ESPN is the behemoth of sports television. With the rights to nearly all professional and college sports, and with enough studio shows and scripted fare to supply three networks with constant original programming, the networks mimics its parent company, Disney, when it comes to all-around dominance.
The excess of ESPN is only partly expressed through the sheer amount of sports it televises. Most of ESPN’s excess comes through when considering the number of announcers, analysts and columnists the network employs. The personalities at ESPN sometimes become bigger than the games themselves.
When it comes to actual analysts, ESPN has an abundance of talkers. Several ESPN analysts talk with a firm confidence, as if they are absolutely sure that what they’re saying is right ? a confidence that sometimes comes off as arrogance to viewers at home. The voice of God approach, used especially by NFL analysts, is mostly conveyed by the seemingly confrontational attitude analysts take.
Most of them sit stiff, staring directly at the camera, gesticulating towards viewers forcefully. Their opinions are displayed in a caption below them, as if they had their views rehearsed ? or told to them by the powers that be. In fact, everything about the analysis is rehearsed; in a given game of “Fact or Fiction” or “Contender or Pretender”, the analysts’ picks are usually revealed in a caption moments before they say what their opinion is.
Forcefully reciting an opinion that may or may not be their own, analysts go on a spiel for approximately thirty seconds before turning to the host or analyst sitting next to them. The process is repeated, until it’s time for a commercial. With NFL analysts, its most glaring ? Sean Salisbury never met an absolute he didn?t like. The know-it-all approach has earned analysts like Salisbury the derision of some viewers, and has translated into sites like Fire Joe Morgan and Awful Announcing.
Analysts are near the bottom of the ESPN totem pole. In fact, the only people lower on said totem pole are reporters (one isn?t likely to hear a peep about Kelly Naqi or Jeremy Schaap) and actual game analysts (excluding the likes of Dick Vitale or Bill Walton). ESPN hasn?t made money on the backs of Steve Phillips, Mark Schlereth or Tim Legler.
Pontificators are much more important to ESPN than analysts. Personalities like Skip Bayless and Jay Mariotti and Stephen A. Smith ? the more obnoxious the better. The more viewers dislike them, the better. ESPN knows that most people don?t tune into something to listen to someone they agree with. People tune in to get angry, and get outraged ? and personalities like Bayless, Mariotti and Smith serve that need well.
And even if viewers aren?t angry, ESPN makes sure that the pontificators are. Bayless squares off against someone on First and Ten, and both yell and scream for most of the exercise. This goes on for a half-hour.
On Around the Horn, with the exception of J.A. Adande, everyone on the show displays some anger ? either mock anger or true anger disguised as mock anger ? and the vast majority of the program is spent with the four panelists screaming at each other, imposing moral judgments on athletes and mugging for the camera. The God complex is most flagrant on this particular show, where Mariotti and Bill Plaschke of the L.A. Times battle to see who can be the largest hypocrite, and who can most act as the arbiter of what is moral.
The combination of anger and arrogance helps ESPN attract some viewers, but the network does know that it helps to have characters who are less polarizing.
Pardon the Interruption is ESPN’s most successful debate show. While some dislike Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, the fact remains that public opinion about the two hosts is generally positive. The anger on PTI is mostly for laughs, with the exception of occasions during the year when Kornheiser embarks on a mood swing, and the hosts seem to lack the God complex and attraction to absolutes of their more disparaged colleagues. Kornheiser and Wilbon have attracted such a following that both are now analysts on ESPN sports coverage ? Monday Night Football, and the NBA, respectively.
No matter how much money ESPN makes on pontificators, one is not likely to see Tony Kornheiser or Jim Rome in an ad for pizza or Hooters any time soon. A select group of personalities have transcended any categorization, and are in many ways, the face of ESPN.
SportsCenter, which debuted with ESPN, has had a Saturday Night Live effect on sports broadcasts. Many of the people who have worked as hosts on SportsCenter have moved on to bigger and better things ? for instance, Greg Gumbel, Keith Olbermann, Craig Kilborn, and Mike Tirico. Some SportsCenter hosts are seemingly bigger than the highlights they describe. Stuart Scott, Chris Berman and Dan Patrick, all of whom have been in several movies playing themselves ? like so many SportsCenter anchors ? have their own catchphrases and style that viewers associate with them. Berman and Patrick, in particular, add credibility to events they are a part of. ESPN assigned Berman to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2003 and 2004, and Patrick has been working for the NBA on ABC for going on one year.
This isn?t to say that SportsCenter anchors are beloved figures along the lines of Curt Gowdy or Vin Scully. Several anchors have become relatively polarizing figures, notably Stuart Scott, who has attracted derision for his catchphrases and long-winded, nonsensical lead-ins to stories. However, more than any other group at ESPN, SportsCenter anchors are the most well-known and the most mainstream. They appeal to a broad audience of sports fans, and gain more exposure than any other personalities at the network.
ESPN has a large, complex grouping of personalities. From analysts like Sean Salisbury and Joe Theismann, to pontificators like Woody Paige and Mike Lupica, the network has no shortage of opinionated lightning rods to irritate and attract viewers. For better or worse, in many cases, the personalities on ESPN are as important as the games being televised. Every event is broadcast through the lens of these personalities; from the analysis during the game to the highlights on SportsCenter to the discussion of the event the next day on Around the Horn and PTI, ESPN’s personalities have a constant effect on how sports are viewed and perceived.
