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Tackling Football Overkill On TV: When Is Enough Too Much?
[rant]When is enough too much? I know there's nothing on Saturday nights, especially with the strikes going on in the U.S., but this particular Saturday night was simply ridiculous. Every major American OTA network - with the exception of PBS - had on the exact same thing: U.S. college football.
ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and even the CW were all showing a different game, all at the exact same time. Look, I'm not a football fan and I realize they get higher ratings with this than just about anything else they could show. But really, all five major U.S. networks at once?
Outside of some major news event - like Sept. 11th, which understandably was on every network that existed back then - I can't think of another time when a single type of programming took up every primetime spot on every station on one night. And yes, there's a lot on cable and streaming for those looking for alternates.
But this was just overkill. And it's way too much. I call a flag on all this play![/rant]
- peter
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Re: Tackling Football Overkill On TV: When Is Enough Too Much?
Maybe you should have gone to the (once mighty) CFRB website and listened to reruns of Moore in the Morning instead
- mace
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Re: Tackling Football Overkill On TV: When Is Enough Too Much?
You have to remember that in the U.S. football is not just a game, it is a religion. High School Friday night, NCAA Saturday afternoon and evening, NFL Sunday, Monday, Thursday and new this year Black Friday in November. Some High School numbers for you. Little Rock Central High School has been playing at 15,000 seat Quigley Stadium since 1936. 15,000 fans can watch Dorman H.S. play their games at Cavalier Stadium in Roebuck, S.C. 15,000 seat Kingsway Stadium, built in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1952, hosted CFL pre-season games in 1961 and NFL pre-season games from 1961-63. Canton McKinley HS plays their games at the 22,400 seat Fawcett [now Tom Benson Hall of Fame] Stadium. This stadium makes BMO Field look, well, not great. For the record, the largest capacity stadium is 23,000 seat War Memorial Stadium in Wailuku, Hawaii. However, nine different high schools play their games there.
- RadioActive
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I'm aware of the "Friday Night Lights" phenomenon and how popular high school and especially college football can be down south. But five networks at once? That just seems to be too much.
At least next Saturday, it's only on three of them in primetime - NBC, ABC & Fox. CBS and the CW are both offering other programming.
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Thread Starter- alangee
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Re: Tackling Football Overkill On TV: When Is Enough Too Much?
Yes, it's overkill. But is this much different from the CCN, Fox News and the other 24 hour news stations playing the same "breaking" news hour after hour, repeating ad nauseam. Or our local AM news stations repeating re-rolls from the previous days overnight and weekends. It's all mind numbing and that is what a lot of the media today has become.
- RadioActive
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Sad but true. But those all cable newsers you mentioned are specially formatted stations and you expect news and nothing but news on them.
The broadcast networks have traditionally been "all things to all people" - some comedy, some drama, the odd scifi show, news, even the occasional documentary, in addition to sports. But all five showing football at the same time on the same night? That I don't recall ever happening before.
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Thread Starter- paterson1
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Re: Tackling Football Overkill On TV: When Is Enough Too Much?
All of the Canadian OTA networks had variety programming Saturday evening. Some repeats, some movies, CHCH had back to back episodes of the well done Cold Case drama from about 15 years ago. None of the networks had any sports on Saturday evening. W5 was the number one trending show at 7pm on CTV according to the trending feature on my service.
I think you will see more college football of US TV this fall and a few other sports since these events are live and usually draw acceptable numbers. You may even see important high school games on some off hours on networks like CW.
- RadioActive
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paterson1 wrote:
I think you will see more college football of US TV this fall and a few other sports since these events are live and usually draw acceptable numbers. You may even see important high school games on some off hours on networks like CW.
Yes, especially as long as those strikes last in the U.S. and no new shows are in the pipeline. (Fair also to note that Saturday is the worst night of the week for attracting viewers to their sets so live sports is a draw for those who may not otherwise be watching.)
Still, if this goes on much longer, I'm wondering what the networks (and cable and streaming services for that matter) will do for fresh programming? Reruns are never going to attract a huge audience, wherever they show them. They need to settle this thing and soon or everybody loses.
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: Tackling Football Overkill On TV: When Is Enough Too Much?
Looks like this is going to happen again on Sept. 23rd. NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox all have a College Football game in primetime. The CW, for now, only says "To Be Announced," although it wouldn't surprise me if they showed one, too.
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Thread Starter- paterson1
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Re: Tackling Football Overkill On TV: When Is Enough Too Much?
Here's how all these college games did last night in the ratings, courtesy of the TV Ratings Guide..
Last edited by paterson1 (September 10, 2023 3:19 pm)
- Tomas Barlow
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Across all of the games it had a 14 share. We have our answer. It looks like there's no such thing as too much football.