Long delay in airing the WSOP on ESPN

[Travis]

Does anyone have any insight into why ESPN is waiting so long to air the main event of the WSOP? I guess I can understand why competitors would object to having their holecards aired in a live broadcast but I would think that viewer interest would be higher right after the event. I know they do the same thing with the ping pong championships and darts and stuff like that but I would think there would be enough demand to get the WSOP on sooner.

[Kevmath]

Since they have 8 hours of final event coverage to fill, they have to edit 7 days of poker, while interweaving various interesting stories into the program. I'm sure we'll be seeing much of Mike Laing's drunken antics, a feel-good piece on Rose Richie, that "dead money" amateur Greg Raymer, Phil Hellmuth whining (his bitching and moaning can be found on his website about how he performed in the main event). Add in a few witty comments from Norman Chad, some hands that are incorrectly portrayed, and other assorted goodies, and you'll have yourself a show.

Kevin...

[Moozh]

Aside from editing.. technically, they start broadcasting the WSOP next week (June 8th I believe), one week after the final event finished. The reason the main event comes so late is because ESPN is willing to broadcast the smaller events, which in my opinion is a good thing.

[Kevmath]

Actually it's now July 6, and they've now scheduled 9 hours to the main event. The schedule's at: http://espn.go.com/eoe/wsop/schedule.html

Kevin...

[jayadd]

some bad scheduling there:

July 27th 2-7 draw 9pm and ladies event at 10pm.

this will not be a favorable showing. If there is no interest in the poker community for this event why would the beginner poker community care.

Without the big names in the ladies event its not that interesting to the public viewers.

aug 17th 3k NL event 9pm and main event 1st show at 10pm.


should show the first 2 main event days together. Take the 3k event and a replay together prior to the main event showing.

[EWillers]

[ QUOTE ]
July 27th 2-7 draw 9pm and ladies event at 10pm.

this will not be a favorable showing. If there is no interest in the poker community for this event why would the beginner poker community care.


[/ QUOTE ]

Do you really think most people watch this sport because of who is playing at the table on TV?

I think most people (outside the "poker community") who watch, watch because it's good drama.

Hence, I imagine the women's event will be watched as much as most others. The 2-7 triple draw might be the surprise hit of the coverage. How exciting will it be to watch all those redraws? VERY.

[daryn]

haha.... sport.

[SlickRick]

I can't wait [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[James Boston]

Reality shows (not saying the WSOP is a reality show) have what is called a storyboard editor. This is the person who takes all the footage and tries to make a story out of it. This can be a cumbersome process. For instance, last year no one would have expected Moneymaker to win. So when he did win, they had to go back and find as much footage of him as possible. They couldn't just film the "big name pros" and then have an unknown win. They had to establish the name during the course of this broadcast. They'll have to do that with several final table faces. I also suspect things like Doyle Brunson's dramatic exit, Dan Harrington's repeat final table appearance, Moneymaker and Farha's quick exits, etc... will be featured. It takes time to weed out the footage that these "knowledgeable programmers" deem useless.

[sketchy1]

i said this on RGP and will say it here again... the 2-7 event will be the best event besides the 10k. the final table is

Chris Ferguson
Chau Giang
Barry Greenstein
Howard Lederer
Will Wilkinson

and it is of course no-limit, not limit, therefore making the immediate audience (the people watching WPT every wednesday who just found out how to play by hearing vince & mike explain it) will enjoy it much more.