Last week, Assistant Managing Editor Matt DeMazza and Junior Editor Rocky Rakovic got to have lunch with the people in front of and behind the camera at ESPN’s new sports magazine show E:60.
The long-form sports-journalism program premiers tomorrow night. Think HBO Real Sports, only a bit hipper (Rocky’s note: no disrespect to the master, Frank DeFord). The roll call for E:60: Tom Farrey, Rachel Nichols, Lisa Salters, Jeremy Schaap and Michael Smith.
Initial Impressions
Rocky: I like Outside the Lines and am glad ESPN is dedicating an extra hour to long-form coverage. What separates this from OTL is, for the most part, the cast of characters. And though not discussed during our lunch with the producers and reporters, it looks like The Sports Guy will be involved with the show. Undeniably as the VP of Common Sense.
Matt: I also like OTL—Bob Ley is a pro.
Rocky: And a Seton Hall grad!
Matt: But for me, the bar for any sports news show has been set so high by Real Sports, that if E:60’s even half as good, it'll be a success. As for the Sports Guy: You still read that hack? Let me sum up every column he’s ever written and will ever write: “Blah, blah, blah; Me and Sully were gambling; blah, blah, blah; Yankees suck; blah, blah, blah; Some actress you’ve never heard of on some show no one watches is really hot; blah, blah, blah; Vegas is great; blah, blah, blah; Boston rules.”
Rocky: Speaking of the Yankees, how are they doing? I stopped watching baseball after the Mets’ meltdown.
What They Bring to the Table
Rocky: They're attempting to break down the wall that seems to exist between what ESPN normally airs and what they do behind the scenes. At the opening of the show they are going to show the correspondents pitch their ideas in a bull session and discuss why their stories are relevant. I like the idea of seeing behind-the-scenes but that may just be because of the biz we are in. The interesting part will be seeing the way the reporters interact with each other. Smith jokingly complained to us that Schaap was “constantly killing his ideas.”
Matt: Yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to that part of it. But I wonder if you and I are looking forward to it because we’re journalists. Will the general public care about how story ideas are generated? And since each segment will only be about eight to 12 minutes, are they taking up valuable time by doing it?
Visual Style
Rocky: The entire program will be shot in HD—did that factor in the decision of who they tapped to be correspondents? Also stylistically, from the preview we saw, some of the “ideas meeting” footage wasn’t shot on a steady cam and while it wasn’t Blair Witch it was almost as if they forced making it look too real.
Matt: Certainly, all correspondents are relatively young and attractive, but I think that has more to do with the fact that they’re trying to be a fresher version of Real Sports than it does with HD. But sure, I don’t think anyone wants to see John Clayton in HD.
Rocky: Or Andrea Kremer.
Type of Stories You Can Expect
Rocky: Farrey looked into a statutory rape cover-up on behalf of a talented high school football player. Smith’s first assignment was to trail Ocho Cinco on his visits to his various children. Schaap filed a report on underage bullfighters that was extremely compelling.
Matt: Speaking of the underage-bullfighters story, I just saw a preview of an upcoming 20/20 in which they’re doing the same thing. Kind of interesting, since one of the reporters at the luncheon last week asked about stories overlapping among 20/20, Real Sports, E:60, Dateline, etc.
Rocky: Yeah it’s easy to get scooped with a long lead-time. If you gave me a choice out of any of those aforementioned shows, I’d choose E:60. And though I will be busy Tuesday night, much like ESPN did with The Bronx is Burning, I’m sure they will continually replay E:60. There's no way that you’ll be able to miss it even if you try.
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