The Who's Now Finals Are Upon Us!

Thursday, August 02, 2007


Just in case you haven't been paying attention the last month, we've finally come to the exciting conclusion of ESPN's Who's Now brackets. There were twists and turns, a Santa Clara like Tony Parker, upset after upset, and....

Okay, who are we kidding....it's a #1 Seed vs. a #1 Seed in the Finals (Woods-James). There were no surprises (except Erin Andrews' Legs during one of the segments: see above), only one "upset" (Parker over Federer), no one really tuned in to watch the program on Sports Center, and there were more viewers on ESPN.com for Who's Now than any other feature (yes, including Bill Simmons).

Wait...what did I just type? More than any other feature??? That can't be true...

Critics have almost universally hated "Who's Now," but fans have played along with more than 4 million votes, pointed out Glenn Jacobs, senior coordinating producer for SportsCenter. For four weeks, it has been the story with the most traffic on espn.com. TV ratings have not appreciably changed for its time slot, he said.

"There may be a disconnect between those who like it and those who don't like it," Jacobs said Wednesday. "It was a chance for our fans to have some fun. Sports is built on debate. We took that idea and tweaked it. We tried something different."
Damn..it is true. Everyone knew Tiger was going to win and that he'd be going against Bron-Bron, so what was the point? I guess there wasn't one really.....I think this Anonymous comment, from the very first post AA had on the subject, sums the whole thing up the best.
"Captain America could never beat Batman. Batman is NOW!!!!!!!!11111"- Anon
Who's Not Now (Palm Beach Post)
Who's Now?: Yet Another Quirky SportsCenter Feature To Debut Tonight (Awful Announcing)

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 2:33 PM

10 Comments:

Fuck it, I confess: I watched the Who's Now segments with Erin on them, with the sound off, of course.

I still feel dirty.

Signal to Noise said...
Aug 2, 2007, 3:08:00 PM  

What does that stat actually mean? Was there another feature as heavily hyped on ESPN for 4 weeks?

Anonymous said...
Aug 2, 2007, 3:35:00 PM  

The White Sox pitching staff is not NOW.

GMoney said...
Aug 2, 2007, 4:12:00 PM  

To Jacobs' point about debate, yes sports fans love to debate, but we love to debate about shit that actually matters like records and eras, not this idiotic, self-serving mindless fluff you keep trying to shove down our throats!

Who's next, who's now, what's next, who the fuck cares, just report the sports news and broadcast the damn games, jackass!

J Rose said...
Aug 2, 2007, 4:28:00 PM  

I can honestly say that each and every time this feature began I instantly turned the channel. Yes, Erin Andrews was a nice addition, but my change-the-channel reflex worked every time this horrendous cluster fuck of a feature started.

Huge. Waste. Of. Time.

derby said...
Aug 2, 2007, 5:57:00 PM  

haha.....for one whole paragraph, you tried to seriously breakdown the Who's Now bracket

Marco said...
Aug 2, 2007, 11:27:00 PM  

" I can honestly say that each and every time this feature began I instantly turned the channel. "

I did the EXACT same thing. I wouldn't even be watching the TV, it would just be on. When that horrid intro would start I would just reach for the remote and change the channel to anything.

Unknown said...
Aug 3, 2007, 12:13:00 AM  

I do the same thing, and it's definitely not because of that "I'm a blogger and therefore pretend to turn my nose up at ESPN". It really and truly sucks.

The only revelation of the entire ordeal is Erin Andrews not wearing pants.

Scrappled said...
Aug 3, 2007, 11:04:00 AM  

Maybe the relative online traffic of Who's Now is just an indication on how poorly regarded the rest of ESPN's online content is.

The HCIC said...
Aug 3, 2007, 3:10:00 PM  

I do like Erin's F' Me pumps. The ankle strap says, "Put it where it where it doesn't belong, Big Boy!"

I said it before this whole thing started, and I'm saying it again now: this "Who's Now" thing is a way for the Disney Sports Network to put their heads in LeBron's lap during the NBA offseason.

Please, quit telling me how cool and "now" and "it" the guy whose team got destroyed in the NBA Finals (and had one great playoff game because his teammates suck the proverbial ass) is. I'm not going to get on the LeBron Train.

Bouj said...
Aug 3, 2007, 6:22:00 PM  

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