The weekend featured a stellar TV special produced by an extraordinary amount of cooperation between many parties. NASCAR, SPEED, Hendrick Motorsports and others contributed interviews, footage and information to make SPEED's Haiti Earthquake Relief Special come together.
Rick Allen, Michael Waltrip and Jamie McMurray provided the studio portions. Allen set the right tone for the program and both McMurray and Waltrip contributed the NASCAR presence. Before the taping, McMurray took the photo above. The mix of content, information on donating to the Red Cross and limited commercial elements worked like a charm.
The special first aired on Sunday night up against the live NFL playoff game. On Monday night, it was scheduled to re-air at 8PM but someone at SPEED's network operations center did not get the message. After thirty minutes of Super Cars Exposed, the special did air completely beginning at 8:30PM.
For those of you who may have missed it, SPEED will be re-airing it again at 8AM ET on Tuesday morning. That's a good opportunity to record it for later viewing or to keep for a while. That one is going to be good to watch again. It's a great reality check.
The first JGR Countdown to Daytona program aired Sunday and proved to be a well-produced show offering the kind of casual behind-the-scenes content that perhaps the sport needs a lot more of this season. The highlight was JD Gibbs leading cameras on a walk through the JGR facility. There are three more of these one-hour programs to go. TDP has the complete NASCAR TV schedule on the right side of our main page.
Race Hub returned on Monday after an ill-timed absence last week right in the heart of the Charlotte Media Tour. Rick Allen and Randy Pemberton led guests Larry McReynolds and Jamie Reynolds through some polite talk about preseason topics.
McMurray is proving to be a thoughtful presence on TV. McReynolds is cleary accentuating the postives of everything happening in the sport as the build-up to Daytona begins. He has clearly chosen the cheerleader role so far this season.
SPEED toned down the new Monday Race Hub sponsor this week. Hooeters used to be a longtime friend to the sport. Last week, the hosts said "Hooters, it's more than a mouthful Monday" several times with big Hooters logos adorned on the set. No pun intended. This time, the off-camera voice-over announcer handled the sponsorship and the commercials that ran luckily contained more cheeseburgers than cheesecake.
Finally, HBO is set to air the first of four episodes of its 24/7 documentary series that focuses on Jimmie Johnson and his preparation for Daytona. Tuesday at 10PM the premium service rolls-out the first thirty minute show. It should be interesting to see what is included in the final product.
HBO is in about 38 million US homes serving primarily people who are entertainment oriented. Cable nets like SPEED, TNT and ESPN are more than double HBO's size. HBO Sports has been around for a very long time, but that division cancelled Inside the NFL a while back, which is how it got on Showtime. How many folks tune-in to see a documentary about a NASCAR driver on HBO should be interesting to find out.
One last note. The annual Toyota All-Star Showdown from Irwindale, CA will be the first taste of live NASCAR racing on Friday and Saturday night at 10PM ET. This is a wild event with NASCAR regional series all-stars combined with some "ringers." There are Late Models, Super Late Models and Camping World regional classes. Over 125 cars have been entered for this year's races.
Please feel free to offer your comments on any of the topics mentioned above. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.
19 comments:
I watched the first of the Gibbs shows & I thought it was very well done ( maybe the best of that genre I've seen ) I would recommend it.
I thought the JGR Special Part 1 was great and I hope they offer the series on DVD, I'd like it for the library. Definitely watching, DVR Parts 2-4.
Jimmie on HBO, however, not interested and not watching. And it probably will be available on DVD. My son will be watching, however, he's the 48 fan.
I've already voiced my support for Hooters restaurants involvement in NASCAR. Offensive/tasteless sponsors? How bout Extenze?? and Viagra sponsored Mark Martin for how long?? No pun!! C'mon people. It's tough enough finding money. Wanna see tobacco sponsors back? condoms? Didn't think so.
Lastly, I plan on DVRing Toyota All Star and Rolex 24 coverage.
The Toyota All-Star Showdown is usually a pretty good event. Any race fan should check it out.
thanks for the updates, JD. I missed a lot of the programming this weekend due to family plans, but I'm going to try and remember to tune in for the racing at the end of the week.
I thought the Haiti special was very well done, but was surprised when Brad Daugherty was dropped from the program. Was there a reason for this?
Are the JGR shows repeating? I missed the first episode and would love to see the walk-thru you talked about.
I am excited about the Jimmie Johnson show tonight. HBO has invested a lot in the 24/7 brand name, so I expect to see something really interesting.
You can go to SPEEDtv.com and click on the schedule botton to view the re-air schedules.
No clue on the Brad Daugherty issue. My guess is ESPN and the SPEED studios do not mix.
JD
I agree. The JGR program was very well done. It personalized what happens behind the scenes and let us meet all the average folks working so hard to make everything happen.
I only saw RaceHub on Monday and loved it. I've always been a big fan of Jamie and hes great on camera, also the new look of the 1 car is beautiful! So ready for saturday night and the Toyota All-Star Showdown. Everyone remember last year w Joey that was some good stuff
WOOOO RACING IS BACK im so sick of football thank God!!!!
I really enjoyed the JGR special and the Daytona 24 preview - good jobs.
I don't recall Mark M ever doing any Viagra commercials while they sponsored his car. I do recall Bobby Labonte and Rusty doing commercials for Viagra, or at least Pfizer, but always keyed to men's health, including sexual health. In fact I thought those old commercials were less intrusive than what I see now on TV during primetime for Viagra and Cialis.
I didn't catch Race Hub Monday, but last week's Hooters' lead-in was a little excessive for the time of day the show aired.
I thought the tone of the JGR special was fantastic in that it chose to focus on the teams behind the drivers and nit just a total puff piece on the drivers. Seeing the JGR airfleet was really cool.
"McMurray is proving to be a thoughtful presence on TV." I'm a fan, so I'm biased, but honestly--if they want to stretch an interview during a rain delay, they've learned to find McMurray. He doesn't lay it on heavy with the sponsor stuff, and he usually tries to be honest & intelligent about what's going on. And he'll keep going as long as you leave the mike in front of him. Maybe someday he might have a future there.
The Michael Waltrip segment as the celebrity panelist of the Great American Panel on Hannity re-airs tonight at 9 PM PST.
The JGR program is very well done. Race Hub continues to give some good information and Jamie is wonderful to listen to. But, is it just me, as a woman, who's getting tired of the "sexually provocative" advertising on Nascar programs? This whole Hooters thing on Race Hub really rankled me with their "More than a mouthful Monday". Do they really think we are stupid and don't get the double entendre with that sales pitch? And doesn't Speed, et.al. realize that women make up a large percentage of Nascar fans? Yes, I fully understand that Race Hub and the rest need sponsors, but to be honest, Hooters ranks right up there with Go Daddy as an anti woman company.
I heard MW was gonna be on Hannity. I asked what segment, got an immediate answer, and set the timer. Not a fan of Hannity but to each their own. As I watched the discussion I thought, "Did I shave my legs for this?" What was the point of having Michael on. It was choppy, at best. He tweeted earlier he was going to be out of his element.
My favorite part was the picture of Sean with the Helmet Mikey Tweeted on Twitpic during the commercial. Cute picture! :)
MW was an embarassment to Nascar tonight and carried his shilling way too far. Someone should have told him the Hannity show is not the place to make friends and influence people. But then this is typical Mikey. Remember MW, loose lips sink ships.
I watched Hannity last night. True to form, literally within seconds, MW had a helmet with one sponsor on it and another piece of clothing with his other sponsor prominately displayed in front of him throughout the segment. At least he didn't go off subject and disrupt the panel!
The Great American Panel on Hannity usually consists of one on the left, one on the right, and one celebrity.
@Darcie - you're not the only one! I find a lot of the commercials and lead in's for NASCAR offensive. They pretend they are all about family values, but what they are really all about is $$$$.
It's one of the reasons that I mostly record shows these days so I can FF through the BS and slime.
Sounds like the new godaddy.com commercials will be their usual sleazy stuff, too. And that's supposed to attract female fans? Not this one.
Post a Comment