ESPN's reheating of "Cold Pizza"
I'm a fan of the "new", more sports-oriented Cold Pizza on ESPN2. I did try to let the original concept sink in after sitting through the first few weeks of Season 1, but the notion of a morning show - in the very literal sense of the word, from a traditionalist TV standpoint - never caught on with me. And apparently, a ton of other people had similar thoughts. Being a guy in the TV business as a news anchor and sports producer, I was surprised ESPN took that big of a risk and deviated that far from the world of competitive athletics.
I catch CP at night because Guam's time difference from NYC means the 8am broadcast comes on for us at 11pm the next night, and the genuine morning show concept never really took. Not on ESPN. DVD reviews, fashion tips, recipes, mainstream news headlines & weather, etc...on a sports network??? I've got at least 4 other major channels I can find that stuff on, which is dramatically better. Right tool for the right job, says I.
The producers did cast experienced TV people, which is the smarter/safer thing to do when starting out, but neglected to stay focused on the network's core competency.
Fixing the show's big problem - lack of sports credibility - was key: ESPN got rid of cheesecake and stocked up on meat. Removed from duty were the peppy, bubbly personalities in Kit Hoover and Thea Andrews, replaced by experienced sportswriters Woody Paige from The Denver Post and Skip Bayless from The San Jose Mercury News (the latter two admittedly less aesthetic than the former by several orders of magnitude). Jay Crawford, the show's only remaining original castmember, co-anchors with veteran anchor Dana Jacobsen, both experienced broadcast sports journalists.
(And yeah, like any 31-year-old heterosexual male, it sucks not to be greeted by hotties every night, but the content's generally better and more on track for sports enthusiasts.) To the show's credit, there were some intriguing series and recurring segment during the first run, like "America's Best Sports Bars".
At any rate, I watch every night. "1st and 10" is nice to fall asleep to.
I catch CP at night because Guam's time difference from NYC means the 8am broadcast comes on for us at 11pm the next night, and the genuine morning show concept never really took. Not on ESPN. DVD reviews, fashion tips, recipes, mainstream news headlines & weather, etc...on a sports network??? I've got at least 4 other major channels I can find that stuff on, which is dramatically better. Right tool for the right job, says I.
The producers did cast experienced TV people, which is the smarter/safer thing to do when starting out, but neglected to stay focused on the network's core competency.
Fixing the show's big problem - lack of sports credibility - was key: ESPN got rid of cheesecake and stocked up on meat. Removed from duty were the peppy, bubbly personalities in Kit Hoover and Thea Andrews, replaced by experienced sportswriters Woody Paige from The Denver Post and Skip Bayless from The San Jose Mercury News (the latter two admittedly less aesthetic than the former by several orders of magnitude). Jay Crawford, the show's only remaining original castmember, co-anchors with veteran anchor Dana Jacobsen, both experienced broadcast sports journalists.
(And yeah, like any 31-year-old heterosexual male, it sucks not to be greeted by hotties every night, but the content's generally better and more on track for sports enthusiasts.) To the show's credit, there were some intriguing series and recurring segment during the first run, like "America's Best Sports Bars".
At any rate, I watch every night. "1st and 10" is nice to fall asleep to.
posted by Jason Salas @ 10:28 PM
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