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ESPN personalities rip into Elite XC
By Zach Arnold | June 2, 2008
In a sports weekend that featured the Stanley Cup finals (Detroit vs. Pittsburgh) and a preview of the NBA Finals (Celtics vs. Lakers), it was Kimbo Slice’s debut on CBS that garnered top billing on today’s ESPN news-talk programming.
And it’s clear that many of ESPN’s top personalities were not impressed with Gary Shaw and are impressed with Zuffa-related MMA content.
Jim Rome on Jim Rome is Burning shredded Gary Shaw & Elite XC, calling the matchmaking and production ‘amateur’. Rome said that it was unfortunate that CBS didn’t show a real fight like Jens Pulver vs. Urijah Faber instead of Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson. Rome savaged the booking of Thompson as a guy who was ‘a tomato can’ with a deformed ear. “What, you couldn’t find an amputee?” Rome went on to defend Slice, saying that the guy was homeless and who wouldn’t take a shot at ‘all that jack and fame’ to headline MMA’s debut on network television.
Rome’s take was fascinating because it mirrored the sentiments of a lot of hardcore MMA fans.
Dana White was on ESPN programming recently and in regards to EXC’s debut on CBS, White said that “what happened on CBS was horrendous.”
On Around the Horn, the topic of EXC on CBS was discussed in their rapid-fire roundtable discussion. Host Tony Reali called it “some pretty mediocre brawling at best” and asked the panelists, “Was it good for you?” Woody Paige called it the minor leagues, saying the following quotes:
“You should go UFC… that is the class operation”
“This was not any good”
“People who know MMA turned their heads in shame”
“This is like the XFL”
Tim Cowlishaw said that he would take a Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Kelly Pavlik fight over MMA any day. Jay Mariotti called MMA a niche sport and said that it reminded him of pro-wrestling with “a little more realism.” J.A. Adande, out in Los Angeles, was the only one to proclaim the show a ‘pretty good success’ due to the local ratings it draw in the Southern California market.
On Pardon the Interruption, Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard was brought on as a guest to discuss the EXC on CBS show. Le Batard was asked the following questions:
“Didn’t you expect more?”
“Was something amiss?” (re: Thompson/Kimbo)
“Too gross for network TV?”
“Does CBS need MMA?”
“Will networks continue MMA?”
“Thoughts on women?” (Carano/Young fight)
Le Batard defended the EXC on CBS broadcast, saying that it was ‘a great night for the sport’ because ‘people viewed the circus’ and that it was the most-watched MMA telecast ever. He elaborated on the show being a positive by saying that CBS’s older viewers are dying off and MMA can bring in a younger audience. Le Batard went on to call the EXC show a ‘minor league event’ that has the MMA purists outraged, and compared the promotion to a double-A baseball outfit rather than it being the ‘major leagues’ or all-star baseball. He finished out the interview saying that if CBS puts on a better MMA product, the network will continue to back the sport. Furthermore, according to Le Batard, Kimbo Slice didn’t lose credibility but lost a lot of his aura & mystique. When asked about Gina Carano fighting, Le Batard quipped, “It was sexy… kind of like me, sexy and grotesque.”
After Le Batard’s PTI interview, ESPN ran a teaser for Sportscenter by having anchor Josh Elliott ask the following: Should MMA be banned from mainstream TV? It ended up being a poll question on the program and the audience voting in the following manner:
Is MMA appropriate for broadcast television?
Results - 67% yes, 33% no, and ‘yes’ dominated in all 50 US States.
During Sportscenter, Tony Kornheiser said that MMA appeals to the most basist, worst possible instincts in people. On ESPN.com, Kimbo Slice is currently one of the most-searched terms on the web site.
Topics: MMA, Media, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Not defending EliteXC, but big surprise that an ABC owned company is going to have programming that bases CBS’s big MMA show.
All media personalities have an army of writers. One of his writers is obviously a hardcore MMA fan. =)
For as much as is being talked about this… For the casual fans I have talked to, basically nothing has changed. They either didn’t see the show, think everything is UFC, or thought the show on CBS was horrible.
And the fact that the next CBS show isn’t happening for 3+ months, and any momentum that they had, is gone.
Rome has been slowly coming around to MMA. He had been a strong critic for years and years, but has been softening his tone for the last 6-8 months.
That said, the production was ‘amateur’. How the hell do you run 45 minutes long?
Rome is off the reservation on this one, because he used to say the same exact thing about UFC whenever the payouts were announced. He said that MMA would not be considered a sport until you stop having guys making $40K vs guys making airfare. That still hasn’t changed yet he’s ripping into EXC in particular for the same thing?
Sorry Rome, love you, but you bandwagoned on UFC when you should have been loooking at the whole sport. Moreover, someone needs to explain to me how it would be possible for someone like Kimbo to fight a can? If Thompson was actually in shape Kimbo would just be waking up from a vicious ground and pound, but that doesn’t change the fact he had much more experience and ground skills.
For comparison: WEC ran long too, something like half an hour long. But they showed a total of 60 minutes of fighting, rounding to the minute. On the other hand, EliteXC ran about 45 minutes long, while showing only 32 minutes worth of fighting.
In total, about 40% of WEC’s show was fight action. Meanwhile, only a meager 19 1/2% of EliteXC’s show was action.
Pathetic.
Other than running fights that they already ran on the internet (not sure if that meant exclusive rights to ProElite.com streams) what would you have them do?
It’s not pro wrestling where they can “book” fight times down to the exact minute - the whole real fights thing kinda hinders them there.
To quote another commenter, “All media personalities have an army of writers. One of his writers is obviously a hardcore MMA fan. =)”
He is just saying what his writers want him to write. In order to bring corporate sponsorship to MMA these promoters NEED TO promote hardcore that is why Dana and Gary seem like such mobsters, they hustle hard to get the sport to the mainstream and then critics complain about small things. Gary Shaw said in the post-fight that he will NOT have Kimbo on every CBS show (hopefully he keeps his word, even though I love the character of Kimbo, exposed and all.)!.
Someone check my math on this but one non-title fight with round breaks, intros, post fight interview(s) = about 25-30 minutes (assuming it goes the distance). So 4 non-title fights x 25 mins (we’re use the smaller) = 1 hr 40 mins. Add another 35 for a possible 5 round title fight with breaks, intros & post fight interviews and that’s about 2 hrs 15 mins. Let’s say another 15 minutes for the Opening Dialogue with the “Intro to MMA” video and we’re at 2:30… Oh yeah, did I mention the commercials? For a two-hour show you’ve got about 30-35 of 120 minutes of programming for commercials. That would put the show at 3 HOURS ON PAPER! Looks like they were expecting some early knock outs all around to get the show off the air on time.
You know, the NFL is really unprofessional too. I mean, like every Sunday they run over. 3.5 hours for 60 minutes of football? That’s ridiculous.
Do people seriously care about how much a highly rated show ran over? WEC didn’t have to explain MMA to millions of non-savvy viewers, and probably didn’t have near the paid commercial spots. They don’t get points for being on Versus.
WEC always runs over in their shows. They know it’ll be between 2 and 3 hours, but they’re not sure when exactly due to the nature of the fights (will the title fight go 5 rounds or 1?). So they preempt another show and now they don’t have to worry about filling in dead air time if the fights end too quickly. They can just changeover to a different show once they’re done.
CBS might do the same thing, which is why I haven’t criticized them for going 45 minutes over the time limit.
You know, the NFL is really unprofessional too. I mean, like every Sunday they run over. 3.5 hours for 60 minutes of football? That’s ridiculous.
The NHL had three overtimes last night. Three! Clearly, long dramatic games are exactly what lead to hockey’s apparent demise as a major sport in the United States.
Running long on Cable television and running long on Network television are two different things. Network has affiliates who have the option of going to the News when EliteXC’s time is up which means lots and lots of smaller markets might have missed the main event if their local station decided to go to the News.
Running long on Cable television and running long on Network television are two different things. Network has affiliates who have the option of going to the News when EliteXC’s time is up which means lots and lots of smaller markets might have missed the main event if their local station decided to go to the News.
And which ones did that? Because there hasn’t been a single documented case of any particular affiliate deciding to buck a nationally televised event in the middle of it for local news coverage. You have heard of the Heidi Game, right?