They gave Stephen "A" Smith his own damn show at 6:30 every day.

Do they really not want me to watch THAT bad? Man, I can't stand him.

Thanks for starting this thread. There needs to be an "ESPN only" thread.

Let me add two words:

Stuart Scott

Boo Yah

We need a "Sports on TV" section for stuff like this.

Meanwhile, the paper he writes for does their part to promote his show...
Stephen A., Superstar!

That guy is so onboxiously stuck up... they need to go back to being a sports network that shows sporting events. I love shows like Around The Horn and PTI... but during the day, not the evening like Smith's show will be. Grrrr... boo on ESPN.

LET- ME- TELL -YOU -THIS!!! His show will be an AS-TOUND-ING SUC-CESS! And I know this to be true FOR A FACT!!!


Ok, that was a lame imitation of Steven A......he annoys me at times, but I do tend to pay attention when he's on....and that's the point of having a show about him.

Matter of fact, he could be similar to How - ard Co - sell in that he's one those guys who ticks you off when seeing him on air and by same token watch him just to see what he says.

At least Stuart Scott didnt get his own show. They knew how to contain him. Rice rice baby!

Yeah, I generally only watch PTI and actual sports programming now. Thank goodness for pool on ESPN2, although now that poker is king even that is endangered.

Except for occasional rationality from Peter Gammons, "Baseball Tonight" is best watched with the sound off. One ex-jock nitwit (Reynolds, Kruk, Brantley) is worse than the next, all enabled by chirping high-school sports-editor-type Karl Ravech.

As for that Smith guy, one more reason I'm glad I only follow baseball.

[ August 01, 2005, 06:37 AM: Message edited by: Bill W ]

I don't actually know the anchors names on ESPN ... like the desk people, I mean. They're all drones. It doesn't matter to me who's saying what. Except Suzy Kolber, who gets on my last nerve. But even her I only know because every now and again, ESPN inflicts her upon us during tennis coverage.

I used to really enjoy Sportscenter and Baseball tonight, because they focused on the highlights.

Now, I rarely watch them because you hardly see any highlights. Maybe you get one or two highlights from a game, and the rest is just bullshit analysis from people that don't know what they are talking about.

Josh

LOL. I thought the same thing. I would rather watch a quilting competition than this guy.

Damn, I clicked on this thread because I thought Cyd was going to go off on ESPN for showing competitive eating, which actually makes poker look like a sport. I could not turn the channel fast enough the other day, yuck!

Sportscenter has become totally unwatchable. Over the last few years it has become a parody of itself. All the screaming, shouting and BS have got to go. I find myself watching EPSN News more often than not. As for Stuart Scott and Steven A. Smith - please. Enough with the two of them already.

how about the way that ESPN treats our Eers as well

no respect

I don't watch much ESPN, except when I go out to a restaurant or sports bar and it's playing in the background. It always seems to be showing Baseball Tonight or Sportscenter or some wrap-up show. With the sound off, my bf and I started noticing that about 85% of baseball highlights are:

1. pitch and big swing
2. fielder going back and looking up in defeat
3. batter/runner trotting around first

Look, I like baseball. And I understand. That's a home run. It's where a good chunk of the scoring comes from. But when the highlights all start looking the same, I can empathize with those who think baseball is boring. And when they add all the zooming graphics and whatnot, it just makes everything around it look less interesting by comparison.

I hope everyone else turned off the "competitive eating contest" as well. Next time someone asks, "Why do the terrorists hate us?", I'm gonna think about that show.

LXN

And now SportsCenter is doing the "50 in 50" trip, taking time away from highlights of games that matter to viewers to air featre stories purporting to spotlight "the unique sports" found all across the nation. The first day's story was about minor league baseball in New Hampshire. I kept wondering what was unique about that--there's minor league baseball all over the place, it's not unique to New Hampshire.

Like some others have mentioned, ESPN News is still fairly pure, but even it's starting to go the way of all-personality, all-schtick anchors.

~Adam

What I wrote in Jock Talk today, lamenting not being able to watch world swimming or water polo this week:

It’s a shame no U.S. TV network saw fit to show any of the action, though ESPN, the self-described “Worldwide Leader in Sports,” found a space on its schedule for competitive eating. Just what a country with an appalling rate of obesity needs!

And from Peter King in SI.com:

"ESPN has to take that eating contest off TV. With starvation in Africa on the news every week, it's a disgrace to show a bunch of idiots gorging themselves to nearly puking proportions."

[ August 01, 2005, 09:30 AM: Message edited by: Jim at Outsports ]

I saw a bit of the eating contest and was shocked it was on ESPN. Moreover, I was shocked when they said how much money the champion has made over the course of a year. He makes his living and has earned a degree of fame for being able to stuff his face. It was gross.

Lord knows I have not been at all happy with them since they started switching hockey games a few years back over to ESPN-2, and then of course the strike and all. I hardly ever watch it any more at all!! The station(s) needs some major overhauling done. :mad:

Oh man, now I feel bad because I thought that show was a riot. My husband and I laughed our asses off at that show. Especially how the Japanese guy does that little wriggle dance to move the food down.

Now I feel like bad people.

You're not bad people, Married Lady. No worries. And I'm sure there are others out there who like the contest ... there must be! It's just not for me.

Had I been around, I would have watched some of the eating competition. It fascinates me, as I do a lot of cooking for a living and tend to eat very little myself, I love to see the gross with the knowledge of the sublime.

But about ESPN, I've become a junkie of Around the Horn and PTi, they're on while I'm in the kitchen. Really like PTI the most. I continue to watch the 6pm sportscenter, but it's usually too focused on baseball, football or selfpromotion. I switch at 7pm to Jeopardy!. But Stephen A Smith is very annoying, predictably playing his Kobe cards and usually playing a racism card too. But I think he is an equal to the annoying JIm Rome whom I will not watch after hearing him advocate steroid use. Both seem to be controversial for the fact of being so.

Give me more of the Scripps National Spelling Bee--talk about pressure and competition.

and they keep harping on those burning couches. Jeez. burn a piece of furniture every now and then and they never let you hear the end of it.

Oh yeah, and I love how Scott Van Pelt has turned into ESPN's golf so-called expert. Gag me.

Atleast they didn't give Skip Bayless his own show. That man is just absolutely loathesome. He is the only person who can make Stephen A. Smith look good by comparison.

BTW, Married Lady, I also found the eating competition absolutely hilarious. The commentary was a riot. So I guess that makes two of us.

I like to watch Cold Pizza on occasion, for the adorable Jay Crawford, and the fun goofball that is Woody Paige. But I agree about Skip, he's just weird. Why does he move his head so much????

They have turned into more of an entertainment channel (which is I guess what the E stands for, but that's also what the E in WWE stands for, and that's crap).

I'm sure they get good ratings for these reality/following star athlete shows and the ranting on Sportscenter, etc.

However, they just don't put forth the effort to put various sports on. For instance, maybe if they showed more than just the NCAA Championships of wrestling on TV, then maybe more people would watch and catch on to it. They finally learned that college baseball would grasp the attention of many. But it wasn't until they started showing more of it that it did.

As for Pardon the Interruption and such, it's just too much talk for my taste. Once again you're getting back to the point of having people telling you what you should think instead of forming your own opinions. And the whole 'you're wrong so shut up and get off' thing doesn't help either. All those shows do is promote ESPN's agenda of their new type of Sportscenter, the athletes they want to promote, etc.

Anyone see the intern at the end of PTI? Hubba hubba, let's hope for more of him

So they run these promos for Stephen A. Smith's program mentioning different topics and then Stephen A. says "Quite frankly, you KNOW what I think." Great, so we don't have to watch, then!

Dear ESPN:

Love the telecasts - really tired of 2/3 of the talking heads. I'll pay $.25 more per month on my cable bill if you can give me some relief from your spin.

Throughout the rest of the country, the network is known as the Eastern Sports Propaganda Network, because of their love of all things New York and Boston...

It tends to happen when the location of the sports channel is between New York and Boston.

I think that's the Eastern Seaboard Propaganda Network, though resident idiot Mike North on WSCR here says it's officially the Eastern Seaboard Programming Network.

Has anyone logged onto the ESPN website? It's impossible to write to ESPN via email/customer service.

Suggestion: inundate the network with letters!

ESPN has an ombudsman...



This link is to an archive of his columns and also has a link to a feedback page.

Is there a class in journalism school called "Stupid questions?"

Why, in order to watch college sports on ESPN do we have to endure the C- journalism school graduate-talking heads? Good grief! Who cares what most of these people think? The game is going on and they decide to discuss some nonissue among themselves - such as playoff vs. BCS. Do the talking heads at ESPN really think we care what they think on that subject? HUGE YAWN. It's been discussed AD NASEUM for 10+ years.

Geez. When did it take 3 or 4 people to narrate a game?

Apologize for this rant, but as anyone who has tried to write or email ESPN knows, it's impossible to communicate with the network.

So, wondering, are our cable television rates linked to all the salaries of the talking heads?

(reds) Rob

I was trying to find a web site that has all the ESPN anchors on it. Somehow I couldn't find one. I saw one of the anchor (dark haired - abouyt 40, that covers college football I think ) on the street corner in NYC with his lady friend but can't think of his name. Any help here ?

I think this is what I dislike most about watching ESPN anymore. Instead of showing highlights (you know besides Ocho Cinco, TO, or a home run going out of the park), they have people analyzing the game. Show us, don't tell us!

I have all but given up on watching Sportcenter, but particularly on Mondays/Tuesdays because it's those five horsemen from the pregame show on Monday just talking over each other repeatedly...and that doesn't even include the group in the booth, who they go to for extra special analysis.

I have started watching the half hour show on Fox Sports Net...I think it's called the Final Score.

Nah, I don't see Gammons as being rational. I see him as being a shameless shill for Boston.

Typical Gammons: "The Arizona Diamondbacks today traded ______________ to the Florida Marlins. This is how the trade affects the Boston Red Sox." Yes, Peter, we know you think the world revolves around the Red Sox. You don't have to make EVERYTHING about them.

Can you hear Stephen A. Smith's voice in your head saying, "Quite Frankly, I've been canceled!!!"

Love how ESPN completely downplays the cancellation:

Pretty funny Stephen A. Smith parody:

http://rockinsteady.wordpress.com/2008/06/...heckling-video/

It's a special kind of arrogance that I have only seen in the Northeast Corridor. If ESPN were based in LA, they wouldn't shove the Giants-Dodgers down the country's throat like they do the Yanks and the Sawx. Californians (is Jim Rome the only one?) obviously appreciate their own teams, while realizing that people have other interests. But people around here truly think that the rest of us should care about their provincial rivalry. The Red Sox are often the top story on ESPN.com just from winning a division game.