Terrible announcing. Manufactured drama. Needless, nonsensical graphics and camera angles. Promoting other events at the expense of the event at hand. Plummeting ratings.
Sound familiar?
This is not the NBA on ABC. Instead, these are the criticisms leveled at NASCAR on ABC, which has quickly become hated by NASCAR nation. NASCAR on ABC has been so criticized that even DirecTV is sponsoring a contest where fans answer the question: “The moment when ESPN/ABC made me wish I had DirecTV’s NASCAR HotPass was when…”
From Suzy Kolber and Brad Daugherty to the ramblings of Rusty Wallace, there is not much about ESPN/ABC NASCAR telecasts that fans like. Here is a roundup of some of the complaints from the NASCAR blogosphere.
Why all the hype? Why all the phony bells and whistles when what all of us came here to see is the race?
We came to see NASCAR racing before ESPN “re-arrived,” and we also watch this sport when ESPN is not broadcasting it. Fans are here to focus on the race, not the fact ESPN is covering it. That message has fallen on deaf ears. …
ESPN on Sunday got in all of their ABC commercials, all of their ESPN/ABC promos, all of their sponsored features, and all of their billboards for the various products. They showed us the Infield Studio, the SportsCenter updates, the Tech Center, and even the live “helmet cam” on a pit crew member.
What they did not show us was the race. What they did not follow-up were the stories. What they confirmed was that content is secondary and ESPN’s network agenda is primary.
Even Dr. Jerry Punch is drawing criticism, and he is fairly competent at play-by-play. Petree isn?t bad in the booth, and Rusty has improved a little bit. I searched for some Rusties this week and other than one ?clean traffic,? he didn?t give me anything to work with. But he still isn?t Vin Scully. Maybe they could replace him with Dennis Miller. …
The only explanation for NASCAR allowing this to continue is that they may be planning to bring pay-per-view to the table and they are deliberately making the broadcasts so unbearable that people will pay. Not saying that?s happening, but there isn?t any logical explanation for NASCAR allowing their ratings to continue to sink like they are.
Don’t even get me started on the “fans’ reporter,” Brad Daugherty, or the obligatory female presence of Suzie Kolber.
My point is mainly that the fans wanting to watch the race FAR outnumbered those that were being affected by the fires. I also didn?t notice any of the football games being preempted (FOX had football going all day). So there were plenty of sources to get the fire information without having to tie up the ABC/ESPN west coast feeds for 5+ hours.
