Thank you to all the readers from both the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones who emailed or left a comment in reference to the on-air problem in the Sunday NEXTEL Cup race at Dover.
The best we can surmise is this. Coming out of commercial, about thirty laps or so into the race, viewers in both of these time zones had an entire segment of the pre-race show, NASCAR Countdown, played back on their TV screens. We believe this came from the ABC Master Control facility, but are still working on these specifics.
ABC did not have the same problem in the Eastern Time Zone, and continued with the live race without an interruption.
The viewers watching the replay returned to the race after lap fifty, missing about eighteen laps of live action. Since that one problem, nothing else of that nature happened for the remainder of the telecast. Unfortunately, the ABC telecast team did not acknowledge the problem, or show viewers highlights of what happened during those missed laps.
We did get email following the conclusion of the race that some ABC affiliates left immediately, and did not cover the post-race interviews. The Daly Planet is still working on the issue of whether or not they have the right to leave a live ABC Sports network telecast before it concludes.
As of this article, we still have not received a reply from ESPN about this issue. All of these current NASCAR NEXTEL Cup races are produced by the ESPN team, and ESPN maintains a contact media person for this series. If there is a response about this situation we will update this story immediately.
For those of you who did not see the problem, Joe Foster has a video up on his YouTube site where he is called Bumpstop3, here is the direct link.
Thanks again for the info, if you have any additional comments, please add them below by clicking on the COMMENTS button. Rules for posting are on the right side of the main page.
Are some say there was no post race coverage just because ABC left after the winner? Maybe the confusion is coming from the fact that ABC interviewed a few drivers as the winner was doing a victory lap. Where I was ABC left right at the end of its slot according to TV guide. So I don't understand that issue.
ReplyDeleteSome emailers are saying their local stations left for news right after the race and before any post-race interviews. The issue is who owns the timeslot when the alloted event is over?
ReplyDeleteHere in South Florida, there were no problems.
Is there any way to contact the people at ABC's master control to ask for answers and make sure this does not happen again?
ReplyDeleteStill waiting on ESPN PR folks to return my emails. They are the contact for NASCAR TV on ABC.
ReplyDeleteps - I am not holding my breath.
Maybe if ABC ignores it, it'll go away! If you don't admit to it then it never happened! Who couldn't be a executive for NASCAR races on ABC/ESPN?! I know two year olds that try and pull the same thing. ABC should be ashamed of themselves. Fess up but that would be the right thing to do. They pay to many people for damage control when the truth is what works with NASCAR fans. Get with it.
ReplyDelete