Friday, September 14, 2007

Has 'GameDay' Jumped the Shark?

Has ESPN's "College GameDay" fundamentally and permanently strayed from its original premise? Has it, as they say in pop culture terms, jumped the shark?

The San Francisco Chronicle's Betting Fool believes this to be the case.

"Do we have to sit through another soft-focus, deeply-troubling, tear-inducing feature from Tom Rinaldi. You know them, you love them, you hear them in your sleep: The features in which he uses the exact same timing and tenor, stopping only to change the words and pictures."

And what about the rest of ESPN's analysts, namely Lou Holtz and Mark May? The Fool says they "do little more than regurgitate stat sheets when making picks or lobbing lame, quaggy observations worthy of any 12-year-old who's seen 20 games.

"Yes, we get that Holtz is the folksy lovable Ol' Coach Guy who sticks by his teams [pick Notre Dame again, you idiot] and that May is the learned [it's all about the glasses] but snarky anti-Holtz, generating this fake rage in his brief and simple retorts to the OCG [yeah you know me]."

And now a report that GameDay host Chris Fowler has expressed concern over the site Lets Show Corso, where fans can "throw" footballs at a likeness of analyst Lee Corso. The site, which uses video of Corso saying Steve Spurrier would never win an SEC title at South Carolina "even if he coaches here 400 years," was conceived and created by the South Carolina athletic department.

"I’m a little puzzled [about] the approach [of] marketing the team by attacking Lee," Fowler said, adding that the creation of the site "doesn't increase the chances" of GameDay returning to Columbia.

South Carolina athletic director Eric Hyman said: “Did South Carolina, when [Corso] made some of the comments he made, did we return it? It’s fun, it’s an enjoyment.”

Thanks to TV Tan Line.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's still way better than when Trev Alberts was around. I'll take Holz and May any day. Besides, who needs the analysis? That's what the internet is for. We just want the fun. I'm glad Corso can rip on teams - no one else on TV will do that.

Anonymous said...

Aren't Mark May and Lou Holtz usually missing from Gollege Gameday?

I mean, they are barely or never on. So why even bring them up?

Anonymous said...

I watch more for the infamous signs than anything else. I'll never forget the time I was idly watching and all of a sudden a "GO 'CANES" sign flipped around to reveal "VICK IS A PUSSY".

You just can't script that.

Sadly, it's the only game in town and ESPN will hammer it into the ground and render it useless eventually, if they haven't already. Nice post.

Anonymous said...

Chris Fowler seems like the type of guy that won't give a courtesy flush because he enjoys the smell of his own shit.

It doesn't matter Rece Davis is going to have that job before it's said and done.

As for Gameday, I used to watch it religiously. Now I could care less because I know no matter what I will get a VTech Shooting, Anthony Gonzalez sleeps in a indoor tent type of story.

I'm in no way down playing the VTech thing, but isn't the whole point to move pasy tragidies and remember them. Not 5 months later bring it back to the forefront as they play ECU. Ridiclious.

You'd think the producer of this show got replaced by someone from Lifetime.

Oh yeah, Chris Fowler is a tool. In the off season he does tennis.