed ended at 10:44, meaning that there was another quarter of an hour where they could have shown the game (they showed the trophy presentation and speeches instead).
If they removed all the pre-match discussions, the analysis between sets, and a bit of the unnecessary advertising, they could have most likely fit the match in their schedule. If they had pushed everything back at most a half-hour (something they could have no doubt done), they could have fit the match right in. But they didn’t. This upsets me.
This morning, I watched the entirety of the men’s match on tape delay and, with the exception of the third set, Henin-Williams was a significantly better match (the quality of the tennis might have been not very different, but the skill level/skill at which the opponents were playing was significantly different and better in the women’s match). The men’s match was the once that received the better coverage and, well, I could see all of. I’m not saying gender has something to do with it, I’m just saying…*
* – (of course, it’s just as likely because Federer is an icon of the sport, but still! Justine’s a great story and this is America; surely people are Serena Williams fans? Right? Right?)
Bah. It doesn’t really matter. I know some people have been expecting rants from me, so I’m glad to oblige with this little mini-rant. To be honest, I’m much more at home talking about the finals.
Analysis after the “jump”, broken into little sections about various thoughts of mine.
