The Internet Killed Sportscenter
The other night I did something I almost never do. I’m not really sure what came over me—it just sort of happened. I sat down on the couch, and before I knew it I was watching Sportscenter. You remember Sportcenter. It’s that show which 10 years ago was the best sports news broadcast on the planet, but now is dumbed down by empty analysis, annoying anchors, and ratings ploys.
Anyway, something weird happened on my TV that night. Sportscenter was actually good. After a few minutes of watching, the reason why became obvious.
It was a slow news night.
That meant the show could take an extra 30 seconds and diagram a clever double screen that Jamar Butler used twice to hit open threes. It meant there was time to tell us that all four times LeBron has scored 50 points it has been on the road. It meant the show could follow up with Igor Olshansky to see how his goal of filling up the Patriots bulletin board is coming along. That’s the kind of stuff that once made Sportscenter great. Unique highlights, interesting numbers, and money quotes.
The big problem nowadays is that the internet has made Sportscenter obsolete as anything other than a highlight show, and nobody running the show seems to know it. The Sportscenter producers need to understand that we don’t want to see Sean Salisbury analyzing Sunday’s AFC Championship Game. By the time he comes on TV we’ve already read 10 different stories on the game by people with opinions we respect much more than Salisbury’s. Similarly, the show doesn’t need to tell us who the Falcons are considering hiring—everybody who cares already read about it on the internet five hours ago.
The result is that Sportscenter is no longer a staple of die-hard sports fans, it’s a staple of casual sports fans. That’s why there’s been such a backlash against ESPN from die-hard fans (read: bloggers). The show has no ghetto-loyalty. It’s abandoned the people who helped it get through its formative years in order to go after the big money.
All that from watching 40 minutes of Sportscenter. I better try and not let it happen again.
1 Comment »
mcbias on 19 Jan 2008 at 6:06 pm #
SportsCenter is a victim of its own success, and going from underground to mainstream. Beautiful summary of the situation. But who’s going to call Will Leitch and tell him that his book could have been summarized in one sentece? The poor, poor guy, ha.