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Sens-Sabres snubbed by NBC

News Type: Opinion — Seeded on Sat May 19, 2007 7:29 PM EDT
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If hockey fans needed a reminder of how insignificant their sport is on the American landscape, they got it courtesy of NBC Saturday.

One minute, viewers were watching the end of regulation play with the scored tied at 2. Coming back from the commercial break, NBC switched to its coverage of the Preakness Stakes. It was almost as if the hockey game had never happened.

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{"commentId":719692,"authorDomain":"placenamehere"}
Chris Casciano

Let me channel Rodney Dangerfield and say: "No Respect"

I have no doubt this will be the first story of many following this afternoon's game. But bottom line is that NBC couldn't have asked for a better game situation... Possibly elimination game, goes to overtime, "dramatic storyline" of Drury coming back from injury at the end of the 3rd, good action and goaltending... but it just simply didn't matter.

I just wonder if they'll be as many people complaining that their strong man competition on VS. was interrupted as there will inevitably be over NBC interrupting the hockey game.

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  • 4 votes
Reply#1 - Sat May 19, 2007 7:44 PM EDT
{"commentId":720311,"authorDomain":"tomofcda"}
tomofcda

It's not just that they preempted overtime to go toe the Preakness. What REALLY made me angry was the time. They cut away from hockey at about 1:30 pm PT. The race took place after 3 pm. They cut away for a yammering, inane pre-race show. The horse racing crew appeared to have so little material that they twice mentioned a horsey accident earlier in the day and showed a clip of horses supposedly clipping during the Kentucky Derby ad nauseum.

Had they stayed with hockey, the game would have ended with plenty of time to set up the horse race.

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  • 3 votes
Reply#2 - Sun May 20, 2007 9:58 AM EDT
{"commentId":726247,"authorDomain":"firsty"}
firsty

exactly. they could have even covered the race between OT periods, or cut away for the whole 2 minutes of that stupid event, should the hockey game have continued.

{"commentId":726247,"threadId":"105168","contentId":"728572","authorDomain":"firsty"}
    #2.1 - Tue May 22, 2007 4:49 PM EDT
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    {"commentId":720478,"authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
    Adam Kemp

    This pissed me off sooo much. I had been watching the game delayed via my DVR, and by the time I realized that the game was being cut for the stupid horse race it was too late. I switched to Versus just in time to see the celebration right after the goal. I missed all of the OT because NBC considers a pre-horse-race situation to be more important than an OT in the NHL playoffs. No respect indeed. I know hockey's not the most popular sport in America, but I seriously can't fathom how the Preakness could draw more fans than this game. How popular is horse racing anyway?

    {"commentId":720478,"threadId":"105168","contentId":"728572","authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
    • 2 votes
    Reply#3 - Sun May 20, 2007 11:56 AM EDT
    {"commentId":721004,"authorDomain":"placenamehere"}
    Chris Casciano

    Ouch. I hadn't even thought about how much this screwed up the folks with DVRs... I realized it sucked huge for anyone who doesn't get Vs... I've seen some complaints about SD vs. HD TV feeds... but there's just no way to get around

    As for fans, there's plenty of money people have bet and have riding on the triple crown races, I'm sure there's also some advertising money to be made [don't forget Hockey OT has no TV timeouts].. Just surprised they switched over after regulation instead of working just a bit into the pre-race show. The question to ask is how many people care about the pre-game, not the race itself because that one has an easy answer

    {"commentId":721004,"threadId":"105168","contentId":"728572","authorDomain":"placenamehere"}
    • 1 vote
    #3.1 - Sun May 20, 2007 5:10 PM EDT
    {"commentId":726235,"authorDomain":"firsty"}
    firsty

    i was watching on my dvr, too, about an hour behind real time.

    {"commentId":726235,"threadId":"105168","contentId":"728572","authorDomain":"firsty"}
      #3.2 - Tue May 22, 2007 4:47 PM EDT
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