OT: NBC Sports "The Lights" thoughts/reactions

Submitted by Jmilan on

I watched the NBC Sports channel The Lights which is basically a counter to Sportscenter. The show is 20 minutes long supposedly and repeats itself from 7-9 am. I caught about 10 minutes of it this morning and had a good experience with it. They got through about 4 or 5 baseball games and the Packers/Bengals preseason game in about 5 minutes. It was nice to see any agenda for things like the Jets, Lakers, or Tebow. You do not see any news anchors at all. There is one guy who reads the play by play for the highlights that is all. He gives no gimmicks, schticks, or any analysis other than the highlight itself. I personally enjoyed it and when football and other sports begin to start up I am looking forward to see how this show evolves. I wasn't going to initially make a thread, but was basically getting a good response from other people on a seperate thread.  I would like to see it rival ESPN and hopefully either push ESPN to have better quality or completely knock them off their high horse. I am basically wondering what your reactions are if you have had a chance to see the show. 

MrVociferous

August 17th, 2012 at 6:43 PM ^

Still love them for their CFB coverage, but I haven't watched Sportscenter in weeks. Every time I think about putting it on, I figure they're going to be talking about the worlds most overhyped backup QB and put something else on.

DenverRob

August 17th, 2012 at 4:04 PM ^

I remember when espn had journalists on sportscenter.  

Now its just a hip-hop, twitter reading, short attention span show with catch phrases.

Plus there is no hockey coverage, which makes me upset.

I have given up on SC. 

 

Phil Brickma

August 17th, 2012 at 4:49 PM ^

From a media studies point, ESPN is a classic example of how television and news coverage has evolved in the past 20 years. Journalistic ethics have been thrown out the window in favor of ratings. Hence, Fox News and MSNBC (not getting political). ESPN is just the same. SportsCenter is no longer a news program. It is an extension of their "entertainment" programming. Yes, they discuss some current events, but it is blended in with analysis and, as another commenter put it, schtick. Everything is focused on pimping their own product, hence no hockey coverage, and tons of Little League World Series, College World Series, etc. They center around a few hot topics that they know will move the needle, i.e. Tim Tebow, NFL in general, sports scandals.

I haven't seen "The Lights" yet, because I don't get NBCSN at home. That being said, I really hope NBC gives ESPN a run for its money. ESPN has gotten stale and too hyperfocused upon itself. ESPN quickly is losing the above-average sports fan. If NBC gets their stuff together, they could develop a decent following. I think it'd be smart to target some of the Yahoo! guys. They are the ones breaking the biggest sports scandals and doing the actual journalistic work. As opposed to most ESPN writers who Tweet random rumors and hope something sticks.

Sambojangles

August 17th, 2012 at 5:04 PM ^

Everybody complains about how much they hate Sportscenter and it's tendency to over-focus on a few stories that everybody else gets sick of eventually. But, when they have special features on anything that's related to something we are interested in, say, Michigan football, you watch it, don't you? During the Process last year I know that I was hooked on ESPN to see if Michigan fired Rodriguez or not, who was going to replace him, etc. Sportscenter transparently plays to what the largest markets are interested in, which is why stories about New York, the NBA, and Tim Tebow get so much airtime. 

I doubt the 'Lights will ever replace Sportscenter. Yeah, I might watch it for a couple minutes to see the actual highlights, but for analysis and baseless speculation (two pillars of sports entertainment) I'll go back to ESPN.

Jon06

August 17th, 2012 at 5:12 PM ^

but i stopped watching espn when i started reading mgoblog on a daily basis, and i don't have nbcsn at home. when they get on basic cable, i'll give it a shot. (best case scenario: espn loses its ability to charge comcast so much and/or gets replaced by nbcsn and my cable bill goes down.)

Rico616

August 17th, 2012 at 6:12 PM ^

Yea I rarely watch ESPN now except when they show baseball. I cant stand sprtscenter and pretty much the only radio programs I like by them are Mike & Mike and SVP. I dont need to watch ESPN so much anymore since you know theres this thing called the internet. I can find what I want specifically in a lot less time, and not as annoying.

Colin Cowherd really annoys me. I give him about 5 mins of airtime a month, which is still more than I give those bums Foster & Valenti. Speaking of 97.1, Karsch & Anderson are the only guys I really like on that station.

Avant's Hands

August 17th, 2012 at 7:50 PM ^

I don't even turn on ESPN anymore unless football or soccer is on. I catch PTI occasionally, but only if I know that they will be talking about something I am really interested (i.e. US soccer, NHL, or a big football story...so mostly just football).

Although I will admit that I really wish the NHL would get their crap together and get back on ESPN. NBCSN only has one channel to show games and I really hate Pierre. Give me Melrose over Pierre any day. 

I will definitely have to catch the Lights once football starts (not a big baseball fan).