Maybe Doug Gottlieb Should Turn Off His Phone When On SportsCenter
I am guessing we all have nightmares of everything going wrong at work or school, but rarely does that ever happen in real life. Unfortunately for Doug Gottlieb, everything imaginable did go wrong and it was in just under a minute and on national television.
It reminds me of the time when I had the worst first date ever in high school, which included my credit card being rejected trying to buy movie tickets (she had to pay), we were kicked out of sneaking into an R rated movie, and then my car broke down after failing to see any movie.
Gottlieb's string of bad luck includes a touch screen that revolts and turns into a non-functioning SportsCenter logo rotated sideways, accidentally picking the wrong team to advance to the final, and then his phone going off to the dismay of SportsCenter anchor David Lloyd, who confiscates the phone and walks off-set. At least his pants didn't rip or fall down, I guess.
Just another epic case of the Mondays.
Great comments all the way around. The SkyCam was one of the worst things I've ever seen. Agreed that the ref mic wasn't as bad as the others and provided a couple interesting insights while not dominating the broadcast. I'm all for trying new things in sports broadcasting, but shouldn't someone along the way realized Skycam was a terrible idea?
I didn't see that game, I was too busy getting ticked off at ESPN for the Maya cam which split the screen into two picures. The game was reduced from a 46 inch screen (my TV) to about 20 inch screen and Maya Moore was isolated in the other screen. She was about the same size as she would have been if there was no Maya cam. Also, it gave me a headache trying to watch two things at the same time! Booooooo ESPN....They must be bored or something. Leave the game alone!
Terrible decision on the skycam. I don't think I've ever been so frustrated watching a basketball game. Everytime a team passed halfcourt I got the feeling of dread knowing they were going to switch to the skycam angle. Honestly tried to contact ESPN during the broadcast to cease using that god awful camera angle. Terrible
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I suspect that ESPN's production staff is bored. Covering hundreds of basketball games, with the same production guidelines and same camera shots, must be mind-numbing over time.
So they're experimenting. That, in and of itself, is not bad. However, given that they have 4 full-time channels, all of these experiments should have been in parallel with a traditional broadcast on another channel. They've done that before -- play the traditional version on ESPN and the experimental on the Deuce, the U, or ESPN3.com.
What they forgot is that although THEY are bored... the viewers who are invested in particular schools aren't. They want to see the standard broadcast.
I guess you could make the case that ESPN is losing touch with their viewers... they wouldn't be the first or last network to do that.
ESPN is too full of themselves. It reminds me of when news reporters purposefully interject themselves into the story they are covering in order to become one with the news. The Kentucky game and especially the Mizzou game's ESPN interferences wreaked of broadcaster arrogance. It was just annoying to sit there and watch only one third of my screen filled up with the game, another section filled with Gottlieb doing absolutely nothing visual (which could have just as easily been covered only with audio as to not interupt the game) and the rest of the screen being covered with nothing. Did Vince McMahon get an executive position within ESPN or something? The stinkers they threw up tonight reminded me of the ridiculous and failed XFL mockery of the sport of football.
I own and operate a complaints website and was watching the UK game tonight. Rarely do I get so upset at something as to submit a complaint via MY OWN website, but this joke of a camera was enough. Luckily by the time I logged on to my site, somebody had already complained about it for me :)
http://hissingkitty.com/complaints/espns-stupid-overhead-camera/
