This topic has been raised before at TDP. It seems to come to a head each season during The Chase. Sunday, it will be on display in a weekend that features college football, NBA basketball, Major League Baseball and NFL Football.
In a nutshell, there will be four hours of live NASCAR pre-race on national television leading up to an event that may not even last that long from green to checker. The questions are does this make sense and is it really good for the sport?
Sunday starts with the preview hour of NASCAR Now on ESPN2. This is a TV series originating from the Connecticut studios of ESPN. On the set this weekend are host Mike Massaro and analyst Randy LaJoie. Reporting from Talladega are Nicole Manske and Marty Smith.
NASCAR Now is a polished and professional show that offers a very early race preview. Most interviews are taped while the reporters on-scene do their liveshots outside with the track as a background. The program relies on edited features and lots of footage, called B-roll, that is played while the duo in the studio talks about a topic.
NASCAR Now is airing a full four hours before the actual race. Often, it seems to be an island of motorsports amid a world of stick-and-ball sports. Still, it is accurate and informative as a pre-race show.
This week, the jackets and ties of NASCAR Now overlap with one of the two hours of controlled mayhem on SPEED called NASCAR Raceday. The format of the program is simple. The show bounces back and forth between the outside of the track and the inside.
On the inside are two reporters, Wendy Venturini and Hermie Sadler. They offer news, interviews and some opinions on the NASCAR topics of the day. They are professional, polished and fun. The vibe from these two is unlike any of the other NASCAR TV reporters.
Meanwhile, outside the track is a trio that cannot quite figure out how to stay out of trouble. Host John Roberts is looking stressed these days. He often tries to step out of the host role and offer a closing comment once panelists Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace stop talking.
The reason is easy to understand. This trio has lost its way on TV and it shows. They do not talk to each other, they each talk to the TV viewers directly. Roberts tosses out a topic and instead of a discussion, he gets two former drivers who seem to be interested in "making big statements" instead of common sense.
"Well, fans" is the way Spencer starts lots of his answers/lectures. "Let me tell you something" is the favorite opening line for Wallace. His intentions might be good, but Wallace often gets sidetracked by forced comedy antics and incomplete sentences.
Spencer and Wallace may both be doing their best, but this act is old. Roberts is repeatedly forced to offer the last word on many topics because Spencer and Wallace have made very little sense. Returning the focus of the two panelists to Roberts and not the crowd or the TV viewers is going to be critical.
Leave Wallace's desktop dancing and Spencer's cigar chomping to the commercial breaks. The two informed and polished reporters inside the track have made the antics and disjointed conversation of the outside panel even more glaring.
RaceDay still has an appeal as having something for everyone, but the program could be so much more with some fundamental TV coaching for Spencer and Wallace.
Now, after three hours of pre-race shows, along comes NASCAR Countdown on ABC. This is the actual TV show leading into the race and originates from the traveling Infield Pit Studio that ESPN built at considerable expense for this sport.
Allen Bestwick was promoted to host of this program and has done a solid job. This week, he brings in an extra chair as Ray Evernham joins regulars Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty on the one hour show.
ESPN has Bestwick on a tight leash for this program. It is heavily scripted and often uses the exact same edited features seen on the 10AM NASCAR Now show. All four of the NASCAR on ESPN pit reporters are used, but they do not have the same kind of relationship with the Sprint Cup Series drivers as SPEED's Venturini and Sadler.
The forced replies always include a sponsor mention and one or two sentences addressing the topic. It is sometimes very clear that the drivers just do not like the reporter that has been assigned to them. Since this TV team only comes into Cup for the final seventeen races, it is late July before many of the drivers deal with Jamie Little, Shannon Spake, Vince Welch or Dave Burns.
The race analysts Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree also appear in the show with a preview, but Jerry Punch usually does not. The focus is kept on Bestwick as he tries to herd the nine on-air talent into a cohesive show in the forty-four minutes of content that he has to work with.
By the time Bestwick hands off to Punch, NASCAR fans have been offered four hours of previewing the same 43 cars on the same track. Three TV networks and eighteen on-air talent have combined to offer an amazing amount of NASCAR TV.
Update: Apologies to those (including myself) as NN aired at 9AM. Here is the official info from ESPN as provided to TDP:
Mike Massaro hosts half-hour episodes of NASCAR Now airing Tuesday through Thursday of this week at 5 p.m., and Saturday at 1 a.m. (late Friday night). Massaro will be joined by LaJoie for the one-hour weekend edition that airs Sunday, Nov. 1, at 10 a.m. with a preview of that day’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway. The weekend wrap-up edition airs at 10 p.m. Sunday. Nicole Manske and Marty Smith will report from the speedway for both programs.
On this Sunday, how about sharing with us your pre-race viewing habits? Are you going to watch all three shows before the race? If not, what did you pick and why? Are choices based on personalities, networks or content?
We will also use this post to live blog all three shows. Offer any TV-related comments and opinions on Sunday as these programs roll by. To add your comment, just click on the comment button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for stopping by and helping us watch four hours of NASCAR pre-race TV.
59 comments:
i dont mind the 4 hour pre game stuff. I live in the central time zone and noticed this race is starting @ noon my time so wow thats an hour earlier than normal! But will be the norm next year, did they bump this race up an hour to compete w the NFL or was this race sappose to start early??? Just curious. Anyway I wont be waking up till 11 so i will just listen to MRN for the pre race and go to ABC! Also did everyone hear Jayski is reporting changes are coming to the New Car in 2011??? Sweet cant wait this is going to be one awsome November 1st!!!
I think ESPN would be better off if they eliminated the Sun AM Nascar Now and provided any relevant info from that show during the countdown show instead of rehashing the same stories anyway. Also, I think that Raceday should go up against the Countdown show. It was much better when Wendy and Hermie were wandering pit lane getting last second driver interviews. As has been said by others before, I would rather talk about what has happened instead of hearing former drivers and wannabes talk about what they think will happen. With that being said, ESPN should provide a 1 hour wrap up show immediately following the race. Call it Nascar Now if you want, but something that would provide post race interviews, analysis as well as the post race press conferences. Run it live or even air it at 9PM if you must, but originate it live from the track as soon as the race is complete. I would be much more inclined to watch that show than 4 hours of pre-race.
The first thing I do is go to jayski.com and look up the green flag time since none of the networks can seem to put in the various TV guides when the actual racing begins. FOX was the worst this season with that, having the race listed at 1pm but a 2:37 green flag. ESPN and TNT were sightly better, but it's still off by a 1/2 hour or so usually.
So once I get the actual green flag time, I then watch everything/anything else more interesting to watch, especially by this time in the season....there is not really anything new to be learned by this part of the season. So I watch football previews, set my fantasty football and nascar teams, watch some other programming. During commercials I'll turn on Nascar RaceDay, because I find that it can at times be a humerious and enteertaining pre-race show.
I skip ESPN pre race totally because ESPN I've found brings nothing new to the table ever. Speed might be telling me what I already know, but they have the ability to bring it with some entertainment or coax the drivers out of their vanilla corporate shells.
Otherwise, I turn on when the green flag is to start. But if it's ESPN covering, well then I just turn on the radio feed and continue to watch football/baseball/little hosue of the parrie..anything that might be more entertaiing than watching an ESPN race telecast.
Well normally I might try tuning into RACE DAY tomorrow since I LOVE this track (except I don't like the big wrecks)But not sure.
I also miss RDAY being on RIGHT UP until race time. Not the same. Too much fluff and minutia.
Make the show an hour long and I will still watch it.
ESPECIALLY since I enjoyed the trucks on SPEED today (GREAT WIDE CAMERA SHOTS, hardly any intrusive roof cam/in car cam/bumper cam junk. Unlike BSPN's CONSTANT
"Car Cam Roulette".
I might tune in depending on my mood. These big tracks can make for great tv for those that KNOW HOW to cover it.
That would be TNT.
Fox messed this the big tracks for me this year, so ain't pining for them, or their "one car finishes."
When I had a TV I watched everything off the DVR if I timed it right I would finish it all by the time TV was ready to start the Invocation.
Now I get up when I do since I'm at the mercy of what the streamers have on. Crazy usually has all the shows set up to record/flip appropriately.
I agree with Haus since they seem to repeat everything anyway just get rid of the AM NN and have a wrap up after the race.
Jonathan, it has a bit to do with the time change, as well as Talladega falling into the central time zone. Its still a 1 pm EST start which is normal.
I won't be tuned in for most of the pre-race. Instead I will be catching up on sleep...haven't seen a preview NN all year long so its probably a decent product that is lost upon me due to a pretty shameful air time. RD...I tune in the last half hour if I wake up in time. It has its moments, mostly led by the very talented Wendy Venturini and Hermie Sadler. Without those two the show is 2 hours of fill and another skip in my opinion. Countdown, oy. Probably going to watch NFL pre-game instead. The 3.5 hours of actual race coverage from ABC/ESPN is bad enough, I wont subject myself to an extra hour of ridiculous questions by pit reporters who seemingly can't ask a question without the word feel intertwined in it somehow.
AB is the star there, but still...the rest is too God awful to stay tuned in to long enough to pay attention.
Is 4 hours of pre-race neccesary? Absolutely NOT! The Daytona 500 should get that kind of treatment, every single race of the season should not. Countdown at a half hour, NN at a half hour and RD at a single hour is suitable enough to cover any and all of the major stories of the weekend and still have some time for driver interviews.
Hopefully RD considers using Kyle Petty at least on a rotating basis for 2010, he could bring a ton of good to a show seeking an identity.
More curious to hear how NASCAR is going to attempt to police bump drafting tomorrow. Im starting to feel like the scare tactic is going to cause more carnage than if they let the race play out on its own.
I used to watch all of the pre-race content but it just got to be too much filler and not enough real information. I now catch a little bit of the pre-race on Sirius but not the whole thing.
All I want before a race is information about the race itself. Save all of the features about a driver's mother-in-law's challenging journey from a private jet to the luxury of a private multi-million dollar bus for a "lifestyle" show during the week.
Here's a radical idea - how about a one hour post-race show analyzing strategies and key moments that determined the race? Not kissing up to drivers, owners, crew chiefs or sponsors but treating NASCAR like a real sport and analyzing it.
I always watch NASCAR Countdown because it's the most "official" of the pre-race shows. It airs immediately before the race starts. It leads right into the national anthem. The other two programs don't.
I sometimes think that the issue here with the 4 hours of pre-race arose due to the later start times. By holding off the greens until 2PM allowed that extra hour for stuff to be on-air.
Maybe next year, SPEED's show should only be during the FOX portion of the year, and ESPN's during theirs. Why put both up against each other? With all races at 1PM next year, coverage will probably start at noon, so there's no need for all that extra stuff.
I avoid pre-race stuff at all costs. i find it a bit stupid they throw eighty hours of pre-race stuff at us, which will consist of talking about The Big One, plates, showing previous wrecks 21987245 times. with any luck theyll talk about Big E's final win here
i dont like prerace garbage, id rather have extended post-race stuff. i enjoyed last week when they followed the car through some of post-race stuff
My station (KXLY-TV) in Spokane will not be airing NASCAR Countdown. Instead, the Chris Matthews show will air in its place. ARGH!
We watch very little of the pre-race shows. We're interested in the race.
4 hours seems much too much pre-race and if the race goes long, 2 minutes of post-race! I wonder how many times today they will show Carl's wreck from last year? Also, how many previous segments from this week that we've already seen several times. I get tired of the same things over and over and over so I don't normally watch all if it. Just get on with the race although I am happy the race will be starting early.
Don't expect ABC to air the national anthem all the time. Have you guys ever heard about the ABC News Special Report? It's where the network interrupts regularly scheduled programming in favor of a major news story. My prediction is a fatal plane crash.
I seldom watch the pre race shows. They are too much like a long infomercial about the race.
I would much prefer an hour of post race discussion and an elimination of several hours of pre-race hype.
Apparently it's all about the money, and the marketing people have decided they can gleen more from fans using the hype format.
The pre-race shows are so very carefully controlled by NASCAR that we will never get any real news or discussion. If we ever get any real post-race analysis, it would be just as closely controlled by NASCAR and we wouldn't get any honest analysis...just look at the LarryMac problems when he forgot and said something off the cuff.
I will probably DVR the race and listen on radio to see if there is anything worth watching.
From Bevo, 11/1 @ 1:44AM:
"Here's a radical idea - how about a one hour post-race show analyzing strategies and key moments that determined the race? Not kissing up to drivers, owners, crew chiefs or sponsors but treating NASCAR like a real sport and analyzing it.", (emphasis added by me).
How's that for netting out the problem and a solution? Precise analysis! This ought to be e-mailed to FOX and ESPN top executives.
One hour of Race Day with JR,
Wendy and Hermie would be plenty.
I don't need Spencer and Wallace
antics or incompentence. Hard to
believe SPEED signed Herm for two
more years to act a fool.
I agree with everything JD says in this blog. The pre-race coverage is overdone. I watch all of them off and on, but hardly ever watch them either of them completely due to the F1 race, or NFL shows that I enjoy.
Speaking of the F1 race in terms of NASCAR TV, has anybody else noticed how nice the track in Abu Dhabi (sp?) looks in HD TV? Sometimes I wonder why NASCAR tracks don't do more to improve the appearance of the outside of their tracks. When shows like trackside and raceday are broadcasting it would be nice to have scenery half as nice as that.
@Rich- Thanks, it's just really struck me this year how little the pre and post-race shows treat NASCAR like a real sport. How can we as fans complain about the rest of the sports media ignoring NASCAR except for the occasional spectacular wreck or substance abuse story if the very shows that are supposed to cover the sport don't do it either?
The best model for a pre-race show is F1 on Speed. BTW how cool would it be to see Cup cars on this brand new course in Abu Dhabi?
@Ritchie- It even looks amazing on SD. Could you imagine Cup cars on that 3/4 mile straight? Like Varsha I can't say I'm a fan of the run-off going under the grandstands but it is certainly the Taj Mahal of tracks.
@ritchie and @bevo: the F1 course is astounding: terrific layour, awesome surroundings and sold out 50,000 crowd, including women in traditional avayas and burkas!
AND the broadcast has me toying w/skipping church to watch to the end! they even had a neat feature where they visually froze the field coming down a stretch and panned across each and every car: sponsor time for all! lots and lots of headlight shots from all the different stretches and angles on this course.
as for pre-race: not for me. will catch up with it all around 1 so i can read the comments, get all the laptop windows open that i'm forced to use for every espn race, and figure out how many football games i can have ready to watch during commercials!
see ya then!
i see no need to sit around listening to filler , did any body else see were theres going to be racing at north wilkesboro i guess i know were ill be at in OCT 2010
@red- The hotel there with the changing colors was designed by the same architect that did the birds nest stadium in China for the Olympics.
In pittsburgh, pa looks like on my Directv we dont have a nascar countdown show on ABC @ 12:00pm et. looks like they going to show cartoons instead. that sucks
I agree about the track in Abu Dhabi it's beautiful and I love the blue colors around the track. It's a place to go to do other things besides watching a race. I wonder how the drivers like driving it? We'll see I guess the race is almost over. JD I think RL will be on Nascar Now tomorrow.
Well, that was a surprise. NN was on at 9AM. Here is the info as provided by ESPN:
Mike Massaro hosts half-hour episodes of NASCAR Now airing Tuesday through Thursday of this week at 5 p.m., and Saturday at 1 a.m. (late Friday night). Massaro will be joined by LaJoie for the one-hour weekend edition that airs Sunday, Nov. 1, at 10 a.m. with a preview of that day’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway. The weekend wrap-up edition airs at 10 p.m. Sunday. Nicole Manske and Marty Smith will report from the speedway for both programs.
Seems like things got a little crossed up. RaceDay is at 10AM.
JD
@JD- Sounds like someone forgot to roll back the clock :)
Was I the only one to get 5 minutes of color bars and beeps instead of RaceDay? I'm watching Shaw Direct (Star Choice) in Ontario, Canada.
Yeah, that was a surprise it was actually at 8 AM Central time but I had it recorded on our season pass on DirectTV. Like the interview with Carl.
@MV- No problem on DirecTV down here in Baja Ontario :)
I'll watch Nascar Now if I'm up when it's on, but I'll always watch Nascar RaceDay. RaceDay talks to a lot more of the drivers than Nascar Now seems to (or the pre-race show for that matter). I usually watch the pre-race show as well, but this week I don't have a choice.
Yet again (for the 3rd time this season) my local ABC affiliate WDAY has scheduled their own programming when the pre-race show is supposed to air. I did send them an email this morning to complain yet again, but I don't see them changing things any time soon. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since they did the same thing during the 2007 and 2008 seasons (I found emails I sent to them complaining and blog posts complaining). I guess that's what I get for living in ND. LOL
Rockin Rich said...
'From Bevo, 11/1 @ 1:44AM:
"Here's a radical idea - how about a one hour post-race show analyzing strategies and key moments that determined the race? Not kissing up to drivers, owners, crew chiefs or sponsors but treating NASCAR like a real sport and analyzing it.", (emphasis added by me).
How's that for netting out the problem and a solution? Precise analysis! This ought to be e-mailed to FOX and ESPN top executives.'
Are you kidding me? NASCAR would shoot that idea down like an incoming Intercontinental Ballistic Missile!
Great intro on NN by Mike Rowe where he said - the cars fly without wings. I love his voice.
Once we put the post up for the live race blog, we will be getting a list from fans of the ABC stations that are not carrying the pre-race show. That should be interesting.
lol @ Jimmy he almost went off on Nascar just now and the bump drafting, hes like come on Nascar let them bump draft!!!then he paused and thought better and stopped his rant. lol must of thought of what happened earlier this week
Spencer already sounds like an idiot, that only took 15 minutes. That's not racing, Jimmy, it's wrecking...
Four hours of pre race is excessive.
I'm hoping that next year with the earlier start times RD is reduced to an hour. That's plenty of time. I agree with the others that NN is not necessary on Sunday mornings. It does make more sense to show it after the race. Then they could really follow the script.
@pghttwood, cartoons? Don't you guys usually get parades?
Heard the first "how do you feel" question today already. Have seen Carl's wreck more than a dozen times today too.
I'm watching everything time shifted until the race. I'll collapse Countdown because it usually is half repeat of NN anyway. Thankfully my guide has the correct time and it had NN at 9am so it must have been planned several days ago because Comcast guide isn't known for rapid correction. Surprise with all the no countdown for parades we are getting countdown here in Philly area
NN was fun the piece on the girl hurt in the spring was well done (my guess we'll see it again on countdown) the otto balls for picking a winner was pretty funny, I really want to know who got tossed out by Randy perhaps a S&P car?
Well y'all have fun watching the race. I'm off to The DeathStar (aka Cowboys Stadium) for the game with Seattle.
BTW ABC's ratings here will be pathetic going up against the Cowboys game which routinely pulls in about 40% of the tv audience.
Have fun bevo, enjoy the wide-screen.
ESPN/ABC director and the producer have to make this race more fun to watch. They should throw away that Jimmie Johnson only exclusive coverage and cover the whole field.
NRF - Massaro said it was Bobby Labonte. That was fun!
I just caught a look at Carl Edward's comments on the value of the smaller restrictor plate. Watch his eyes...he doesn't believe a thing he's saying...just spouting the NASCAR corporate line. I thought it was funny.
I didn't even need to see it...I could hear it in his voice...
Hi JD,
Just a note. finally found raceday and the only thing i am enjoying are wendy and hermie.
I very seldom watch prerace and today i am. wendy and hermie make raceday. the sorry worn out act of the panel talking and not discussing is so disconnecting to me. just my opinion. pre race shows are just to long for me to watch. I usually tune in just before green flag. i can get all i need from the internet and other social media, and i do not have to endure the commercials from sponsors or the junk from the networks that i already knew about during the week. Gee, maybe sponsors and nascar and the networks may read this. I doubt it though.
oh, so now Jimmy knows more about running a team than Richard Childress...*why* is this guy still employed?
The live race blog post is up. Please move your comments to that location once the pre-race shows are done.
Thanks.
JD
Bunch of stuff to say so will do it here instead of over on truck post.
1. thumbs up to KB for saying 'it just happened' in VL for Jeff Gluck. Another one for social meadia in NASCAR. Twitter was the first thing I thought of when KB said that.
2. I retweeted ppistone seconds after he put up that stupid tweet about negative fans told him to read TDP bet he didn't.
3. Was terrrified ESad would forget to keep his legs crossed on Trackside last night. Very funny.
4. Think it is great that Spencer and KP are keeping the heat on, and says to me that SPEED has their back. Feel even more sorry for Larry Mac now.
5. Having to put up with ESPN ruiening the race for me today, I am glad for as much pre race as I can get. The most fun I will have all day as far as racing goes. Frustrating and sad.
6. SPEED puts on THE best racing on TV period.
7. What the f*ck do Helton and co think they are doing? you can't race without bumpdrafting, how in the name of sam hill are they going to 'controle' it and not expect to get dumped on by everyone especially the fans. Do they just not understand how deep they have dug this hole?
I now return you to your local raceday programming
I'm not watching the pre-race stuff, but it is on in the background in the other room. I just walked by had heard the last few seconds of Helton's comments on the 2-car breakaway.
Paraphrasing: "Drivers, thou shalt not RACE. This is NASCAR and we have control. If you can drive faster using the features of the new car, DON'T DO IT!".
OK...now I understand.
And speaking of commercials, when in the world are they going to retire the Home Depot, Joey Logano, "Starting Out" spot. Enough is enough!
I enjoy SPEED Nascar RaceDay. However, more than that is overkill. ESPN/ABC is just more of the same. If they chose a fresh new way of presentation or topics, I may watch that. I would much prefer to see what's going on in the garage, driver meeting, driver intros or other track pre-race ceremonies. If a Network showed those, I'd watch...A real Nascar race fan knows all the "top stories" from Nascar.com, Jayski.com, etc by the time these shows air....Now let's get some "meaty" discussions with controversial Nascar issues goin and that would also be refreshing!
Well, I'm going to have a problem with TV this weekend: there's just too much important stuff going on to watch or even tape it all. And the least relevant of all of it is pre-race shows.
Admittedly I'm not a fan of endless previewing; you could give me a solid 1/2 hour and I'd be happy. (Didn't it used to be like this? - In fact, I can recall when we didn't HAVE any pre-race! How did we ever survive?) To me, the best pre-game shows are the 1/2-hour NFL panel shows, with FOX and CBS leading the way; ESPN's effort always seems to get caught up in their ESPN-ness.
As well-done as the NASCAR NOW/COUNTDOWN show is, it's almost completely irrelevant early on Sunday mornings. NHRA TODAY is a much better show, with just the right balance of info & interviews, and for some reason they seem to just get it right, which NN doesn't. And Allen Bestwick is one of my all-time favorite hosts.
JD is right that the RACEDAY formula has seen its day. But the current state of the show is more understandable when you to realize that when RACEDAY began, Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace's only TV experience was as fill-in panelists on what is now TWIN. I used to love their occasional appearances, which were usually when Mikey was away. They provided the missing goofiness-factor. But as the main focus of opinion there just isn't much "there" there.
I watched RACEDAY for a while when I attended Fontana last year, and wasn't even compelled to stick around for the whole show. I love them both as competitors, and have even met and spoken with them, but as JD points out, they need direction.
Lou said it for me best: I'm there to watch a RACE. Everything else is just appetizers; and if you eat too much appetizer, you won't have any room left for dinner!
Come on Rusty, the place is called Talledega, not Tell-a-dega! Fingernails on the black board.
MY EYES!!! MY EYES!!! Is Brad Daughtery still wearing his Halloween costume? That suit. The pink tie. He needs more than a pass through penalty for that fashion felony.
It should be interesting to see how ESPN handles the new rules.
Whoops! The NFL shows are an hour too, and they're all up against one-another today - along with ESPN's NASCAR Countdown; at least they are here on the left coast.
Shows you how much attention I've been paying ;-)
OK folks, moving comments up to the race post page.
Thanks for four hours of exactly the same stories on the same drivers at the same track...
Post a Comment