WSOP Fails To Build Main Event Interest Despite Four-Month Break
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Writer Feels Break Has Done Little To Build
Hype For WSOP Final Table |
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event resumes Sunday after being on break since July 14, and while the long break "showed creativity, imagination and a sense of fun, opening a spectrum of intriguing possibilities," the event "has failed to deliver," according to Jeff Haney of the LAS VEGAS SUN. The break, which occurred after the no-limit Texas hold 'em event was cut to nine players, was designed to "boost ratings for ESPN's television coverage of the event." The break also was designed so the so-called "November Nine" final competitors "would become virtual folk heroes during the interim", but the nine competitors left Las Vegas in July "largely unknown to the general public, and they return the same way for Sunday's resumption of the tournament," which carries a $9.1M top prize. Poker player Phil Gordon: "I've been personally pretty disappointed with the level of media coverage. I thought there would be a lot more media buzz and coverage of the final nine." Haney wrote the scheduling move "came in about the worst possible year" for the WSOP. Since mid-July, other news and events have kept "would-be fans riveted on anything but the final table of a poker tournament on hiatus" (LAS VEGAS SUN, 11/6). Ylon Schwartz, who is fifth in the chip count going into the final table, said, "This break has been atrocious." He added that the break is a "'big blunder' that compromises the integrity of the poker tournament." David Rheem, who is seventh in chips, added, "It's gone, to be honest with you. That rhythm is gone" (AP, 11/5). WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack: "ESPN still wanted to air all of its other episodes so, whether or not we delayed the final table, the final episode for this season of the WSOP would have still aired on Nov. 11" (SOUTHTOWN STAR, 11/7).
HEADACHES FOR ESPN PRODUCTION: In St. Louis, Dan Caesar notes ratings for this year's coverage are up 6% from last year, and the telecast "that covered the field being reduced from 27 to the final nine" increased 42% over last year. And while the break "is good for the audience," it "creates massive headaches" for ESPN Senior Producer Jamie Horowitz. The usual turnaround for the WSOP telecasts "is about a month, with the editing done in New York." But Horowitz and his crew "will be on site and work out of a temporary production facility on a parking lot," and they "will have little time to edit the 16 or so hours of action into a two-hour package" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 11/7).
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