[My Favorite Headache]

Oh please.If they are going to use MTV as a model to follow by I might as well just skip ESPN forever from now on. Less sports on the total sports network. They suck now. All you see is poker for 9 hours a day and sportscenter recaps for another 9 with barely 3-4 hrs to cover a live sports event.

Give me 1982 ESPN any day of the week over the crap they push now.

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

Couldn't they just start ESPN/Lifetime? "Original" crap programming alternating with sports-themed chick-flix like "A League of their Own" and "Bull Durham". If they want to go after the bulldyke WNBA demographic, fine. Just don't expect real sports fans to follow.

[BlackRazor]

ESPN and ESPN2 aimed the National Hockey League games it carried from 1999 through 2004 squarely at this viewer, but Shapiro says the NHL's ratings had fallen to such a depressed state by the 2003-04 season (a labor dispute obliterated the 2004-05 schedule) that he won't pay cash license fees anymore.

And the women's college softball world series (which filled the TV slots originally reserved for the NHL playoffs) drew higher ratings than last year's hockey playoff games. The rights to women's college softball are a lot cheaper than the rights to the NHL.

[pepperhead]

As a hockey fan I knew about the decision to show less hockey about a month ago. At that time I emailed ESPN to tell them how I felt about that decision. I also told them I didn't like all the movies and non sports they were showing when the could be showing sports. Tilt, Playmakers, Cold Pizza, Mike and Mike and Cheap Seats Programming and the rest of the garbage needs to go. I have yet to hear back from them. So I am going to email them again about them shrinking their baseball coverage as well. If ESPN doesn't want to show sports they should give up their spots on cable and satellite and let FOX do it. If you would like to email ESPN to complain their email is askespntv@espn.twdc.com

[Biblebelter]

One of the Fox Sports Channels had a darts tournament on the other night. Riveting television, absolultely riveting.

[Labyrinthos]

If they are going to use MTV as a model to follow by I might as well just skip ESPN forever from now on.

I was thinking more like the Discovery Channel, which has gone from science, nature, history, and culture, to hotrods, choppers, and bounty hunters, 24/7.

[Diddle E. Squat]

FESPN...

[Ulysses]

Then I guess you can't wait for September 6...

Drum Corps International (DCI), the world leader in producing and sanctioning touring marching music competitions, today announced that its dynamic and award-winning World Championships television program will be broadcast on ESPN2 this fall. This is the first prime-time broadcast of the program on commercial television, and it will be available to more than 88 million households.

[kidd]

ESPN - The all poker channel
The Weather Channel - The all tornado chasers channel
Bravo - The all homosexual channel
MTV - The all soft porn for teens channel
History - The all WWII channel
ABC Family - The all Drew Carey channel
Discovery - The all motorcycle shop channel
Lifetime - The all female victim channel
CNN / MSNBC - The all pretty-white-girl-abduction channels
BET - The all female butt shaking channel

I think I'll read a book tonight.

[LS]

I used to turn to ESPN as my first show of the day, to get the scores. No more. They are constanly into "programming" and special features. It's terrible.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

So ESPN is going to draw more viewers by destroying the very premise that they used to form the network in the first place? In their attempt to attract new viewers, they're going to tick off their current viewers and, in the end, it will be counterproductive and result in a loss. Not good.

8 hours of poker, 8 hours of Sportscenter reruns, and 8 hours of Pimp My Ride/The Hoop Life/Drink Martinis at Vince Carter's Pad/Clubbin' with Shaq is not what I need. See ya, ESPN. Wouldn't wanna be ya.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

...one of the reasons ESPN's scripted series about Las Vegas poker players "Tilt" failed to find an audience earlier this year is that the only free night not saturated with live sports commitments was Thursday, where, at 9 p.m., the show had to go up against such strong series as "CSI" on CBS, "Will & Grace" on NBC and "Extreme Makeover" on ABC. Against those odds, "Tilt" never really had a chance.

Sure. It had nothing to do with the fact that most people find watching other people sitting on their butts playing cards to be about as entertaining as watching paint dry.

Despite solid ratings, "Playmakers" got a reluctant cancellation notice after its first 13-episode season, falling victim to the hostility of the National Football League, most of whose owners hated the portrayal of some athletes as drug users, wife beaters and other unsavory types.

The NFL doesn't want the truth about it's criminals being shown. Besides, if you want to hear about players acting like asses on the field, beating their wives, using drugs, and killing people in DUI accidents, you don't need to watch a fictional TV series. All you have to do is watch Sportscenter and read the local paper.