FanHouse ESPN On ABC

We've heard plenty about "Coltgate" lately and the accusations that the Indianapolis Colts had pumped in crowd noise during the New England Patriots game two weeks ago.

CBS took the rap for the incident, but ESPN's NASCAR coverage apparently took note of the idea.

Judging from the TV I watched it on (ABC-HD with surround sound), it sounded to me like ESPN on ABC was definitely pumping in some crowd noise during each restart of last Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500. Take a listen for yourself on the video below, as there are several instances that you can hear the not-too-natural noises.

Take note at 1:30, 5:48, 8:24, and 9:30 on the video, then continue reading for more.



I understand completely that the YouTube video isn't exactly the highest quality, but on the other hand, I've been to my fair share of races. People just don't cheer like that during restarts. Here's what they do cheer for:

I feel bad for Marty Reid, I really do.

Dude got shoved into a segment on ESPN2's NASCAR Now showing ESPN's impressive NASCAR coverage. Or, well, I hope he got shoved into it.

Before I rip the whole segment apart, let me allow Jeff Burton, ESPN's token driver voice for their coverage to do so as he did in the video:

"Well the first word that comes to mind is absurd. The first goal of racing is to be there at the end. This system would award people and reward people for doing things that actually would hamper the way they would finish the race," said Burton.

"So it makes no sense -- you used the worst example in the world at Talladega to expose a problem, when in fact, we don't have this problem at most race tracks. So you have to run toward the front, you have to run hard in order to be competitive at almost every race track with the exception of Talladega. So, in a word, I think it's absurd."

Amen, Jeff.

For me, this whole segment (with a nice after-touch of Judge Judy) shows why ESPN and NASCAR fans haven't exactly gotten along this season.

The one-trick pony is back to kick ESPN on ABC while they're down.

Way down:

ABC's broadcast of last Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway earned a final Nielsen Media Research rating of 4.0 ...

20 percent lower than the 4.8 NBC earned for the same race in 2006.

20%?! Can't blame that one on arson the California wildfires.

So ... what do you want to blame it on?

In an unsurprising move, ESPN on ABC turned their NASCAR coverage over to ESPN 2 at 7:00PM ET to make way for the premiere of the network's fall Sunday night lineup. Typically, primetime starts at 8:00PM ET, but on Sundays it starts an hour earlier.

NASCAR fans who don't have cable or a satellite dish are probably p*ssed that they're watching the two-hour season premiere of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" instead of the end of the race. Assuming there will eventually be an end to this race.

Those fans who recorded the race on a DVR to watch later are in for a rude awakening, but ABC shouldn't bear the full brunt of it. Some of the blame must be laid on Mother Nature. Still, a little advance notice would have been nice.

I don't blame ABC for moving the race. Pushing their entire night's lineup back until the race was over would have wreaked havoc on the ratings of their Sunday night debut, which could have affected their week's ratings, which affects advertising ... blah, blah, blah.

But ... the network should have given more than a 2-minute warning to the viewers that that they would be moving the race to ESPN2 if it ran over such and such time. At least those taping the race could have planned accordingly.
Surely this was their plan all along should this ever happen ... I highly doubt this elaborate plan was concocted this afternoon.

Kyle Busch might be a little sore today after the "best driver in NASCAR" wrecked him yesterday: Once again, NASCAR is to be commended for their safety efforts. He was able to get out of there in a hurry, essentially unscathed.

And once again, I have to call ESPN on ABC out for sucking. Where was the shot of Busch's girlfriend in the pits? I can't be the only one whose mind immediately went to Erica and what it might be like to watch her boyfriend flipping through the air. She had to be terrified--if only for a moment. Where was the shot? And what about his crew? No shot of the pits, no post-wreck thoughts or interviews until Busch himself came out of the medical center.

Until recently I hadn't been able to put my finger on what was bugging me about ESPN's NASCAR coverage. A member of the NASCAR on FOX media hit the nail on the head in an email to me earlier this week:

"ESPN doesn't realize that broadcasting is about people...the technology is interesting but not what attracts the casual fan/viewer."

Indeed.

ABC--specifically, ESPN on ABC--cut to a commercial right when race winner Carl Edwards was about to get out of his car and flip for the fans!

Then, when they came back from commercial they took viewers (at least those in the Pacific timezone) straight to that crappy "NASCAR Angels" show, which was already in progress. (Sorry, Rusty and Shannon, it's a really nice thing you're doing but the show is complete drivel.)

What the ...?

It's bad enough they didn't show a post-race interview with the winner, but would it have killed them to wait 20 more seconds for the back flip? Fans have been waiting for the next one since his last win in October!

And, ya know, I would have let the missed restart slide given that they're still new, but since I'm bothering I may as well go ahead and mention that, too.

Annoying.