ABC is presenting a one hour NASCAR Countdown show and then the NEXTEL Cup race from New Hampshire.
Brent Musburger is hosting, Suzy Kolber, Dale Jarrett, and Brad Daugherty are in the Infield Studio. Dr. Jerry Punch, Rusty Wallace, and Andy Petree are in the announce booth. On pit road, its Allen Bestwick, Mike Massaro, Shannon Spake, and Dave Burns. Tim Brewer is in the Tech Center.
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109 comments:
I do not know how it's going, no desire to tune in until the other pre race show is over. Sorry
Glenn in GA
Same here in NC
Watching Race Day, surfing racing news and wandered over here. Green flag at 2:17 EDT so no reason th suffer through any more ABC/ESPN than needed.
What's up with Suzy Kolber's forced 'tough guy' voice? And Brett's funky podium?? Scary pre-race show.
Did anyone watch the pre-race show? Rusty and DJ really gave it to Brad about his views on The Chase and his opinions about the race today.
If your going to play the role of "analyst", then analyze the possibility of the #12 guy winning the chase. When you say 60 points is too hard to overcome for the rest of the drivers, well.... What was it "the cream is at the top", referring to Johnson, Gordon and Stewart and no one can get there. Boy, Rusty and DJ jumped right in there and showed how deeply BD does not know racing. Its such a shame to have BD on the show when there is no worth while information coming from him.
Oh, they pulled Suzy out on pit road to just interview Jimmy Johnson.
Skeet
How many different ways can they describe the Chase? How many different answers can the same 12 guys come with for the same question? Those watching RaceDay will never know. Harvick looked annoyed about it. What was it, something like "How many times do I have to answer that this weekend?" or something.
Actually, RaceDay watchers will know. The answer, apparently, is 1.
And I loved Rusty and DJ looking ready to beat the stupid out of Brad. Maybe not profession behavior, but his comments made my head hurt with the floating in the air.
Gah, caught the end of the Junior comment pulling off pit road, but not the whole thing. Did she just call this Junior's "Victory Tour?"
His trying to get the others all happy with his comments fall flat. I thought DJ was going to back him, but Rusty almost jumped out of his seat. Then his stupid comments that there were only two all time great drivers and Gordon was second, Rusty again said I disagree with everything you just said.... wow...
Another ticker to show where each chase driver fall in the 12 during the race....something else to be annoying on my tv screen
I wonder what ESPN had to do to get Harvick as the in car reporter.
Which I can't stand
Once again, ABC is 1-2 laps behind hotpass. Anyone know why?
ESPN is about in-sync with RaceView (which I finally get to use again; apparently it didn't like my old video card). Both showed Bowyer hitting is pit stop at the same time.
that is due to technical transmission reasons and is normal with live broadcast. also some of the delay might come from your cable operator. Don't blame ABC for the delay.
I just tuned in and have seen solid coverage so far.
so far so good
2 minute commercials are not to bad
I like how the both is directly talking to dale in the studio.
Obviously if I have hotpass, I have DirectTv. The ABC stations that I access are from both NYC and LA. Both are 1-2 laps behind. When ESPN broadcasts the race, there is no delay. Maybe it's a national ABC thing??? Oh, well.
The ESPN signal needs to be directly transmitted to the local station via satellite. That is what causes the delay on ABC.
when I said cable operator I meant to say cable and satellite TV.
Have we seen the Infield Studio on-camera since the beginning of the show or just heard from them?
How about Musburger, have we heard from him since the start of the race?
Don't think so, but there is DraftTrack!
Brad just asked a question to Dale, but not on camera. Oh my that just had to do it, draft tracker rears its ugly head again.
I watched a bit of both RaceDay and the countdown show. Good job by Countdown to bring Marty Smith to the studio for a rundown of the week's news. But it's going to be rough for both these shows to keep viewers for the rest of the season.
Before the NFL season started, the two prerace shows were just competing against each other for the one hour before the race. This week RaceDay is up against both NFL pre-game shows in its first hour, and then against Countdown, an actual NFL game, and the PGA championship in the second hour.
We usually watch the pre-race shows, but this week we prefer to watch the football game and flip back to the prerace during commercials. We keep up with NASCAR news during the week, so really no need to watch pre-race. I would imagine it will be that way (watching football games) up until the last race, where maybe we'll watch the prerace shows only.
Go on other NASCAR boards and the race talk traffic is way down today. Too many sports going on. I imagine the ratings - maybe not for the race, but the prerace shows- will be down too.
The actual race coverage has been good so far.
Was it Brad who just asked about the wing how important it is to the car?
JD
I don't think we have, isn't it great.
i came in at lap 20 and have not seen or heard from Brent, or tech center. I have heard but not seen Dale and Brad in the studio.
Nice info from the tech center.
There we go with the Techcenter. Now I would like to know, how do the holes in the top help? That was the least useful Techcenter I can remember.
Seems to me that the infield group is calling more of the race than the booth...
What did they do with the Draft Tracker? I missed it.
Seriously, how many times do we have to hear Petree talk about the smoke and the splitter. My count is up to 15. ENOUGH!
come on....I thought the info from the tech center was to useful to illustrate how strong the splitters really are.
the draft tracker was used to show the impact of air on a short track. i forgot which cars were in it.
There was no real reason for the Techcenter to give the information, except for maybe having the splitter in his hands as opposed to on the car, so you can see how big it actually is.
Then he points at the holes ont the top, no holes on the bottom, but no reason why this helps. "those things are strong. tech center?" "they are made by people who make armor for the military. so yes, they are strong. ohhh, holes in the top!"
I'm sorry, but I expect a little bit more for the Techcenter. Not just a short discussion about the manufacturer of a part.
Sportscenter minute while the the 07 passes the 20 for the lead?
Horrible. Plain Horrible. And then the first on-air comments were about college football?
It was a little more than that. They shot that particular splitter and showed that it literally is bullet proof. I thought that was interesting.
Do you think that including the news from other sports in a NASCAR race helps or hurts the broadcast?
That's the third time Brewer used the touch screen to show a broken valve in as many races. The discourse from the booth was the same as in the previous races.
No reports on how the engine sounds which is one of the best barometers of a lost cylinder.
I think it has little effect on the broadcast as long as it does not miss a crucial moment, but a sports center minute seems a little out of place on ABC.
Hey there's Brent! Talking about another sport!
I'd rather be watching the race than this stuff.
Who shot the gun at the splitter?
Pretty cool. Pretty tough
UGH! here's brent.
Ah, thanks, I must have missed them saying how the holes got there. Now the engine thing, while it gets used quite often now, is to me just bad luck for ESPN trying to show how things break. Sometimes the same thing breaks several races in a row. The touchscreen itself is annoying to me, I wish they just showed it. I don't need to see him interacting with the screen, just what the screen shows.
Tickers and sports breaks can help and hurt. On a weekend with so much sports activity it keeps race fans up on what's happening elsewhere. It can hurt if a fan thinks that action in another sport is more interesting than the race.
It's a push, although ABC won't probably lose many viewers to golf coverage.
they did not shot it live. they just showed the splitter w/ bullet holes all over it and the bullets did not go though the splitter.
Talk about under the racer. Kyle Busch, Truex JR, and Edwards shown 8th, 9th, and 10th. So when did Kenseth, in 7th and in every one of those shots less than a carlength in front of the 5, drop out of the Chase?
Under the *RADAR*
huh?
I think I mentioned this last week, but when you see a car spinning, you don't switch cameras.
The 41 car was rotated at least 45 degrees from straight, and they switched to the 2 car, and nobody noticed anything had happened until after he had gotten close to the wall.
And Kenny Schrader is substituting for Elliott? I thought it was the other way around.
Sephyroth
http://www.sephyroth.net
Can't believe ABC cut away from the 41 mid spin.
Aero loose!?! He just drove too hard into the corner.
now hold on...the director could call a swich 3-5 seconds ahead of the acualal swith. so there is a delay you need to try hard to control.
HOLY FARKING CHRISTMAS ON A STAMP!!
HOW DO THEY CUT AWAY FROM A SPIN IN PROGRESS IN FRONT OF A CHASE RACER????????????????????????????????????????????????
Then that bird brain William Russell claimed that Reed got aero loose!!!!
Has the director of this race watched races before? How could he not realize that a car 90 degrees to the track might be something to watch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Retards
It's interesting that the Aflac trivia question and answer is now pre-produced.
Why?
there are lots of ways for the director to run the race. Some are smart and appropriate for live sporting events and some are not.
Calling cuts 3-5 seconds in advance might be convenient for the director but it's stupid for showing the best action on the track.
Catherine said...
HOLY FARKING CHRISTMAS ON A STAMP!!
HOW DO THEY CUT AWAY FROM A SPIN IN PROGRESS IN FRONT OF A CHASE RACER????????????????????????????????????????????????
Let me try and explain this better. No one is spinning, no on is at 90 degrees. So the director might say cut to Kurt. Then after that is said reed spins. Now, some of the video mixers used might take up to 3 seconds to cut after the button is pushed. so you see he might have initiated the cut before the spin. after he did that he can't do anything about it until the cut is finished. now he can cut back to reed.
it not necessarily planed like that. Its just how long it might take to initiate a cut. director calls it, technical director pushes the button, system takes 1-3 seconds to cut.
Maybe 3 seconds is a bit too much. The system might take 1-2 seconds to cut.
Having no experience with current video equipment it's hard to know how this stuff works... But in the days before digital switchers when you pushed a button to take a specific camera it happened right away.
Losing instantaneous switching at a sporting event is a giant technological leap backward.
In my experiece with swichers It DID not hapend right away, but diferent systems work diferently.
Does anyone else feel that once again the voice of experience on this telecast belongs to Dale Jarrett?
I do believe that is true.
10-4
Jerry Punch kind of sounds like he is also out of gas right now. That is one tired guy.
Is anyone else having a problem with the track noise and you can't hear those "great" announcers? This is very annoying.
Dale Jarrett does a great job.
Maybe Dr. Punch should try what Mike Joy and Bill Weber do. They do not work the entire season.
Check the settings on your surround sound. Sometimes I have the same issue and I find that I'm set on the movie setting while watching sports
Not so sure about that Red Sox cut-in with forty laps to go.
Nice touch using the driver/crew chatter from the leaders. Interesting comparisons in handling for some of the top drivers.
Perhaps ABC should focus more on passing along info like this instead of Draft Tracks.
anyone know whats up with all these Toyota fan experience commercials?
"Not so sure about that Red Sox cut-in with forty laps to go."
Not a big deal if you're a Sox or NY fan. For Marlin fans, not so much.
Not only is the cut-in bad, but do we need Brent to do a commentary on the cut-in? It shows he knows more about anything else other than NASCAR.
RE: driver/crew chatter - the blurb they used of Tony's was from over 100 laps earlier when they still had pit stops, so a bit misleading on abc's part.
Tuned in with 60 laps to go, but I usually try to watch the races live. During the commercial breaks, I've been watching the recording of the earlier part of the race to see what I missed.
ESPN messed up the invocation and anthem - badly. Not a single shot of drivers, wives, and families until the last 20 seconds of the US anthem (Canadian anthem was also sung before that.) And then we only got to see three drivers in those 20 seconds.
There was a story online this morning in which an ESPN executive said NASCAR ratings for female viewers were down across the board in 2007. Big surprise. It's the little things, guys. If you can't get the little things right, don't be surprised when people stop tuning in.
ESPN seems to have lost stories towards the end of this race.
Ten laps to go and Punch throws that story in. Horrible.
Its as if they just don't know what to say toward the end of the race.
nice coverage of the finish though
The bad part about throwing in the story about the deaths is it sounded like he was speed reading it to get through it. Not really a show of compassion, especially in a near monotone.
although there was a few problems, I thought this was one of ESPN's better NASCAR broadcasts.
The best part of todays broadcast was having Dale Jarrett. And when DJ and Rusty broke bad on Brad. Notice Brad was quiet the rest of the race...
I don't like this nontraditional victory lane.
ok, so ABC is 45 minutes early...what are we going to see next?
what story did PUNCH throw in with 10 laps to go??
About NASCAR? Baseball? I had on MRN...when I TRIED to listen to race, during MRN commercials, sound was HORRIBLE and I do NOT have fancy surround sounds.
also, how many restarts did they missed...I puttered around the house LISTENING to MRN and it was much more enjoyable than listening to the chuckleheads in the booth and the HORRIBLE HORRIBLE camera work I am reading about here.
Well it's good to see ESPN has been paying attention and made changes for the good. Their best broadcast so far! Hopefully they will keep it up.
how did we get so early?...where I am, an hour of infomercials is scheduled after the race. Nothing to hurry off the air for. so you'd we could get extended post race coverage?
The race broadcast is supposed to last until 6. So what will ESPN/ABC do with the remaining 45 minutes left in the timeslot? Will they interview a lot of drivers who had good runs today (mears, Newman, Yeley), or will they start promoting other sports programming. Or go off air at 5:30 ?
Better than average broadcast though. NHIS doesn't give TV much to work with (other than being close to NYC, why does this race start the chase?), and the ESPN crew tried their best.
SophiaZ123 said...
HORRIBLE HORRIBLE camera work I am reading about here.
WHAT??? I think you have misunderstood. Nascar Images controls the cameras. They do NOT do a bad job. If you are referring to switching away from reed's wreck that has already been explained.
sophiaz123: the story was the Rally Driver who died in a helicopter accident. They threw it in there, and Punch kind of threw out a bunch about who was in the helicopter (including a bunch of kids). It was really rushed feeling to it.
Brent Musburger's suit didn't fit and it went downhill from then.
Thanks mithmurr for the story explanation. Sad they did it in what sounds like an inappropriate manner.
:(
As far as camera work, it was better for the truck races so I don't know what's to argue about..it is what it is...or is NOT.
ESPN it is not all that and a bag of chips.
:-)
If you want to know more about Colin McRae, there is a story on my main page because of his SpeedVision and ESPN X-games connection.
I am 99% sure that the people who operated the cameras in the truck race are the same people who operated the cameras in the cup race.
I think it's time to change the channel because ABC is just going to use the extra time to air a backlog of ads. They went to commercial at 5:28, then went back to commercial again at 5:33 shortly after coming back and doing two short interviews.
While the camera guys might be shared on-site, the Director of the telecast has total control over where they go, including the in-car and blimp cameras.
DirecTV is not in control, and just takes what they can get.
NASCAR Images controls the shared TV compound, but each network including DirecTV has their own production trucks and staff.
Any other questions, just ask!
why change the channel? There is no NASCAR programing anywhere else.
What you are seeing right now is the fact that the sports division "owns" ABC's airwaves until 6PM.
The local stations are not ready to go until then, and there is no option to use any kind of ESPN programming, which is not licensed for distribution over broadcast stations.
What we are seeing is the "fill" portion. If you remember during the summer, TNT actually left fifteen minutes early and rolled a vampire movie early. That cable network option is not available here on ABC broadcast TV.
So I guess this is helping to correct the missed interviews last week. Nice shot of all the helicopters.
They are out of gas.....
I did not like how they shot mears' interview. Most news and sports photogs know to have look room in their interviews. since Casey was looking to the right of the camera he should have been put in the left side of the screen.
Going to the story on the death of Colin McRae at the climax of the race was not the right time to do it. Maybe he was a friend of JJ, but goind that story when there should have been a lot of excitement to a first time winner, just took the wind out of the sail's for the 07's last 6 leading laps. Maybe playing up the point that Clint Bowyer was a first time winner should have been all they talked about.
Its kind of funny that the reporters are chasing down drivers that are trying to get out of the track at the helicopter pads.
Daly Planet Editor said...
They are out of gas.....
Well its kind of hard to throw together a 45 min post race show when you only expected a 15 min show. I would rather have this than other programing.
absolutely agree...not giving them a hard time...that situation is tough.
Clearly ESPN's best effort, but the weak links in this coverage continue to be Dr. Punch and Rusty. I think Dr. Punch needs to do all the Busch races only. Those seem to be better suited to his style and ability. And Rusty, it's been nice having you, you were a great driver but sorry, you are not a TV guy. Go take care of your son's Busch team and join ESPN's Countdown booth. Leave the play-by-play to the professionals.
Watching ABC while listening to MRN is fascinating, especially when ABC is busy shooting one car go 'round and 'round (like the 22) while all sorts of other things (we never see) are happening.
MRN tells you what's happening at the race. ABC shows you the "stories" they deem important.
And ABC has an annoying habit of taking another camera even when one is already on-air, showing you a critical move or wreck. It's as if the Director's not even wathcing what's on the air--he just forges ahead, calling the shot he's seeing in his Preview monitor, until he sees the mistake and goes back.
I think we are confusing camera cuts with dissolves and fades. Cuts are instantaneous. Dissolves and fades could last several seconds. Cuts do not take several seconds to complete. To use other sports as an example, football and baseball would be impossible follow if all cuts took several seconds.
Why during the middle of the race were we missing green flag coverage to re-hash the "big sports day" in New England? The same info was covered in the pre-race show. Is Google Maps an ABC/ESPN sponsor now?
I was watching hot pass...I only noticed one green flag restart missed based on the ABC feed on HotPass.
Is Google Maps an ABC/ESPN sponsor now?
I don't know...but I could not have cared less about all the other sports going on there. I would have been happy if they'd just covered the race well.
I think we are confusing camera cuts with dissolves and fades. Cuts are instantaneous. Dissolves and fades could last several seconds. Cuts do not take several seconds to complete.
No, no confusion.
When the 41 wrecks on-air and the director, who's busy looking for his next shot, takes another camera during the crash, that's bad directing.
haus20 said...
I think we are confusing camera cuts with dissolves and fades.
NO. There is no confusion. What I mean when I said the cut does not happen right away was that it may take 1-2 second for the CUT to happen after the button is pushed. Not a fade or a dissolve, a CUT. In live sports, dissolves are almost never used.
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