ESPN "Who's Now": Is it me, or is this stupid?

[UeckerAddict]

Anyone see the ESPN "Who's Now," using tournament brackets to decide who the hottest athletic persona is right now? Why has ESPN turned into People Magazine? Whatever happened to sports analysis, and Xes and Os? I'm having a tougher time discerning ESPN from Mtv.

 

In a nutshell, I don't care who you tell me is the hottest athlete today. Just show me a damn baseball game.

[TheCrew07]

Quite a bit of programming on ESPN bothers me, which is why I don't watch much of it outside of college sports.

[Crazyk1294]

Sounds like ESPN is doing some demographic research. Is this officially ESPN 8 "The Ocho"?

[bball123h2]

This is clearly a response to FSN's "L8R", which features sports highlights not done by announcer, but rather done with subtitles in AOL-speak. OMGLOL!

[jason21nl]

I was watching them debate the other day about d wade and the flying tomato and thought to myself how stupid this is. I wish they would just go back to sports highlights and stop with this crap. also, please stop making little movies. They have yet to make one that is any good and the new one that is coming out looks to be horrible as well

[hammytime]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the "Who's Now" is ridiculous. Besides, how do you legitimately compare athletes from vastly different sports (like hoops and X-games with Wade and the Tomato the other night)?

[TracyThom]

I'm not sure what's worse: Who's Now or the gameshow they used to run on Sportscenter with Kenny Mayne. I think the gameshow was like the Newlywed game with teammates.

 

Anyone else notice ESPN ripped off FSN's Final Score menu on the side of the screen?

[Schlitz001]

I agree with Wilbon, Bekham is better than LT because his wife is hot. This is useless programming.

[temke]

Quote:

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Anyone else notice ESPN ripped off FSN's Final Score menu on the side of the screen?

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which they ripped off from PTI.

[pretendastronaut]

ESPN has been annoying me in multiple ways anymore. The "Who's Now" thing makes no sense at all, I don't even understand what Now is. Nor do I understand their "eras."

 

But worse than that, IMO, is that lately, they can't go a week without drumming up some big story, related to life outside of the sports field and then beating it to death. Its like they're turning into a Hollywood trash magazine.

[Boy Jeenius]

I haven't watched ESPN since 2000. They lost me when they named Michael Jordan the greatest athlete of the 20th Century. Every time one of those lists comes out, the winner is always the current star of that year or decade, because that person is the one they are looking at, so they must be the best. I thought for sure that ESPN would be the one sports authority that would look at it objectively and historically and tell everyone clammoring for MJ that there were plenty of other greats like Jim Thorpe, Babe Didrickson, Jim Brown, Wilt Chamberlain, heck even Babe Ruth that were better all around athletes. Nope, they couldn't do it. I knew then they were straight media entertainment, a sports people magazine, not a sports authority. Buh bye.

[princeginterhallhelms04]

I thought it was quite stupid! But it's just something to help get people to watch SC during the summer, i guess baseball and basketball trade rumors arn't enough.

[patrickgpe]

i don't watch sportscenter anymore, and rarely watch baseball tonight, depending on who is on the show that night. I get more annoyed that espn finds it impossible to broadcast a game that doesn't involve the mets, yankees, or red sox.

[GAME05]

heck, i don't even visit espn's web page anymore, it's too full of ads and you need to pay to read anything. every site out there now offers more than they do.

 

for me, it all started with that reality show they did to pick their next broadcaster. that was when the network first decided that gimmics were more important than sports analysis.

[UeckerAddict]

I don't know if this has been posted, but I love The Onion's knock on ESPN.

 

link

[PKBadger]

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They lost me when they named Michael Jordan the greatest athlete of the 20th Century.

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This is a matter of opinion, though. Personally, I was OK with picking Jordan. When "SportsCentury" premiered, you had to know that the top 3 were going to be Ruth, Ali, and Jordan, it was just a matter of what order they were going to be in.

[Crazyk1294]

From The Onion article:

"Manny Ramirez has really started heating up at the plate as of late, and you know what that means?opposing pitchers had better watch out," ESPN's Sean McAdam said when asked about Corey Hart's eighth-inning homer that cut the Twins' lead to two.

 

So ESPN has to know that the rest of the country doesn't care about the Yankees or Red Sox. It's like the rest of the country doesn't exist to them.

[Boy Jeenius]

Quote:

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This is a matter of opinion, though

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Oh I agree. The fact that they chose the easy, "sexy" pick is what I was trying to make as my point. Jordan was selling the most advertising and merchandise at the time. Jim Thorpe was Gold Medalist in track, played in the baseball in the World Series(Note: he did not fail to make it past A ball), member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a Champion Billiards player and Champion Ballroom Dancer. Babe Didrickson had even more accomplishments than that. They were not going to get top billing, because ESPN could not sell air time on the last night with those people being hi-lited. Was MJ great, you betcha and deserved solid consideration, but the final call came down to $$.

[dadofandrew]

They ran out of ideas ages ago. This one is as pointless as they come.

[soup can for prez]

I am dissapointed in Stuart Scott for actaully stooping to a level this low. I mean comon, analyzing players so one of them can win the prestegious ESPN "Whos now" award.

[BrewCityUnit]

As long as thousands and thousands of people are voting....can you really blame them?

[UeckerAddict]

They get thousands of votes no matter what they do. Does that mean they have to kill journalism with worthless subject matter and turn into a bunch of non-pithy....(can I say a word that starts with "wh" and rhymes with "doors".

[BrewCityUnit]

ESPN has made sports what they are today.....I remember being a kid and seeing the ticker pop up once every hour if lucky...now whenever I need a score there it is. I hate almost every personality on that station but at the same time they are still talking about sports so I will watch it.

[TheCrew07]

Just like MTV made videos and doesn't run a video, or VH1 who held out longer and now doesn't run videos for stupid reality TV.

 

Just because you were once great, doesn't mean I'm going to be loyal when you suck. TV programming is not like my sports teams who I follow thick and thin. When ESPN isn't about highlights and quality analysis, it's worthless to me. I'll watch my college football and bball, some baseball if Colby turns me onto a game to watch in his draft previews, and that's about it. SC is a waste of time, the once great BBTN is horrible, I feel bent over and abused by ESPN, so I no longer utilize the website or watch the channel.

 

That Onion article was awesome.

[jaybird2001wi]

ESPN has been going downhill since the likes of Keith Olbermann and Carig Kilbourn left the network. ESPN has turned into a sloppy sports network with network execs there running out of ideas.

ESPN wasn't broke back in 1992, and they decided to fix something that wasn't broke... making it broke when it comes to quality programming.

Classic Sports Network was good until ESPN decided to buy them, now all they show is basketball games from the same era and nothing but World Series of Poker from year's past. What is next? Is ESPN classic going to start airing Curling Championships?

If I was in charge of ESPN programming, here is what I would do:

1. Find a solid core of Baseball Tonight anchors/analysts and stick with them (none of this musical chairs of former ballplayers).

a. If I had a choice, I would make Brian Kenny or Karl Ravech the host of Baseball Tonight, rehire Harold Reynolds and bring back Jeff Brantley as the pitching analyst. Maybe call up Joe Girardi as the third wheel of former ballplayers. Keep Kurkjian and Gammons as insiders with occassional calls from Jayson Stark and Buster Olney.

2. Stop taking up SportsCenter with nothing but Yanks/Sox highlights whenever they are playing. Highlights have gone downhill and after discussing the Sox/Yanks rivalry for the first half hour of a one-hour SportsCenter. I am surprised viewers on the west coast haven't sent in death threats or made phone calls to ESPN complaining.

3. Make SportsCenter informative again, instead of trying to be sensationalistic by interviewing Amanda Beard who was just featured on Playboy. All SportsCenter needs is an Ann Coulter-esque or Nancy Grace persona and I would officially stop watching ESPN.

4. Stop airing World Series of Poker re-runs on ESPN Classic, my God, why don't they just make a whole new network devoted to card games because that is all ESPN Classic is these days.

5. Make a solid core of SportsCenter anchors. I don't even know who anchors the show anymore. The anchors I would like to be on SC are:

Michelle Bonner

Anthony Amey

Brian Kenny

6. Banish Chris Berman to just football

7. Banish Stephen A. Smith to just basketball