ABC broke away from the Little League World Series championship game with it tied 6-6 going to extra innings (I'm guessing for Hurricane Katrina coverage) and put it on ESPN2, where they were showing a same-day tape of the National Pro Fastpitch championship game (featuring Jennie Finch). They dumped out of the softball to show the little league game, and stayed with it through its conclusion and a couple of interviews, then went back to the softball. They didn't usurp Sportscenter, which makes them quite a bit of money. They just slid things over, just like they occasionally have to do with some other sport I've heard of.
Re: ESPN Hates Softball AND Little League Just wondering: why would World News Tonight be so damned compelling when the hurricane is many hours off the coast of Louisiana and, given the fact that New Orleans is already evacuated, there is nobody else to tell that they have to evacuate in the first place? I think the Kellogg's people are miffed that their ads and stuff got shifted to ESPN2. They wouldn't have done that for the IRL, that's for sure.
Re: ESPN Hates Softball AND Little League Because it's news. Real news. Not funeral coverage or some speech, but the impending strike of what could be a potentially catastrophic hurricane.
I'll be sure to call the thousands of people in the Superdome and tell them that they're not actually in New Orleans.
Re: ESPN Hates Softball AND Little League And yet, they did it to the Little League World Series, which routinely gets exponentially higher ratings than the IRL. Huh. That's odd.
Re: ESPN Hates Softball AND Little League Yes, but ESPN/Disney have worked with IMS/IRL for years -- to the point where Tony George may break the NASCAR contract to give ABC the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
Re: ESPN Hates Softball AND Little League Doesn't matter, an entire city could be destroyed by this thing. It's not that people COULD die, people WILL die.
Re: ESPN Hates Softball AND Little League Can't believe they didn't ask you for your news judgment. It was also that time in the east where stations usually have news on. And they've worked with LLWS since 1985. The Brickyard NASCAR event started on ABC because of IMS' relationship with them, and because George had it in the deal that IMS could control the broadcasts of the event. I don't know that that is the case anymore. In any case, you're delusional if you think they wouldn't have bumped an IRL race for coverage of a potential disaster like this. Just delusional.
ESPN Classic will be replaying the LLWS Championship Game this evening from 8:00 pm ET to 10:30 pm ET.