Stop the Norman Chad flaming

[VeraN]

I agree with you guys that the comments he makes are incredibly stupid, especially flaming Vogl over and over. (Personally I think the guy deserves to be flamed after showing some major disrespect by putting chips in neat stacks and then slapping them when he was playing a pot vs David Chiu - very bad etiquette)

You guys gotta understand that Norman Chad is reading the script the writers told him to read. The commentators are not critiqueing on the get-go. If you notice, these are all highlights, not hand after hand. They show as many noteworthy hands within 1 hour.

So instead of flaming Norman Chad, how about praising him because he is acting and seems like he's actually commentating as the hands are played. When in fact he's just acting through a written script, making it seem like he's actually commentating in real time - which he does a good job at it.

BTW the scripts are written in a way so that viewers would stay and watch the televised program. It's always been like that for every TV show. That's why you hear the most ridiculous yet interesting comments that keeps you attached to the screen. It's all ratings baby.

[tech]

Are you sure? In the 2003 shows, in the episode where Grizzle and Hellmuth were going at it, Chad and the other guy busted out laughing at one of Grizzle's cracks. The players heard them and then Grizzle said something like "even the announcers thought that was funny" or something similar. That did not seem to be scripted.

[jakeoneil]

That was just BS, someone in the backroom who may have been listening laughed.

Norman chuckled at it, but it wasnt the laugh that was heard. The commentary is definately not live.

[tech]

Works for me. I never knew for sure.

[Cubswin]

CMON...use that lump of sh!t 3 feet above your a$$. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] You really think the announcers get to see the hole cards live? The commentary is inserted afterwards. The "announcers" that grizzle is referring to are most like the tourny director and his crew.

regards
cubswin

[Rushmore]

Although we are all aware of the fact that the commentary is done after the fact, I find it difficult to believe that any "writer" "scripted" Norman Chad's inane, repetitive, and almost incomprehensibly moronic chatter about that poor kid's stupid orange sweatsuit.

I'm sure they must just let him riff, and then edit.

Just not very well.

Which makes the ESPN editors very similar to Toonces, The Cat That Can Drive a Car, from the old, still funny Saturday Night Live Sketch of the same name.

[daryn]

nice avatar

[VeraN]

Yea like that example, they make it seem like it's really happening in real time. It's all about ratings, the comments, the way they show featured hands, featured tables, funny momments, drastic moments. All drama, comedy, and most importantly the reality aspect of it. Obviously it's real but they make it so it's like a reality TV show which has become very famous lately in the media.

You are watching the WSOP but you really aren't getting the whole perspective of it, everything is cramped into 1 hour of an episode and the director's job is to make it interesting. He's going to put in lots of highlights that involve a plot so the viewers are not only entertained through the hands which are played but through other means. For example the feud between Grizzle vs Hellmuth, or tonight's example of Chiu vs Vogl. How they show Chiu winning several pots in a row from Vogl and then Vogl slapping the pot.

[Cubswin]

Likewise. I like the pic except for one thing....the camera makes me look like i have some nasty teeth. My parents didnt spend $4000 on those pearly whites to have them screwed up by that camera.

Im still going to write a trip report....one of these days. My 22hr straight 3/6 session story has to be told.

cubswin

[TimTimSalabim]

I don't know about the WSOP, but in the WPT, Sexton and VVP sit at a table nearby and make comments during the match. The commentary that you see on TV is a mixture of live and hole-card stuff edited in later. So it's quite possible they could laugh at a joke made at the table and be heard.