>ESPN’s presentation emphasized the network’s continued efforts to turn its signature news program, “SportsCenter,” into a more personality driven franchise as game results and highlights are more readily available online. For the second year in a row, “SportsCenter” late-night host Scott Van Pelt appeared on the upfront presentation stage to tout that he has the most watched TV show in his midnight time period among men 18 to 34.
>ESPN has taken its 6 p.m. Eastern “SportsCenter” in the same direction, with co-hosts Michael Smith and Jemele Hill mixing their interest in pop culture and social issues into the program.
This is their turnaround strategy: more non sports bullshit in sportscenter.
Hunter Richardson
why don't they realize people want to sit on their ass and watch a bunch of highlights on a big TV instead of scouring twitter and youtube for shit? are they even focus grouping?
also, the guy who runs disney (espn owner) is planning to run against trump in 2020 and is sliding all broadcasting to the left to garner dem support
Levi Reed
E!SPN is shit but they have no choice but to do SOMETHING different as their ratings are tanking. Ever since your average granddad can check "the scores" on his smartphone (past 5-7 years or so), ESPN non-game airtime has become increasingly irrelevant.
Lincoln Gutierrez
>are they even focus grouping?
yes but millenials are supposedly stupid and need a face there to feed them pop culture references and EPIC reactions, like pewdiepie does on youtube
Oliver Wilson
they should stop listening to them then. it's like asking what a 7 year old wants for breakfast and they want a pint of ice cream.
Grayson Evans
They should add E-Sports.
Wyatt Rogers
JUSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
David Garcia
but there pop culture references was the beginning of the time they started losing ratings. the change would be go back to what worked in the first place which was a highlight show.
Chase Cooper
>turn on ESPN >most shows are 80% black people with loud personalities
and there is a lot of talk that has nothing to do with sports
Samuel Price
This chick will get a race baiting show.
Joseph Bell
sounds like Sup Forums
Isaac Bell
Amazon already has that market completely monopolized via Twitch. Gotta hand it to Benzos, he's not only going to own America's biggest retailer but also America's biggest streaming service.
Angel Sullivan
Why did you put the scores in quotations like that?
Cameron Gray
I still only listen to AM CBS sports radio.
Benjamin Jackson
>mixing their interest in pop culture and social issues into the program. >mixing their interest in pop culture and social issues into the program. >mixing their interest in pop culture and social issues into the program. >mixing their interest in pop culture and social issues into the program. >mixing their interest in pop culture and social issues into the program.
Isaiah Campbell
>Data and science backs the fact that no one watches highlight shows anymore >"Lol Pop culture references is what is killing them "
Are all trips this retarded?
Juan Perez
Data and science back up the fact you are a punk ass bitch
Oliver Roberts
>data and science what the fuck are you talking about? put the crack pipe down and drink some water
Jason Bennett
The only reason pop culture E!SPN tier comedy ever became a thing was because they needed to start competing with the relatively uncensored internet blogs and sportswriters for eyeballs on top of the fact that everyone post-smartphone explosion knew the outcome of a game as it progressed in real time. Keep in mind that as little as 20-25 years ago you would actually have to wait until Sportscenter aired to find out what the hell happened in a game that wasn't being broadcasted locally. I'm old enough to remember what this was actually like and it's actually pretty fucking weird to think I lived during this time period.
Old school ESPN programming was entertaining but it never strayed far from actual sports coverage because it didn't need to. They were the only game in town.
I put that in quotes just to emphasize that the actual outcomes of games would be the only thing of interest to a 60-70 year old man when faced with the challenge of trying to stomach 30 minutes of Sportscenter. There are only so many Drake/Kanye references an old guy can take before he flips the station back to the Golf Channel.
Nicholas Torres
>jemele hill
just seeing the name triggers me
Alexander Richardson
what sort of fookin name is Jemele?
Luke Butler
You also had to hope that 1)Your team was big enough to even warrant a mention on sports center and if it was not, then 2)you better not look away when it got to your league, or else you are sitting through another five minutes of ticker scores.
Jordan Garcia
Highlight shows will get traffic until all the major leagues offer their own streaming services. There is no reason why ESPN can't do an hour of just sports talk, ten minutes for each major sport (baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, horse racing, F1, football) and use it as an opportunity to get people to upgrade their cable package or buy into their streaming service.
Julian Howard
The end of the article mentions ESPN will be doing their own streaming service debuting later this year. Assuming it's remotely competent (I'd imagine it would, as they're still going to get subscription fees) then their TV offerings are going right into the toilet. Good riddance.
Logan Hill
Nigger name.
Eli Roberts
Mina Kimes is so cute *-*
Jace Nelson
Umm what they're doing right now isn't working sweetie okay?
Aaron Gonzalez
True, but hell e-sports are doin decent on TBS...
Joseph Reed
and Sup Forums only has a few thousand uses
surely ESPN wants more viewers not less
Grayson Rodriguez
be careful who your data guy is though
Lincoln Richardson
>even the Dan Le Batard show is growing tiresome
Luis Thomas
gib ratings n numbers
Liam Martin
>Most watched show in the midnight timeslot Wow! The most watched show in the highly coveted and prestigious midnight timeslot? Golly gee that's amazing!
Elijah Flores
this is funny because im one of those viewers. sometimes you get home late and theres nothing on, or some insignificant west coast game, so you put on sportscenter by default because its the only thing that is somewhat relevant and has highlights and just leave it on in the background