OK guys -- I know a bunch of you out there would love to do this!

"If you have ever dreamed of becoming a "SportsCenter" anchor, ESPN is ready to give you a chance. The cable network is developing "Dream Job," a primetime reality series that will invite aspiring sportscasters to submit audition tapes for consideration in an "American Idol"-style competition. ESPN will give the winner a one-year gig on "SportsCenter."

Story here.

You know how a lot of people say "Remember the days when MTV and VH1 used to show lots of music videos?" I get the feeling that it won't be long before we're saying, "Remember the days when ESPN used to show lots of sporting events?"

Joe in Philly: you said it!!! Of course, they could always expand to ESPN4, ESPN5, ESPN6....and STILL spend morre time on models fishing than sports!

Just heard that this new series is in addition to moving the game show segment "You Don't Say" from "SportsCenter" to its own separate timeslot to spotlight the "special talents of Rich Eisen and Stuart Scott." Insert your own joke here.

~Adam

[ April 25, 2003, 12:25 PM: Message edited by: Adam ]

How could you not enjoy those national cheerleeding competitions? Hell, didn't ESPN 2 put championship card playing on after the Flyers/Sens hockey game last night? Doesn't Max Kellerman's "Around the Horn" just keep you on the edge of your seat?

I'd rather watch shows like this reality series or Around the Horn (I actually enjoy it!) than billiards, bowling, poker and fishing. Face it, there are only so many non-niche sports to show. Once the NHL and NBA playoffs end, there's only baseball. And with all the teams having local cable contracts, ESPN can only show so many games per year.

So what to do? Show more golf and tennis? Since the ultimate goal is ratings and/or revenue, golf only works if Tiger is playing. As for tennis, ratings are on the decline. That's why Wimbledon's coverage has bounced around so much recently. HBO did it for years for the prestige, then TNT picked it up. But they both lost tons of money. So ESPN will pick it up beginning this season. Many of our fellow Outsporters who are tennis buffs complained about ESPN's announcers and their U-S-A All the Way approach to broadcasting matches. Me, I'm just happy to have it on at all at this point.

As bad as some of the audition tapes are bound to be,they are still going to have a struggle to compete with the cringibility of Stuart Scott and Mike Greenberg! Anybody else have any nominations for "most annoying ESPN personality"? These 2 are neck and neck with me,and I literally cringe when either of them talks. eek! Scott sounds like he's from another planet,and Greenberg's voice makes fingernails on a blackboard sound pleasant.That Budweiser hot-seat bit he does is an insult to the eardrums. frown

Tim you are so dead on! Stuart Scott just grates me. And that Budweiser Hot Seat is beyond insipid.

ESPN personalities I like-Scott Van Pelt, Rich Eisen (when he's not with Stuart Scott!), Chris Fowler, Karl Ravich, John Anderson, Dan Patrick, Peter Gammons, Tim Kurkjian, Chris Mortensen.

Personalities I don't-Chris Berman (the schtick has just worn so thin), Kenny Mayne, Scott, Greenburg and one of the women who does Sportscenter with the reddish hair. Can't remember her name.

[ April 26, 2003, 09:28 AM: Message edited by: George_vikingfan ]

In addition to the above-mentioned new reality series and game show, ESPN is developing a general entertainment/sports/news morning chat show to premiere in October. A woman from Fox News Channel (I am not making this up) has been hired as cohost and ESPN is looking in-house or her male cohost. Why??

~Adam

George-I'd have to add the College GameDay crew to your list of personalities that I like.Actually, I just like listning to and looking at Kirk the Hunk.Talk bout eye-candy. And I can't forget the other total Stud-Sean Salisbury.Insightful,articulate, hotter than a firecracker-that guy is definitely on my A-list. :cool:

I found an old thread on this -- damn, I'm good! wink Anyway, this show is now on the air and a rerun of it is on ESPN2. And though I'm not really watching it so I can't really say it's good or bad, but one thought comes to mind: one of the absolute worst things in the world must be to stand there and have to listen to that bimbo Kit from "Cold Pizza" tell you what a lousy job you're doing!

I actually watched the original airing of this show Sunday night and was so taken back by one guy's lack of talent that I logged on and cast a vote - Thankfully he was also voted off by the panel.

After listening to each of them do their SportsCenter with other contestents, I was surprised that ESPN chose to air this without Chuck Barris and his gong. All but about two or three were absolutely horrible. And one guy was so damn smug, he was lucky that the guy that got voted off was on the same show.

The smug prick just needs to have his ass kicked.

No, you just need a life!

That goes without saying.

I've watched just one episode of "Dream Job," and wondered (as did Joe in Philly--who really is good) what the hell is Kit Hoover doing there--or LeVar Arrington? Additionally, I wondered why no "SportsCenter" anchors are judges; they are the people with the most pertinent knowledge of the skills necessary to do the job. And, since ESPN has viewers cast their votes for which one shall be eliminated, ESPN should let us vote off current anchors.

~Adam

Great ideas, Adam....I'm all for eliminating a few current anchors and I say that the arrogant Stuart Scott and his annoying boo-yah schtick has GOT to go! -- I'll even pay for his BUS fare out of Bristol ....I'd watch another SportsCenter-type show in its place but unfortunately there's really no other one presently being broadcast on a national level (now that CNN/SI is defunct)....some of the 16 regional Fox Sports Net stations do a good job but they focus almost exclusively on the local teams of interest in their geographical region.

Getting to the topic of Dream Job, I admit that I've watched all three episodes so far and, with few exceptions, have been appalled by the HORRID quality of these "contestants"....if I'm not mistaken ESPN had over 10,000 people audition for Dream Job and you mean to tell me that these were the BEST 12!? eek! .....Maggie, the one girl that is remaining in the "final 8" and Nick, the guy that coyoteugly accurately referred to as the smug prick in his earlier post, both should have been been "gonged off" (ala, Chuck Barris) thirty seconds into their atrocious performances....Mike Hall, Casey Stern and the Asian Stanford student (sorry, I temporarily forgot his name) all appear to be decent candidates, though, if they begin to polish up their act and start trying to be legitimate sportscasters instead of grade-B comedians.

As for the judges that someone else referred to, I'm ok with Tony Kornheiser being on the panel and Al Jaffe (the man who has interviewed and hired EVERY ESPN anchor for the past 15 years) clearly deserves to be there -- as demonstrated by his astute, no-holds-barred critique of the candidates....however, Kit Hoover and especially Lavar Arrington bring absolutely NOTHING to the show, especially the latter....all Lavar ever does is agree with whatever Tony or Al have already said.

I still like the concept of the show, overall -- it's only scheduled to air for another three weeks culminating in a two hour finale on March 28th....even though the winner is guaranteed a "one year contract" by ESPN (salary undisclosed) I have a feeling you're going to have to be watching ESPN News at 3-4AM if you ever want to see their "talent" displayed on the air.

Oh well, I'm hooked and will be watching for the next three weeks if for no other reason than to see how much WORSE any of these aspiring sportscasters can get (assuming that is possible ) and to see if the ultimate winner is able to utilize the constructive criticism that he has received from Al and Tony and upgrade his "performance" in the next few weeks.

[ March 11, 2004, 10:15 AM: Message edited by: gamecock ]

Mark Madden of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offers this as his "dream ending" for the show:

"The show is down to two contestants. Host Stuart Scott tells both that all bets are off because neither is good enough to walk the hallowed halls of Bristol. They both get one-year contracts--but ESPN is assigning their contracts to a TV station in Des Moines. Suddenly, Dan Patrick strides onto the set clutching an additional plane ticket to Iowa. 'Guess what, Stu. You're going too.'"

~Adam

LOL We can only dream.

My problem with the show is that some of the criticisms that Al Jaffe gives are rather hypocritical. Why complain when Aaron mentions that he went to Stanford when Stuart Scott does the same thing about UNC? Similar things have been said about other contestants. I don't have a problem with the nature of the complaint, as long as it isn't something that already occurs with the anchors on the show.

Nick

I've not watched an episode of this, but just from a quick look at the website for it--complete with Wendy's Bios, the Mazda vote, Visa Behind the Scenes sections --I get the impression that these aren't people with any experience in broadcasting and/or television, is that right? Apart from the former pro players they have on during the specialist segments, at least you can say that the SC anchors worked their way up through the business.

I guess I'm old fashioned, but I just want to see highlights and get scores, not have "personalities" do their schtick.

"Boo-ya!"

Get your 'lazy eye" to Iowa, Stuart!

Tell me about it. I've had enough of Stuart Scott talking about his "dawgs." You can have personality and catch phrases without it becoming this overriding annoyance. (Hello, Chris Berman.)

There was a time when journalism (sports or otherwise) was taken seriously ... the journalists were literate, well-studied, mastered the english language ... nowadays, we have to deal with Rush and his clones (Hannity, O'Reilly et al) in the political arena and the buffoonery of Stuart Scott, Berman et al in the sports world.

While I'm not much of a fan of the schtick used by anchors like Stuart Scott and Kenny Mayne ... let's be realistic people. Enough fans of the show must like Stuart's annoying and repetitive schtick, otherwise something would have been done about it years ago. America must like the catch phrases and the endless droning about Pookie, Mookie, Ray Ray and his 3rd baby's mama.

Nick

Clearly people like it -- I'm sure the "new SportsCenter" was focus-grouped to hell and back -- but that doesn't mean we have to. At least they have ESPNEWS now, where the people aren't as ridiculous (most likely because they seem to be reading completely without a script).

Well, if you don't like it ... I have an idea ... don't watch it. What a novel concept.

Nick

I used to watch sportscenter a lot for factual info..i must admit though, that they rarely focus on stories or highlights...

now, I just watch baseball tonight and nfl primetime for highlight shows, and usually just skip sportscenter altogether.

Josh

That's true, except they don't really have any competition. (I think Fox Sports Net does a sports show but it's geared to each region it airs in.) And ESPNews on my cable system is available for digital cable subscribers only. So all I have is the local news, where sports is cut down to like 2 minutes because we need 12 minutes of weather. Or here in Phila., Comcast Sportsnet does their show, which is basically a copy of Sportscenter but again, geared locally.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"While I'm not much of a fan of the schtick used by anchors like Stuart Scott and Kenny Mayne ... let's be realistic people. Enough fans of the show must like Stuart's annoying and repetitive schtick, otherwise something would have been done about it years ago...."

Something HAS been done; you'll notice that Stuart and Kenny don't anchor SportsCenter anymore on a regular basis...they are used for "special event" coverage or when SportsCenter is on the road....Kenny is doing a lot more road work and Stuart is being utilized to host lame shows like these....

I wish that I could get this quick of a response in the tennis section.

Good point Joe in Philly. My contention is that all of these results can be found on the internet, which makes shows like Sportscenter geared towards the personalities on the show. Granted, you can't necessarily watch much the action as you can on Sportscenter, but Sportscenter shows maybe ... 10-15 minutes (in a 30 minute show) of action from over 40 different games, so you're not getting much coverage of the action on/at the court/field/rink. A one-timer here, a 360 dunk there ... I don't feel it gives much of a synopsis of the game. I think that's why they have MLB Tonight, Hockey Tonight, NBA Live, etc ... to give the true sports fans a chance to get non-catch phrase coverage of that night's action.

NFLJockGuy ... This is true ... Kenny and Stuart haven't been anchoring much lately, but IMO, they feel that they are bigger than Sportscenter, therefore, they're able to do these types of programs. If they wanted to anchor on the show, I'm sure that they would have priority over my favorite duo ... Linda Cohn and Steve Levy.

Nick

I can't remember if it's Linda Cohen or Linda Cohn. In any event, I just love her.

[ March 21, 2004, 11:44 AM: Message edited by: The_Hammerman ]

Good points, Nick....including the positive comments about Steve Levy and Linda Cohn....btw, I actually DO like John Anderson, who I think does a good job and Mike Greenberg, when he does the early evening and an occasional weekend show (to go along with his radio gig), as he did this morning....you are absolutely right that over the last few years SportsCenter has gradually focused less and less on stats and "play-by-play" type highlights and more on individual "top 10" moments, which used to annoy the hell out of me and I believe is largely responsible for the deterioration of unselfish, team-first players, especially when it comes to basketball.

I used to get very irritated when at the end of the "game highlights" SportsCenter started not even showing the line score, stats for the team's leading scorers or even the winning and losing pitchers from the game....but since all that info is now readily available on ESPN News and shows like Baseball Tonight (not to mention online) I've gradually begun to accept this as one of SportsCenter's deficiencies -- one of many, I might add.

Now if we can only ban the annoying Stuart Scott and Dan Patrick from the television airwaves COMPLETELY, then we finally might be making some REAL progress and return to the days of TRUE sports journalism....I know, that will never happen -- at least not at "the worldwide leader", anyway.

Gamecock...I don't mind Dan Patrick as much as his "hair" these days...does he in his right mind think that anyone believes that a man his age has THAT color hair??!!! eek!

Dan is in dire need of a new colorist or if heaven forbid he does it himself, he needs to stop immediately!!...Whenever he is anchoring, I don't hear a word he's saying, cause I can't take my eyes off his cheap dye-job...Donald Trump's got nothin' on Dan Patrick in the hair department, except a lot more comb-over.....

When Dan Patrick switched to the 6 pm (3 pm on the west coast) "SportsCenter" earlier this year, I seem to recall reading an interview with him in which he said that when his current contract is up, he'll probably leave the TV side of ESPN (calling "SportsCenter" 'a younger man's game') and focus on radio exclusively.

I find myself tuning to ESPN News more often--the anchors are less schtick/personality driven--but in a give 30 minute braodcast, you may not see any highlights from a particular sport, i.e. during the NCAA you may see college basketball highlights exclusively--no NBA, NHL, golf, etc.

~Adam

Yes, radio is such an up-and-coming format. Good career move, Dan. I wholeheartedly approve!

How cute is Aaron Levine (the guy from Stanford)?

I'd cuddle up with him

WOO HOO! The Abercrombie & Fitch cutie, Mike Hall, won ESPN's Dream Job, even though he wasn't the best person on the show tonight.

IMO, Aaron Levine or Zach Selwyn were the most consistent performers, but it goes to prove that America likes the pretty boys. *grumble*

Nick

I caught Aaron's audition, and he was SOLID. I did an internship at a TV station in the fall and I doubt a few of the pro reporters would have even come close to that ad lib he did.

And Mike Hall just got softballed $25,000 extra on his salary. Talk about easy questions! I feel great for him, though, and at least he's someone nice to look at.

Did anyone else think he was toeing the line between excited and flaming?

This was the first time I actually watched [I] Dream Job[I]; up to this point I had been reading the episode summaries at RealityNewsOnline. When I watched the My Sportcenter challenge, I was just blown away. I'm starting my broadcasting degree and was amazed still at how much goes into just one segment of SportCenter and with the skill Mike and Aaron displayed.

Based off this episoe, I really thought that Aaron was going to win. In hindsight though, although Aaron was stronger in the PTI and trivia challenges, he's not trying out for SportsCenter and Mike can still learn or research needed trivia information. Mike was much smoother on the My SportsCenter segment, which is important because with him starting tomorrow, there's no time left to hone live skils.

On a side-note: I thought "Yippie" was better than "Colder than a polar bear's toenail." But Aaron does get a creativity point.

While Mike Hall is definitely a cutie and I LOVE the genuine warmth and enthusiasm that he displayed throughout the competition, Aaron Levine (who I voted for) is clearly more skilled and polished as a broadcaster....I did find it interesting that once they narrowed it down to the final two the viewing public had 100% of the vote in determining the winner, unlike during all of the preceding weeks (including the first hour tonight when Maggie and Zach were eliminated) when the opinion of BOTH the American public AND the panel were taken into consideration....we may never know but based upon the earlier comments made my some of the panel members (particularly Tony and Al) I believe that Aaron would probably have gotten the job had all four elements of the vote been retained.

In either event, with the national publicity that he has gained over these past six weeks I'm sure that Aaron will land a job as a sportscaster in some small-to-medium sized market in the near future (making FAR less than the 95K that Mike will earn, though)....it might actually be a breath of fresh air, though, to see Mike's quick wit and youthful exuberance (not to mention his good looks wink ) as part of SportsCenter....that is, assuming he's not relegated to doing highlights during the wee hours on ESPN News (which a few of us insomniacs still watch on a regular basis, I might add).

My roomate shouted that Mike must be gay because he's incredibly ... animated, but I've read on the web that he's been involved with Maggie from the show, so I'm not quite sure. In any event, I wouldn't kick him out of my bed ... hell, I would recommend using handcuffs and leather chaps in the bedroom with Mike, but I digress.

ITA gamecock, I feel that if the judges were involved in the pick, Aaron would have won the competition. I thought that he was just as smooth as Mike in the My Sportscenter segment and he's more knowledgeable about sports. However, Aaron shouldn't have any problem getting a job in the sports broadcasting field. If Quigley can get a job in the field, Aaron shouldn't have a problem.

Nick

I thought Aaron stumbled thru quite a bit of his My Sportscenter, even forgetting to say The St. part of St. Louis. Mike did a much better job last night and deservingly won. His salary is starting out at around $95,000.

I was meaning to watch that last night, but I was still online about 10:30 and I decided to turn in.

I think Mike Hall was one of three contestants who gave an interview with Sports Illustrated On Campus (which I get when I make my forays onto the Maryland campus) where they were giving different scenarios that happened earlier in the year. The Joe Namath "I wanna kiss you" incident came up. One guy (whom I don't remember) said something like quickly sending it back to the studio. The girl they interviewed said she'd send it back to the studio -- then make out with him. Mikey Boy said he'd plant one on Joe. No sending back to the studio. He also said he'd plant one on Bobby Knight (ewww). wink

Nice to know that a guy can have a great sense of humor AND be that cute. wink Sweet dreams, Mike. Sweet dreams. wink

Has anyone seen Mike Hall on sportscenter yet? I don't watch SC much, but the few episodes I've seen, he hasn't been on the show.

Josh

I haven't seen Mike Hall on Sportscenter yet either. I don't watch religiously but he hasn't been on any of the half dozen or so Sportscenters I've seen since he won. I even recall Stuart Scott saying that Mike was going to be co-anchoring the Sportscenter on Monday night after he won the Sunday competition, but I tuned in and he wasn't on. Hmm...

I miss Casey Stern. frown

According to Tom Hoffarth in the Los Angeles Daily News, Mike Hall was a contributor to "SportsCenter" on the Monday and Tuesday immediately following his victory but has since been given time to get his life in the CT area set up & been working with a broadcast coach.

~Adam

And all this time, I thought I was missing cutie Mike. I do wonder where he is!

I just saw him on ESPNEWS...he was okay, not great. But he's on TV!

I'm not 100% sure, but I think one of the Dream Job contestants is doing some kind of commentary on the Extreme Dodgeball Show on ESPN.

I've seen several promos on ESPN this week indicating that Mike Hall (the Univ. of Missouri cutie who won Dream Job) will be making his SportsCenter debut as co-host of the 1AM ET/10PM PT show with Linda Cohn ALL NEXT WEEK (beginning Mon, 7/19)....while this time slot may APPEAR to have fewer viewers than the 11PM ET show keep in mind that this is the hour long show that is re-broadcast EIGHT TIMES every morning from 5AM - 1PM.

I imagine that Mike has been receiving ample training and participating in "mock broadcasts" since he won Dream Job back in March (at least since his exams ended at Missouri two months ago, I presume)....after all, he's got to earn his 95K salary somehow, right? ....I think pairing him with the laid-back, viewer-friendly Linda Cohn was also an excellent choice (as opposed to the egocentric Dan Patrick or God forbid Stuart Scott) and I, for one, am looking forward to seeing how young Mr. Hall fares on the air next week.

On a related note, I read this week where current ESPN anchor (and former FSN College Football studio host) Kevin Frazier has been named anchor of Entertainment Tonight Weekend, starting Sept. 18th....although I haven't seen Frazier on the network lately the story did say that he was STILL employed by ESPN, which would seem like an odd career choice and definite demotion, unless Kevin also has some other broadcasting job lined up during the week and/or will be doing other work for ET on a full-time basis....in either event, I was never particularly impressed by Frazier (either on ESPN or FSN) and didn't miss his reduced air time on SportsCenter in the least....now if only Stuart Scott and a few others would suffer the same fate then the "worldwide leader" would REALLY be taking some steps in the right direction.

~Joe

[ July 14, 2004, 05:33 PM: Message edited by: gamecock ]

For what it's worth, Kevin Frazier has been commuting to Bristol CT (home of ESPN) from LA the whole time he was employed by ESPN. Lots of their on-air folk prefer to live in areas other than Bristol and go there only when they're scheduled to work. Since Frazier did lots of work for ESPN from the site of various basketball games, there was no reason to be in Bristol full-time.

~Adam

that would be Zach Selwyn, he of the famous locks. Selwyn also filled in for Tony Reali on "Around The Horn"

This dude is on in the morning. He's ok, but he looks like he's 18 and he made the big mistake of saying "Tour De "Fr-ant-ce"

Sportscenter is kinda getting old anyways, I just put it on when I'm sick of watching the news.