Sports Center

[The Six]

Le Batard/Stugotz are basically the only enjoyable people on ESPN these days.

[Dynamite_Nick]

SC6 is just His And Hers re-skinned, with elements of Sportscenter. I didn't care for His And Hers, so needless to say, I don't care for this new format. I like PTI, and Highly Questionable, and I still watch Around The Horn, but it's on the bubble; I'm not enjoying it as much as I used to, so it may get dropped soon. I'll watch Baseball Tonight too, but that's mostly because I don't have MLB Network.

[HedleyLamarr]

The thing is.....we all seem to pine for the older days of SportsCenter, but I don't really know how we can make that version watchable today.

 

Back when we all seemingly watched SC, there was no MLB Network, NFL Network, NBA TV, or NHL Network.  There was no social media that showed the big highlights as soon as that play happened.  ESPN was the monopoly.  Now ESPN has all this competition, there's all these specialized channels dedicated for each sport, for college sports, specific conferences, etc., that ESPN has to now do more than just air highlights and live games.

[LAWeaver]

I tried to give SC6 a chance the other night, but after the intro, I just couldn't. It made the show seem like a sitcom of sorts and I simply couldn't take it seriously. 

[BBTV]

Even the commercials are awful. I get it - they're black. That really seems to be the only thing they're promoting with these two. 

[Cosmic]

5 hours ago, HedleyLamarr said:

The thing is.....we all seem to pine for the older days of SportsCenter, but I don't really know how we can make that version watchable today.

 

Back when we all seemingly watched SC, there was no MLB Network, NFL Network, NBA TV, or NHL Network.  There was no social media that showed the big highlights as soon as that play happened.  ESPN was the monopoly.  Now ESPN has all this competition, there's all these specialized channels dedicated for each sport, for college sports, specific conferences, etc., that ESPN has to now do more than just air highlights and live games.

I could see the trend going the way of specialized networks and YouTube highlights, but I think there's still a "path to victory" for Sportscenter. The more content there is, the greater the need for someone to curate it for you. I'd try to distill it down to a shorter length; make it only the indispensable sports news and highlights, and try to skip most of the fluff. 

[Michael Bolton]

The only time I can stand to watch ESPN anymore is when Neil and Stan are anchoring SportsCenter. And SVP's show is great. The weekend crew are garbage and the new 6 PM SC is just laughable.

[infrared41]

5 hours ago, HedleyLamarr said:

The thing is.....we all seem to pine for the older days of SportsCenter, but I don't really know how we can make that version watchable today.

 

Back when we all seemingly watched SC, there was no MLB Network, NFL Network, NBA TV, or NHL Network.  There was no social media that showed the big highlights as soon as that play happened.  ESPN was the monopoly.  Now ESPN has all this competition, there's all these specialized channels dedicated for each sport, for college sports, specific conferences, etc., that ESPN has to now do more than just air highlights and live games.

 

Pretty much. Something else to consider is that back in the halcyon days of SC, we weren't able to watch virtually every game in every league whenever and wherever we want to. 

[dont care]

36 minutes ago, Michael Bolton said:

The only time I can stand to watch ESPN anymore is when Neil and Stan are anchoring SportsCenter. And SVP's show is great. The weekend crew are garbage and the new 6 PM SC is just laughable.

I'm not a big fan of SVP, or how they literally think every skinny white bald guy with glasses looks like him.

[shstpt1]

4 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

Even the commercials are awful. I get it - they're black. That really seems to be the only thing they're promoting with these two. 

 

That was my issue with 'his and hers'. Every time I turned it on to try and give them a chance, she seemed to try and make a race based argument about a topic... 

[The_Admiral]

But that's even more of the problem: it's not that they have no business talking about racial issues, because they do, for racial issues permeate every aspect of American life, but that in the year of our Lorde, 2017, a basic-cable show is just as ill-suited to meaningful discussion of race in America as it is to delivering highlights of sporting events. The internet has them beat there too! (Though even that's not foolproof because just the other day I had to argue that indisputable Hall of Famer Dan Marino was not a "white stiff.") So it's Sportscenter but with talk about general pop-culture topics and race relations? Okay, ESPN had that, it was called Grantland, it was good sometimes and bad other times, but at least it was suited to its medium. Television is too passive and too linear to serve what they're trying to do here. Problem is, I don't know what they should do. Probably just run NFL Films crap all day, right?

[MadmanLA]

For the record, and not that it should really matter but I'm black...I actually enjoy the His & Hers podcast, because even though most of those episodes are topic-based, they're more loose and the conservations are at least relatable and thought-provoking.  It's just their style, at least with the format/style they created with His & Hers, doesn't translate all that to the TV side, especially when it comes to SportsCenter.  I gave SC6 a couple of looks, and moved on to something else, and I really wasn't much into of the TV version of H&H.

 

Believe me, I don't want to turn to a sports debate show everyday and be inundated with racial topics all the time.  At least with some shows like Around the Horn, PTI, and even Skip and Shannon, whenever race is brought up, enough conjecture is given, and then they move the hell on.  I absolutely thought the latter show was going to be a disaster, but they won me over especially with their discussion of the Kaepernick nonsense...difference with Shannon in comparison to Stephen A. Smith, Shannon keeps Skip honest and doesn't get worked up like an insecure lunatic like SAS.

[AJM]

The Neil & Stan SportsCenter is the only program I can watch these days. I was cautiously optimistic when FS1 brought Jay & Dan from TSN, but Fox ruined that like they do everything else.

Side bar: Any Canadian or Northern US gents on the boards know how I can watch TSN online now that Jay & Dan are heading back?

[Jbadger9]

I don't understand the point of discussing movies and music on a sports channel. I have no interest in SC6. First Take got a little better when Skip Bayless left, I don't watch Highly Questionable or His or Hers. I really only watch the NORMAL Sports Center and Mike & Mike

[BBTV]

I don't mean to beat this horse past death, but she can't speak.  That's a freaking prerequisite to a career in oral communications.  I saw another one of those commercials today.  I'm not sure what talent the guy has other than being able to look very concerned about absolutely everything.  His sneaker gimmick is kinda dumb too.

[The_Admiral]

1 hour ago, BringBackTheVet said:

I'm not sure what talent the guy has other than being able to look very concerned about absolutely everything.

 

We call this "the Anderson Cooper dynamic."

[JWhiz96]

On ‎3‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 9:37 PM, BringBackTheVet said:

I don't mean to beat this horse past death, but she can't speak.  That's a freaking prerequisite to a career in oral communications.  I saw another one of those commercials today.  I'm not sure what talent the guy has other than being able to look very concerned about absolutely everything.  His sneaker gimmick is kinda dumb too.

I don't have as much of a problem with Hill and what's-his-name as some of you, but I agree that they're not intriguing or interesting. I didn't watch His and Hers and I don't watch SC6 for the reasons I've stated. I don't mind racial topics being discussed sometimes, because it's an elephant in a cubicle, but I don't like hearing it everyday. I watch ESPN to hear about sports news and the like, not the current racial climate. I also hate how they try to proclaim themselves as "authentically black". True, many black Americans behave this way, I do too to an extent, but there are plenty who don't. Additionally, there are many white Americans who behave in this manner as well. I don't know, I guess I just find the idea of "acting a race" as stupid.

[Sport]

On 3/12/2017 at 3:00 PM, HedleyLamarr said:

The thing is.....we all seem to pine for the older days of SportsCenter, but I don't really know how we can make that version watchable today.

 

Back when we all seemingly watched SC, there was no MLB Network, NFL Network, NBA TV, or NHL Network.  There was no social media that showed the big highlights as soon as that play happened.  ESPN was the monopoly.  Now ESPN has all this competition, there's all these specialized channels dedicated for each sport, for college sports, specific conferences, etc., that ESPN has to now do more than just air highlights and live games.

 

You're right. Gifs too. If a guy dunks on a guy there's a gif on twitter in 15 seconds and now you can text that to people. 

 

 

 

 

[Alex Houston]

Yea, I'm not really impressed with whatever "SC6" is trying to be. The only thing that's becoming more apparent to me is ESPN seems to be skewing themselves more towards a black audience and from what I can decipher online, it's not really working. Too much "E", not enough "S."

[BBTV]

Are Michael Smith's glasses tinted a little bit?  Can't really see his eyes very clearly.  DOesn't help that he's all herky jerky in there.  It's on the screen at my gym (no sound thank goodness so I don't have to listen to the scratchy-throated one.)