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

[Self Made]

Did you ever wonder why ESPN only finds time for about 11 hands in a typical World Series of Poker show (a little more than one hand for each of the 9 participants at a final table), but finds time to show Phil Hellmuth throwing Frisbees? Thanks to Norman Chad I now know: it's because "the viewers don't care." Chad says about the WSOP "It's part reality show, part sitcom, part docudrama. And the results, as we see, don't even matter. The viewers don't care. They just want to see the episode again where two guys argue over who put the ante in."

Or perhaps it's ESPN that doesn't care... about their viewers. How can we expect quality poker from a network that views the show's potential audience as channel-surfers who may stop to veg out for a few minutes if they can't find a Friends rerun? ESPN won't be able to produce good poker TV until they gain some respect for their customers and realize that we, unlike them, might actually care about what we're watching. My only hope is that ESPN executives will start applying their poker-show logic to football coverage... and get themselves fired.

Link

Ya know, Norman Chad isn't actually making any production decisions, right?

[pernicus53]

Consider the source here. Chad is a cynical, hypersarcastic, rude know-it-all.

[FireStorm]

You can bash Chad all you want, but he's basically 100% right. You, the OP, may care, as do the hardcore players here on 2p2. Maybe some live players and pros care too about content. That's where it ends. 90% of viewers of the WSOP are recreational, sporadic, bad players who have only early-level understanding of the game. They're not worried about the number of hands shown, past history between opponents, or +/-EV of scenarios. This 90% want to see POT SIZE - $380,000. They want to see AK all in preflop against JJ so they can talk about the importance of winning races next time they're at their local cardroom. They want the dramatics of Prahlad vs. Lisandro and Matusow vs. Sheikhan.

ESPN makes these episodes in order to cater to the casual viewer. Ratings would plummet if episodes were geared towards only hardcore players. Don't expect this to stop anytime soon.

[SellingtheDrama]

This is the same network that has brought us Tilt and that football show a couple years back (can't remember the name). Why should this be any different?

[mattgoody]

playmakers

[SenatorKevin]

Poker After Dark is more geared to the "advanced" player and that stuff is hard to watch at times since they show every damn hand.

[shaniac]

I guess I'm in the minority around here, also prefering to see the episode where someone shorts an ante, and I don't care who wins or that they don't show too many hands.

[teddyFBI]

if the avg 2p2 had any idea how much extra $ they have in their bank account thanks to ESPN's softcore presentation to appeal to the casual poker player, there'd be a lot less bellyaching round these parts.

[shaniac]

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.