Further ESPN inanity/stupidity
 

Idiots.

*shakes head*

From today's USA today..

he group's efforts included creating U.S. Open golf highlight footage for distribution to cell phones as well as showing Sunday's weigh-in from the ESPN-owned Bassmaster Classic on espn.com's broadband service. The group helped create X Center, which follows BassCenter as the second SportsCenter spinoff and will premiere Thursday on ESPN2 to run during the ESPN-owned X Games.

The X Center spinoff will suggest the X Games have a lighter side: Musician G Love, Weinberg says, will be "a sort of social reporter" and the program will show a rider trying to set a distance record while he does a back flip on his BMX bike.

Smith's Quite Frankly also is part of an effort to give ESPN2, a spinoff itself, more of a separate identity. The next step is ESPN2's ESPNHollywood, premiering Aug. 15. The show will be a sort of Entertainment Tonight geared largely to men, suggests Michael Antinoro of ESPN Original Entertainment, which oversees Hollywood: "It could speculate on the most eligible bachelors in sports and who they're dating."

YOU ARE A FUCKING SPORTS NETWORK. Act like it.

God the MTV/ESPN comparison looks better every day.

however, the reality is people watch it as absurb as it is

Actually, they're just going to mean the "E" in their name now, "Entertainment". I think that's what it stood for, anyway. Some time ago, they actually made ESPN the official name and dropped the acronym meaning.

Well ESPN keeps trying to transform their network into more entertainment and less sports, and it doesn't seem to be working. The Jay Mohr Show, Tilt, and Cold Pizza programs have all been unsuccessful. I don't see this latest batch of shows make me want to watch ESPN for anything other than sports.

Umm, am I missing something here? Why would men care about who the most eligible sports bachelors were and who they were dating? Or should it have been in quotes, the show will be geared largely to "men?"

Plan on that show being cancelled in 6 weeks if they think that men are going to watch Entertainment Tonight just because Tom Brady's featured instead of Tom Cruise.

This is exactly why I am looking forward to these three networks come College Football & College Hoops Seasons..

CSTV
Fox College Sports
ESPNU

This, along with the Gameplan and Full Court plans make the crap that goes on at the big network (ESPN) a bit easier to deal with.

did anyone watch the spaghetti eating contest espn2 just had on? (I'm serious)

now those guys are athletes!! (sarcasm)

Man, I missed this. I had no idea ESPN was airing a SportsCenter spinoff based on the nonstop action of bass fishing. I did catch a little of ESPN's hype of the Bass Masters weigh-in on SportsCenter Sunday morning when they promised it should be one of the most exciting moments in sports this year with the winner determined by maybe less than an ounce.

I then switched off the TV and stared at a dot on the wall for a half hour that I found slightly more entertaining.

I think they replayed it 40 x over the weekend.

I watch NFL Live and will flip over to ESPN-News to catch some stats and results, beyond that I've all but forgotten about ESPN.

Give me the NFL network and (hopefully) my NFL season ticket this year and I'll never watch ESPN for much of anything in the fall/winter =)

espn jumped the shark for me when they put music acts on sportscenter.. and stuart scott..


espn.com jumped the shark for me when bill simmon's weekly boston sports updates

:)

Lurker has this theory that all cable channels start out with some category that they're supposed to be about, but eventually they become (or will become) just like every other channel. It's hard to disprove.

I was trying to figure this one out, too. I think we need to set up a chat room so we can talk about all of the latest sports dating gossip. I hear Coco Crisp is a little slut!

I don't want to know where you found out that nugget.

Yes, but since they now call it "competitive eating," it's a sport!

Kobayashi will revolutionize the way we don't watch pie-eating contests.

John Rocker.

On a somewhat related note, I have to say how odd it is to see ESPN shows advertised on CNNSI.com's website. The one I'm seeing now is for Quite Frankly. Quite frankly, I can't believe that windbag not only has a show, but apparently it's not just limited to basketball.

That, and seeing Fred Hickman on Sportscenter, borders on the unnatural.

That is all.

Steven A. Smith - Only In America!

that should be the show

I have no idea where ESPN comes up with all these outrageous ideas (not only mentioned in this thread, but in numerous other threads throughout this board). You have to figure that we, FOFC, represent the average ESPN viewer (male, sports fans, etc). Given that, and the idea that a majority of this board feels these ideas are ridiculous, it seems as though the average ESPN viewer would feel the same way.

ESPN basically had the monopoly on sporting channels when their main focus was on sporting, but now since they have focused on trying to appeal to pop-culture, they've opened the door for other news channels such as fox-sports, etc.

Here on the west coast, I usually only watch Fox Sports West anymore because ESPN is so diluted with BS. It seems as though a large number of members of this board feel the same way and have turned to other locations to get their sports "fix".

only problem with that is fox sports midwest should basically be called fox sports st louis

The problem here is that you are assuming ESPN is trying to come up with programming to entertain their current viewers. They are trying to attract new viewers, and think that this type of programming will attract more viewers than they lose.

As much as people complain that MTV never plays videos anymore, they stopped when they tried programming other than videos, and had more people watching.

Exactly... I'm sure MTV has far more viewers today with their "Real World" and crap than they did when they just showed videos.

You just hit it square on the head. And the truth is, they're probably right.

The whole X Games thing in general has become such a suprise cash cow for the network that I'm surprised they didn't do more "X" stuff before now.

Everything is "Xtreme" now.

Where's my Xtreme Curling?

I see your point completely now that you mention it. But for the record, I'm one of the viewers ESPN has lost because of all these shenanagans.

I'll still watch what interests me, most notably the live football and basketball they still have, I feel no need to "penalize" them by not watching what interests me.

What really disappoints me is how unwatchable SportsCenter has become. I probably missed that 20 days a year or less for 8-10 years. Now I cannot stand it.

Doodz, AC Slater is hosting! Rock on!

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Disney's ESPN2 to debut sports-Hollywood show
Tue Aug 2, 2005 9:36 PM ET
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - From "Field of Dreams" to "The Longest Yard," the Walt Disney Co.-owned cable TV channel ESPN2 plans to launch a weeknight program next month that examines the junction between sports and entertainment.

The new half-hour show, "ESPN Hollywood," is set to debut Aug. 15, with first-week segments spotlighting the likes of basketball icon Shaquille O'Neal, sibling tennis champions Serena and Venus Williams and NFL star quarterback Tom Brady.

But the focus of each piece will be on their off-field -- or off-court -- performance as celebrities, such as Shaq spinning records as a nightclub DJ or Brady posing for a photo shoot in GQ magazine.

British rocker Ozzy Osbourne also is set to make an early appearance on the show, backstage after a concert for a one-on-one "hookup" with one of his biggest fans, Philadelphia Eagles fullback Jon Ritchie. And rapper Jay-Z, part owner of the New Jersey Nets, will be featured as he opens another branch of his 40/40 Club sports bar.

"Wherever there is an intersection of sports and entertainment, we're going to be there. That's what our show is all about," executive producer Bill Bonnell told Reuters on Tuesday.

He described the format as similar to such celebrity-driven syndicated shows as "Entertainment Tonight" and "Access Hollywood," but with a decidedly sports-centered flavor.

Other subjects ripe for attention on "Hollywood ESPN" might be "Desperate Housewives" co-star Eva Longoria's relationship with Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs, or Britney Spears' interest in owning a NASCAR team, Bonnell said.

The new show will be co-hosted by Thea Andrews, formerly of the ESPN morning talk show "Cold Pizza," and Mario Lopez, who once starred as the kind-hearted high school jock A.C. Slater on NBC's "Saved By the Bell." He more recently appeared with Dick Clark and Danny Bonaduce on the short-lived, male-oriented talk show "The Other Half."
"ESPN Hollywood" is one of several new original shows coming to ESPN2 as part of an effort to blend traditional event coverage on the network with more sports-related entertainment programs.

The original ESPN channel was launched in 1979. ESPN2 debuted in 1994.

Reuters/VNU