Some sad news at the score (Full article): http://www.thescore.ca/blogs/footy/index.asp?name=footy/2008/01/the_footy_show_7.html It looks like they are canceling their Monday and Friday shows and they've let Paul James and Neil Davidson go.
Short-sighted, very short-sighted. And quite stupid when you consider how fractured the Score's viewership is; it's so poorly watched much of the time due to format and placement that it's very hard to guage real public interest levels from any of its talk-style shows. I'm sure they'll replace it with Mixed Martial Arts or drag racing or something. Then, three years from now when there's another Canadian team in the MLS, they'rll wonder why they get the cold shoulder from footie fans.
Thank goodness they kept Brian Budd. I was worried miss the stories about how his mother in law could beat up Vinnie Jones and John Terry at the same time.
I liked the old sportsworld show that game on than the footy show. It is a shame though they will lose Paul and Neil, they are by far the most insightful people on the show.
They definately need to show more mixed martial arts. Alot of Canadians don't have the Fight Network.....which ironically is Canadian.
"Thank goodness they kept Brian Budd. I was worried miss the stories about how his mother in law could beat up Vinnie Jones and John Terry at the same time." That's awesome!
Yeah it does suck. I was sad when I saw that on Saturday morning. I love the show, but they weren't getting the viewers. At least it's still on a couple times a week. I wish Fox Sports Canada was close to being as good as it is in the states. It really sucks here. No games hardly as everything is on Setanta and/or GolTv. Luckily i've moved to Burlington from St. Kitts, so hopefully I'll be able to get those 2 channels now.
The Score just made itself even less credible and relevant. The very few REAL sports it covers, it just decided to cut back on coverage. They should just call themselves the Poker and Wrestling Channel and get it over with, because hereonin, there is even less reason to watch The Score.
Definitely. Take a hike Score. You decided to play safe and cover Poker better than Footy. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The Football fan in Toronto will remember when you let us down and let others pick up the slack. Fox, Gol and Setanta just picked up one more regular viewer.
No great loss - picture quality is terrible. HD channel is constantly distorted. There's that huge ticker wasting space ... the target must be targeted at people who are too stupid to use the Internet to check a score. Best they don't try and carry real sport ...
I have a great deal of respect for Paul James. However, he has zero personality. For a weekly show like The Footy Show and with personalities around him like Sharman and Budd...it was ok. But Forrest was a good partner to Reed and if you slip James in there...the coverage will become quite dull. I thought the first year partnering worked...it's too bad Craig is gone.
The only thing I can think of is when the hell will Rogers Sportsnet finally move studios and take over Setanta? Apparently the entire plan was to bring Setanta to Canada to moisten everyone's appatites then it would become "Sportsnet 2" when Sportsnet moves to brand-new studios somewhat close to downtown Toronto, and now with the news from the Score it looks like they have two more analists to add to Forest and Dick Howard. I only hope that CBC gets someone good to go with Nigel. And preferably not Mitch Peacock.
True - the Score experimented with doing the coverage themselves for one of the games (I believe it was the home game vs Houston) with Sharman doing PBP, James doing colour and Budd doing the on-field commentary. I don't think they continued that experiment for very long for good reason
"Mr Dichio, Mr Dichio! Brian Budd from The Score, a quick question. You faced a tough first half and TFC was shut out by FC Dallas. What will it take to beat Adrian Serioux at the heart of the Dallas Midfield? Do you need to call up my mother in law to beat him up?"
Can you provide any links to back that assertion up? I am genuinely curious to read more if this is true. Setanta is huge overseas and does not need Rogers to do anything. From what I know Rogers was essentially shut out of carrying any BPL games (by Setanta through its deal with The Score) until they agreed to help Setanta with becoming a full-fledged channel in Canada (Setanta is considered a pay-per-view channel at the moment). When Rogers agreed to help Setanta with the application, Setanta gave Rogers one game (Saturday - second choice) per week. When Setanta entered the Canadian market it was by fronting The Score the money to buy the rights to all BPL games for Canada and then "buying" them back from The Score to allow their PPV channel to come into existence. The Score's gain was a Sunday BPL game each week (second choice I think) for acting as the gateway for Setanta to get into Canada. I don't see why Setanta would allow themselves to be folded into a Sportsnet2 branding. They are a massive name internationally, and even with a $14.99 price for a single channel people are subscribing (I am a subscriber). Cheers!
Setanta is a rip off, I looked at the programing they have on eastlink and all they show is Premiership matches and no other show like review shows and such that they offer oversea's.
They aren't allowed to have any news/analysis shows (or review shows) because they aren't a channel. They are PPV. Thus they can only show matches. I certainly don't find them to be a rip off. Mind you I watch a lot of games on the channel (including rugby). And now they have been advertising that they will have Aussie Rules on the channel as well, so yeah, quite nice in my book. Cheers!
For Sportsnet 2 news: http://www.digitalhome.ca/content/view/2056/206/ The sub-licensing was to sportsnet not the score: http://blog.canoe.ca/remotecontrol/2007/08/02/setanta_hits_the_air_on_aug_11 And as far as AFL... I can't wait. I watched last season like it was crack. Even if they're only on in the middle of the night (My PVR comes in handy).
I can't understand Sean and Budgie on the best of times. That's why I stopped watching. I do have to admit that Paul James was a very good analyst who did not get enough airtime between the other clowns on the show.