There's talk that Mark Shapiro, the programming head of ESPN, may be leaving to take a job with Dan Snyder and the Washington Redskins. Shapiro is the driving force behind the focus on the 'E' in ESPN: entertainment. Those movies and series you've seen (or not, given some of the ratings), and the increase in talking-head shows. You can thank or blame Shapiro as you wish.
While the move towards original programming did give us the sublime Pardon the Interruption, it also gave us such fare as Cold Pizza, Around the Horn (which could almost be watchable if they sent Woody Paige off Fox with Max Kellerman), and the Steven A. Smith shoutfest Quite Frankly. And let us not forget Playmakers and Tilt, two original series that didn't get past season one (thanks to quality issues and, in the case of the former, bowing to pressure from the NFL, who didn't like the way pro football players were being portrayed).
As has been noted elsewhere, Shapiro's leadership has charted ESPN on the same course that MTV took a while back, where the network becomes more about a brand and a culture than about what it's supposed to be showing if you take the network name at face value.
Given that I actually like to watch sports, Shapiro's departure would be a good thing. This assumes that the new programming head would actually steer the network back towards coverage of sporting events. One can hope.
1 comment:
It is now official...Shapiro has announced he is leaving ESPN.
Shapiro is joining Redskins owner Daniel Snyder in Snyder's effort to buy a majority stake in Six Flags (of which Snyder is a minority shareholder).
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