Sports Media Watch presents the 7 worst sports broadcasting moves of the past 10 years. Consider this sports broadcasting’s version of the 7 deadly sins.
#7: NBC airs tennis on tape delay (NBC, all decade long)
Tennis is near the very bottom of the sports totem pole in the United States. Still, if you’re going to go through the trouble of airing tennis matches, you should probably avoid antagonizing the small, but dedicated audience watching.
NBC’s Wimbledon contract requires that it have exclusive coverage of the second week of the tournament from 10 AM to 1 PM in all time zones each weekday (12 PM to 5 PM on the Friday). The network would air a (sometimes) live block of coverage on the East Coast, and then repeat that coverage in the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones.
Meanwhile, other matches would air on ESPN2, generally from 7 AM ET to 10 AM ET, and then again from 1 PM ET to 5 PM ET. In other words, continuous tennis from 7 AM to 5 PM on the East Coast. However, in other time zones, because NBC holds exclusivity from 10 AM to 1 PM, ESPN2’s coverage would be blacked out for a certain period of time. For example, in the Pacific time zone, ESPN2’s morning coverage would start at 4 AM and end at 7 AM, leaving a 3-hour block of nothing until NBC’s coverage began at 10 AM. When NBC’s coverage would end at 1 PM local time (4 PM ET), there would only be one hour of tennis left on ESPN2.
There were other annoyances, such as NBC airing matches on tape delay while live tennis was taking place. In ’09, the Andy Roddick/Andy Murray match began before 12 PM ET, when NBC’s window was set to begin. Instead of airing the match live on the East Coast at 12 PM, when it was in the third set with Roddick and Murray tied at two sets apiece, NBC aired the match from the beginning — thereby ensuring that no live tennis would be seen (NYT, 7/3/09).
#6: The Pussycat Dolls, Rob Thomas, and the list goes on (ABC, 2002-present)
After John Tesh‘s Roundball Rock defined the NBA on NBC for 12 years, ABC decided to go in a different direction for its NBA coverage.
So the network tapped Robert Randolph and the Family Band (We Got Hoops!, 2002-03), LL Cool J (Spurs-Nets Goin’ To War, 2003), Justin Timberlake (Can’t Get Enough, 2003-04), the Black Eyed Peas (Let’s Get it Started, 2004), Destiny’s Child (Lose My Breath, 2004-05), Rob Thomas (This is How a Heart Breaks, 2005), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Runnin’ Down a Dream, 2006), The Pussycat Dolls (Right Now!, 2006-07), Tim McGraw and Def Leppard (Nine Lives, 2008), U2 (Get On Your Boots, 2009) and Mariah Carey (All I Want For Christmas Is You, 2009) to sing the network’s NBA anthem at various points during the 2000s.
That’s a total of 11 different performers/groups for the NBA on ABC over the course of 7 years, compared to 1 performer for the NBA on NBC over the course of 12 years.
In 2002, NBC spokesman Kevin Sullivan told ESPN.com that Roundball Rock was “a great piece of music and it definitely became synonymous with the NBA on NBC over the years. … When you hear that music, you know exactly what’s coming up” (ESPN.com, 6/12/02). Seven years later, the NBA on ABC is synonymous with pretty much any random pop group that wants to sell a CD.
#5: ABC bails on NASCAR for America’s Funniest Home Videos (ABC, 2008)
ABC said all it needed to about its commitment to NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup in late 2008.
The 2008 Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, the second-to-last race of NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup, had been delayed multiple times due to rain. The race had been scheduled to last until 7:30 PM ET, but — thanks to the delays — was threatening to potentially preempt some of ABC’s much hyped Sunday night lineup.
To protect ABC’s entertainment programming, the NASCAR race — with 39 laps remaining — was moved to ESPN2 at 7:28 PM. America’s Funniest Home Videos aired in its place.
“I can’t imagine being a race fan and being on the East Coast and trying to watch this and then going to that [America’s Funniest Home Videos],” driver Jamie McMurray said after the race, “I mean, maybe if the President was going to talk, maybe if something big had happened, but I can’t believe that America’s Funniest Home Videos would take priority over us. I mean, I like the show, but I’d rather watch the race” (si.com, 11/9/08).
#4: NBC airs Olympics on tape delay (NBC, all decade long)
NBC’s insistence to air the Olympics on a tape delayed basis was annoying in 2000, more annoying in 2004, and reached the critical mass of annoyance in 2008.
The practice of tape delaying the marquee Olympic events to air in primetime may have made more sense when viewers did not have the ability to easily find out the results. But today, when viewers can easily find out the results via a variety of methods, it seems more pointless and stubborn than anything else.
Even during the 2008 Olympics, when events were seen live on the East Coast, they were tape delayed in other time zones — meaning, for example, that West Coast viewers had to wait until three hours after the fact to see Michael Phelps win his record 8th gold medal of the 2008 Olympics.
Perhaps the worst use of this tape delay policy came in 2002, when the Winter Olympics — staged in Salt Lake City, UT — were tape delayed on the West Coast until 7:30 PM PT. From Seattle to Los Angeles, a live event airing just one time zone away would air on a 2 1/2 hour delay.
#3: The Steve Harvey Show preempts ALCS Game 6 (TBS, 2008)
This was not a golden moment in the history of Turner Sports.
With Game 6 of the 2008 Red Sox/Rays ALCS underway — potentially the deciding game of the series — viewers on TBS were left watching a rerun of The Steve Harvey Show. Not surprisingly, most were less than thrilled.
The episode was a result of a router failure at Turner’s Atlanta headquarters. The error took place with “about five minutes remaining in the pregame show, leaving TBS with little time to act,” and “no choice but to put on taped programming” (SBD, 10/20/08).
The first 20 minutes of the game were preempted thanks to the error. Viewers missed the first six batters of the game, as well as a home run by the Rays’ B.J. Upton. Then-TBS play-by-play voice Chip Caray told viewers, “you didn?t miss much” (bostonsportsmedia.com, 10/18/09).
#2: NBC bails on NHL overtime for Preakness pre-race (NBC, 2007)
Of all of NBC’s poor scheduling decisions during the 2000s, this takes the cake.
On May 19, 2007, NBC aired most of Game 5 of the NHL’s Eastern Conference Finals between the Senators and Sabres. The game started at 2 PM ET, leading into NBC’s coverage of The Preakness Stakes at 4:30 PM. When regulation ended at 4:44 PM, “it was clear that if NBC stuck with the game through at least one full overtime, it would run over the first half-hour of Preakness coverage and beyond” (New York Times, 5/22/07).
This was a possibility that NBC and the NHL had prepared for. The contingency plan? Move coverage of overtime to NHL television partner Versus.
Not only was Versus in far fewer homes than NBC, but neither network did a very good job alerting viewers to the situation. NBC offered just one “20-second announcement made at the end of regulation,” while “a foul-up at Versus’ master control” resulted in the World’s Strongest Man competition airing for two minutes instead of the game. NBC’s decision was justified by the ratings, but it still marked a fairly embarrassing moment in the history of televised sports.
#1: ABC previews movies during halftime of the NBA Finals (ABC, 2003)
Nothing epitomized ABC’s tenure as an NBA broadcaster more than halftime of Game 6 of the 2003 NBA Finals.
With the Spurs and Nets playing in what would turn out to be the clinching game of the series, ABC’s halftime show did not feature analysis from Sean Elliott. Instead, host Mike Tirico sat alongside the late Joel Siegel for an interminable segment previewing the upcoming summer movie season.
Called one of the most “breathtakingly bizarre cross-promotions ever to hit network television,” (thehotbutton.com, 6/16/03), this 12-minute segment began with a 2-minute trailer for Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean and ended with a music video for Universal’s The Incredible Hulk. The segment ended with Tirico and Siegel, both wearing toy Incredible Hulk hands, pounding fists.
At the risk of sounding like Bill Walton, this was among the worst moments in the history of sports broadcasting.
