I watched ESPN's "E:60" last night, and while it had its moments, I was generally unimpressed. Here's Richard Sandomir:
It is also obvious how much ESPN wants to turn its correspondents — Jeremy Schaap, Rachel Nichols, Tom Farrey, Lisa Salters and Michael Smith — into stars, with an opening clearly influenced by “NYPD Blue.” About a million viewers saw them on Manhattan streets, running, walking, hailing cabs and climbing subway steps, all to the accompaniment of a percussive backbeat. Hey, it’s Sipowicz! No, you fool, it’s Schaap.I really liked the North Carolina segment, the Bill Simmons bit was funny, and the Miami Northwestern piece bizarrely featured 2 Live Crew frontman Luther Campbell as the good guy (!) and New York-turned-Miami schools chancellor Rudy Crew as the bad guy.You expect to see this ESPN troop kick in clubhouse doors, flash their gold ESPN reporter shields and shout, “Drop your syringe, skell, we’re the E:60 Squad!”
Problems: That "Vince Young's iPod" segment was just embarrassing, and continues ESPN's bizarre obsession with innocuous personal details of the athletes. And the Vegas segment was just weird- it ended abruptly, and since it mentioned the line moving on a football game involving Toledo, shouldn't it have mentioned that Toledo was involved in a point-shaving scandal?
Posted by Stephen Silver at October 18, 2007 05:14 PM