There’s too much trash on TV, but Americans’ good sense can still win out over the entertainment world’s quest for dollars. So, let’s take a moment to celebrate the complete flop by the XFL football league and its broadcast partner, NBC.
The XFL began its season as the buzz of the sports world. Ogling camera shots of cheerleaders, more violence on the field and Jesse Ventura to interview the babes in the cheer squads about their "dates" with the players — the league seemed to have everything to draw ratings. When a few people voiced the hope that Americans would turn off, experts suggested that it didn’t matter what most of us thought. The NBC network knows what it’s doing, we were told. The XFL will draw the crucial younger-male audience.
Opening its season Feb. 3, the new league got good ratings. After that, though, TV sets went dark faster than California traffic signals on a hot day. Young males — let it be said — wanted quality football, not sleaze and hoakum. Near the end, an XFL game posted the lowest modern prime-time ratings ever by one of the major networks.
This was a great embarrassment to some of the biggest names associated with the XFL. Long before the May 10 announcement that the league was folding, its key backers were trying to distance themselves. When the Wall Street Journal portrayed the inanity of the XFL-NFL connection in marvelous detail last month, NBC Sports Dick Ebersol declined to be interviewed.
Up and coming sports people showed better sense than their bosses. The Journal detailed the consternation of a young play-by-play announcer, Matt Vasgersian, when the camera zoomed in on the scantily clothed cheerleaders. His bosses had coached Vasgersian to toss off a leering line, perhaps "Now that’s a cheerleader!" Instead, he was speechless. After 15 seconds of silence as the camera followed the bouncing bodies, Vasgersian finally managed to laugh and say, "I feel uncomfortable. … Man alive. … All righty then. … Those suits are something else."
Vasgersian was demoted to make way for an announcer from the World Wrestling Federation, whose chairman, Vince McMahon, helped Ebersol found the league. Vasgersian eventually regained his spot.
Here’s to Vasgersian and to the millions of young men and other viewers whose TV choices booted the XFL out of America’s living rooms. They showed taste and judgment completely lacking in the XFL and NBC Sports executive offices.
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