A case for Norman Chad and Lon McEachern

[lonn19]

You could say the same thing about Norm! If I hear him say "ex-wife" or "divorce" again, I'm gonna go nuts!!

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You could say the same thing about Norm! If I hear him say "ex-wife" or "divorce" again, I'm gonna go nuts!!

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"And he has earned the check mark; he cannot loose if he stays in the hand."

"OHHHHHH and its another king, earning him the check mark!!!"

Lines like this are on my list for reasons I no longer watch. I couldn't stand that goddamn check mark.

[kevstreet]

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Amen! I've always liked these two.

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SAME!

[MicroBob]

I have agreed with other posters that Chad's ex-wife and other jokes...and some of their hand-analysis....leaves a LOT to be desired.

I think Lon does a decent job though as you stated.

I want to address a few points in your post which I disagreed with:

1. Lon's voice is okay. It certainly isn't fantastic. The 'emotion is genuine' comment (and comparing him with Vitale) is kind of interesting considering that they edit in the commentary later (whereas Vitale is obviously live and fairly genuine. So Lon's emotion is actually NOT completely sincere.
I believe any competent play-by-play announcer could fake emotion to this extent.


2. The FSN play-by-play announcer is CHRIS Rose (not Charlie Rose).
Charlie Rose has his own talk-show on PBS and I think is one of the most engaging interviewers out there.
Chris Rose does a reasonable play-by-play. He seems to be purposefully keeping it 'contained' and NOT going over-the-top as much as Lon does.
I think Chris does a very good job actually but we all have our own different tastes.
(I'll add the disclaimer again that Chris is a friend of mine from college and we did some student-radio and TV broadcasts together....but I still think he does a very professional job on FSN without feeling the obligation to get ridiculously over-excited)


3. Speaking of different tastes....VVP is just terrible. 'the crowd is just STUNNED right now' is something that he says in every single freaking episode. 'He's hearing the music in his head as he has a wired-pair of Hilton Sisters in the hole.'

Sexton is hardly an engaging personality...but his analysis and broadcasting have been getting better and better. I think he's been working pretty hard at it.


4. I think Gabe Kaplan, while somewhat understated in his tone, is still the best analyst out there. He is able to provide ACTUAL hand-analysis without being in the least bit condescending to viewers who actually know something about poker....but he is still understandable by the total novices (which seems to be what almost all the other poker-broadcasters are afraid of).

[jeffraider]

Did you really just say that Konik was good and Lederer is dull?

Did he really just say that?

what the [censored]

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I find the duo of McEachern and Chad to be the most entertaining on air today.

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Agreed!

[Depalma]

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Like many of us, I watch TV for primarily one reason-to be entertained. That said, I find the duo of McEachern and Chad to be the most entertaining on air today. There are a few reasons why.
Have you ever suffered through the Fox sports broadcast featuring Charlie Rose, Michael Konic, Howard Lederer? Although Konic is pretty good, Rose contributes nothing to the broadcast, and Lederer is insanely dull!
Gabe Kaplan? Please... The TV execs knew he was horrible the FIRST time they let him go!


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If you want lame humor and little poker knowledge then Chad is your guy. I'll take Kaplan any time.

[TimTimSalabim]

Are you Norm's mom or Lon's?