Norman Chad On the WSOP: "The Viewers Don't Care"

[DonkeyChip]

There is a PT Barnum quote that goes something like: Nobody ever went broke under-estimating the taste of the American public. ...or something like that.

I never would have thought some of the reality shows or Dancing with the Stars or American Idol would be even remotely popular but...here we are.

[Pablo229]

ESPN, if I'm not mistaken, has the word "entertainment" in the acronym, so there's your context for the station. Let's face it, ESPN has bills to pay like all of us, and the execs want to get rich.

When we drive by a car crash on the highway, 90% of us will rubberneck a look-see for ourselves out of our desire to see something unpredictable. ESPN's broadcasts highlights poker's car wrecks and loose cannons, because most of it is far more interesting than our little home games. Golf has it's own channel, maybe when poker has it's own channel we can see the whole picture (tourneys and cash games) from beginning to end.

It comes down to this: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[BarryLyndon]

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playmakers

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LOL, you're the best!

Here is my take on things. ESPN wants more than anything else to make poker look as simple and colourful as possible, and they feel they maximize this by concentrating on soundbites, sugar coated sarcasm, and big exciting hands showing poker players living the moment. The end result is a show that has the following:

1. Two closet homosexuals who have a novice understanding of the game spending most of their time engaging in both the comedic critique of gamblers, and at the same time(!), romtanicization of the players at the table. Chad's viewpoints are mired in hypocrisy, but it doesn't matter, because he makes the game nice and happy.


2. Marginalizing a complex mechanism into a series of coinflips. After three years, the [censored] goddamn [censored] [censored] [censored] idiot [censored] producers of the show still haven't mandated the posting of pot size, antes, blinds, or positions in each hand. And Norm never mentions where a PFR comes from. A lot of this, IMO, has to do with the fact that the less strategy you discuss, the more ethereal the game looks. And with that comes more $, viewers, affiliate sponsorship, etc.

3. A bunch of stories about these players and what they have been through, all with some sweet country music or some dramaticized "dark times" score that shifts into a "light at the end of the tunnel" tune near the end of the segment. Once again, most of this stuff unjustly romanticizes poker players.

4. Easily the most violent beer commercial that I have ever seen in my entire life. I mean, I'm not a bleeding hearted liberal, but having a [censored] beer can crush another guy into the ground because he doesn't act like a "man." Seriously - get [censored].

Now, could ESPN do things differently? Yes. Are they aware of it? Oh, definitely. But, think about just how much $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ ESPN and its affiliates are making over its coverage of poker. Norm could say "Player X raises to 60K from the MP" and then continue flirting with his buddy, but if he does, someone might start to wonder "WTF is MP." And we can't have that. Likewise, many viewers will be turned off my "meta game," as 98% of America has no idea what "meta" means anyway.

I know that there are other poker shows out there that have a by far more accurate depiction of the game - WPT's first hour is usually pretty strong and, of course, there is GSN's high stakes poker. However, those are small channels with small amounts of capital and, almost counterintuitively, can "afford" to engage in some nuance. ESPN though, is franchise, and with franchise usually comes higher levels of manipulation for a broader demographic.

Anyway, anyone who doesn't understand this, just go to Atlantic City and play 1/2NL for a few hours. You'll get it.

Barry

[Pablo229]

Anyway, anyone who doesn't understand this, just go to Atlantic City and play 1/2NL for a few hours. You'll get it.

Barry

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LMFAO!! I replace "AC" with "Commerce Casino" and no doubt high-five you on that one!! Ha!!! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[cbloom]

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Here's the link to the original article that Chad was quoted from. Much more interesting and insightful than the whiny blog post OP quoted from verbatim.

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"Poker playing on the Internet over the last few years has not only kept the competition fluid, but those sites - even moreso since federal legislation has relaxed - fuel TV coverage with ad revenue for competing shows that stay afloat on FSN, NBC, GSN and the Travel Channel (the latter of which is in its final year with the World Poker Tour, allowing the Game Show Network to take over)."

LOL? (also LOL sentence composition)

[Miss Kitty]

Oh, and ESPN is Disney. I'm sure that matters somewhere in the production department. [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

PS First post!

[Phanekim]

I like the broadcast the way it is. You say all this junk but how are you gonna make it better? I almost can garantee that your way will not garner interest as much as espn does. Espn does a great broadcast with its parameters.

[Dr. Tre]

You can tell they dont care about the quality of their poker coverage when they do things like not have the pro players at the featured table, but instead, other players who have been camera whores. Dmitri Nobles was there last year donking off chips and such. Jamie Gold was getting really lucky. That one punk blond kid was there. But ESPN made sure they got minimal coverage of Allen Cunningham.
I think I read in a blog somewhere that in the ME this year, Scotty Ngyen wasnt at the featured table when they were down to like 2 or 3 tables (something like that). If this is true....Also, I read that Moneymaker was at the featured table the first day. Why? Why not have some high name pro be there before they get knocked out. This is a perfect time to put a Phil Ivey or Howard Lederer big name they like.
Has anyone been to ESPN.com's poker page? It is complete trash. Their main writer has some crappy debate every week of what to do between him and some guy named Cosmo(??). They bicker and argue whether or not 99 is good enough to raise with or whether or not they should fold QQ to a raise. Nothing advanced. Nothing even mildly complex. And then they have Bernard Lee write about how good of a short stacked player he is. Who cares? Why should anyone read about the amazing tournament travels of someone whose great accomplishments is to squeek ITM with 3 BBs left. Has he ever won a tournament? Has he ever gotten a top 5? Why does ESPN award a column to someone like this? A semi retarded monkey can fold cards for 10 straight hours if you train him. [/end rant]

[Dalek]

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I like the broadcast the way it is. You say all this junk but how are you gonna make it better? I almost can garantee that your way will not garner interest as much as espn does. Espn does a great broadcast with its parameters.

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Are you an ESPN employee?

Poker is made simple because most people like simple things. Look at all the stupid soap operas and sitcoms. TV is designed for stupid people because 80% of people are stupid.

[rocketsfan4lyfe]

norman chad is right