Pregame Shows are Stupid
Pregame shows are stupid. I quit watching them a long time ago. They have been billed as a source of insider information for the true fan. Truth be told, thanks to the internet, the true fan is already up to speed on most news by the time they sit down to watch a game. Thus, pregame shows are nothing more than a 30-60 minute window to bombard viewers with more commercials.
Not ALL pregame shows are horrible. Just most of them. I do, for example, like Inside the NBA on TNT with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith. But that show may be going away after this post season due to the changing of the guard of NBA broadcast rights holders. Big Noon Kickoff on Fox and GameDay on ESPN have their place and are pretty good. But I don’t spend a lot of time watching any of them.
PREGAME SHOWS ARE STUPID
By and large, my biggest problem with NFL on FOX, CBS, NBC on Sunday Night, NFL on Prime or NBA on ESPN, is producers have decided that we need as many people at the anchor desk as possible, (sometimes as many as 6 people) to tell me as little as possible in fifteen second sound bites.
Then there was the ridiculousness of the ABC/ESPN pregame production before the Pacers-Knicks game. Do we need to show Stephen A. Smith arriving at the arena like he is Michael Jordan? Are we supposed to look the other way as he performs a Knick pep rally during the show? Stephen A. should take a page out of the Kirk Herbstreit playbook and watch how he fairly covers his alma mater Ohio State and their opponent.
This is just a thumbnail description on why pregame shows are stupid. We may even discuss how and why pregame shows are stupid on Craig Shemon and Company on ESPN Southwest Florida. Let us know if you agree or disagree.
