The Big TV Mystery as I see it (((NOT))) was why even ESPN2's on-screen cable listing here in Chicago states track and field 9-11 p.m., but instead there is baseball on. The WCs were on 7-9 p.m. I sat down at 8:58 p.m. to see a near empty stadium and hear the closing comments. Baseball NOT berry, berry good to me.
Ed Grant wrote: > Netters: > > Having been lavish (quite deserved) criticism of Tursday;s TV > offering from Paris, I have to be just as lacish in praise of today;s > progtam. My only question is, why such a complete reversal? > > Today's show opened with full coverage of the two events which were > missed the day before because (I guess) a time overrun. Not only were they > shown in full, but they were introduced properly as something that had > happened the day before, unlike the pitiful Tuesday masquerade that would > have had us believe the 100M finals came after the women's 200M trials, not > a day or two days later, > > I can only conclude that different hands were at the controls of the > two shows (or that the first-day gaffs were so obvious that something had to > be done about it). The Tuesday coverage was typical network-style bilge, > treating fans as if they were a bunch of ignorant boobs. Today's show was > what we have come to expected from the ESPN international coverage, as good > an attempt as U.S. coverage can make to match the kind of TV coverage > European fans take for granted---given the limitations of time allotment.I > would expect we we will see the same kind of coverage the next two days, It > is the weekend that worries me. > > Because of the wall-to-wall college football coverage on both ESPN > channels Saturday, the Parish coverage will begin at midnight here on the > East Coast (and maybe elsewhere as well, for all I know.) Then we get the > network coverage the next day, which, if past performances give any > indication, will simply ignore the fact that ESPN has been covering the meet > for five days and waste a lot of the three and a half hours showing events > we have already seen. > > Another indication of a possible difference in the production these > past two days was the cutdown today in the number and length of commercials. > Fortunately, where was even time left after the closing decathlon 1500M to > show a few events which had been earlier neglected: the second semi of the > women's 200M, the women's TJ.. > > Ed Grant
