Wow ESPN! Tell us how you realy feel!

I have way too many guilty pleasures in my life. Gloriously over complicated rock music being one of them. How many people do you know hit the gym with 'yours is no disgrace' by Yes reverberating through their ears? Did I just actually type that?

I'm finally admitting it, I love YES

ESPN's 'talking heads' output is another one of those indulgences I pretend I to abhor. 'The Sports Reporters' on a Sunday morning is a perfect blend of seasoned hacks doubling up as grumpy old men, it really speaks to me. In fact, men (and the odd woman) shouting at each other is a key part of the ESPN's lead in to the early evening edition of Sportscenter with 'Pardon the Interruption' being so important that it now has it's own section within 'Sportscenter'. So what leads into 'PtI', Sportscenter's lead in show? That would be 'Around the Horn', a show which lets five guys shout at each other for 30 minutes and in doing so it gives you the basic outline of ESPN editorial focus for the rest of the evening. Whatever the 'Around the Horn' guys argue about, will be re-argued about immediately afterwards on 'PtI' and then analysed on Sportscenter immediately after that. With more than two months to go to the start of the American football season, of course all of the shows are focusing on 'not NFL player' Brett Favre and his shoulder operation.

So where do ESPN, a part of the ABC family of Networks, place the IndyCar Series on their list of 'hot topics', 'public interest' and 'editorial importance'? Well I'll let the following exchange on 'Around the Horn' tear the curtain back for you a little.

A quick bit of background first. The show pits four major sports journalists against each other in lively debate on a set of pre detemined topics (in the UK the show 'Fighting Talk' is based on the same concept). Writers are eliminated after each round until there are two left for the 'showdown'. On Monday (June 8th) the last writer to be ousted before the finale was the one racing fan (NASCAR but it's still racing isn't it?) who regularly appears on the show, Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News. As he was ousted, the conversation with the host, judge and jury, Tony Reali went as follows:


Tony Reali: Tim Cowlishaw.......do you have any last words?

Tim Cowlishaw: Last words!! I'm done?!

Tony Reali: Yes! Didn't you see the score you have 22 points.

Tim Cowlishaw: Whose gonna talk about the Bombardier (or Bombadeer as he pronounced it) Learjet 550K if I'm not around?

Tony Reali: Errrm I don't think anyone is....good luck growing that goatee back...that's it for Cowlishaw!

Tim Cowlishaw (lower left) vainly trying to talk IndyCar, yesterday

So there you have it, ESPN have shown their true hand, nobody gives a tinkers cuss about IndyCar racing, it has been reduced to a contractual obligation on the family of networks and is neither loved nor hated it is simply ignored. One could wish for no worse fate than that.

Versus may have started with ratings that almost defy physics and logic but their NHL play off ratings have shown that given time and the right product, they can deliver the goods. The quicker ABC give up the pretense that they care, the better.