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TV heaven
By Tommy Sanders
Host of ESPN Outdoors
Everyone has his own version of TV Heaven. Mine was originally the telecast of the Olympics from Mexico City back in 1968. We were a track and field-happy nation back then. Other sports-loving Americans got their first vision of TV Heaven back in the early 1980s, when the country was just getting seriously wired for cable TV.
A ludicrous venture called the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network started to pop up on cable systems. ESPN was what they called it. The questions everyone was asking were Where are they going to get 24 hours of sports a day and, more importantly, Who is going to watch? Those two questions have since been answered.
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If we're witnessing the continuing evolution of TV, I say 'bring it on.' ” |
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Last year, a lot of us got our latest upgrade version of TV Heaven, in the form of the ESPN Great Outdoor Games. And just like we never imagined in 1968 that we'd be able to tune in to Australian Rules Football at 1:00 a.m. on a Wednesday in 1982, it's now hard to believe that we can watch up to 18 hours of an Olympics-like sports festival where the events range from the springboard chop to big air dogs to fly fishing. Competitive flyfishing on a national network in prime time, for goodness sakes.
Maybe we should have seen it coming. After all, there are some 60 million Americans who fish; 40 million, more or less, who shoot or hunt, and how many millions of dog owners are there? Some of us even have to chop our own firewood.
And in each of these areas there are very competitive echelons of the top performers. Sure, spectacle events like the NFL and the Olympic Games will still capture the biggest audiences, but most of us don't do much running off-tackle or 19-foot pole vaulting these days.
It's really intriguing to see the best in the world compete in some of the sports we actually do pursue. If we're witnessing the continuing evolution of TV, I say "bring it on." Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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