Discuss ABC coverage of St. Pete

[numanoid]

Well, overall pretty poor coverage I'm sure most will agree. They spent some money on their graphics which was nice and they did throw out the twitter hashtag for the race (which is something big for Indycar this year) but they really dropped the ball in a few places.

What happened to Bourdais? Why no update on RHR's fuel issue? Several key passes were missed (I saw them happen live) and then they went back to replay them. How about the race off pit road for Helio to see if he cycled out in front of Dixon?

How about the Helio pass for the lead?

Also we needed a lot more post race coverage. While Power and Dario had a poor showing, as leaders last season they should have been interviewed to find out what happened. How did Power go from 19th to 7th?

Post your observations here.

[beachbum]

ABC lived up to it's normal standards.


Dismal

[FIAT1]

Terrible sound. Same boring trio using repetitive statements. New cameras on the cars but not seen much. No pit reporting and information on drivers that did not finish. Same bs from espn. Cameras should be closer to the track to get a speed and corners better.

[DBell]

It was what I expect from them from them, borderline of unwatchable.

[disko]

ABC's sub standard production value has once again given Indy car a black eye. If they ever decide to go with top notch production, their ratings will increase. After the first 5 laps, the cars seemed slow, looked like modified go carts from the back and had to listen to the excruciating rhetoric from Reid and Goodyear.

Nascar ratings went up when FOX got into the game and threw money and brought in top resources to improve the production. I didn;t even see any significant changes in the production as far as a new intro, hell any wow factor would have worked. Then I heard the pathetic ABC Indy CAr theme music and said, its going to be a long year. Lets see if NBC Sports brings up the Game with their coverage. At least wally is tolerable.

Seriously, get rid of goodyear and Reid. It is taking credibility away from the series.

[Nikki Katz]

In the UK the feed cut out for five minutes or so, at which point they just had to throw back to the UK studio with no sound or pictures to help them. It was actually better than listening to the US commentators plug tv shows and go to advert breaks. Would be nice if they were at least slightly informed!

[call_me_andrew]

Whoever picked the background music had good taste, I'll give them that much.

[00steven]

Reid didn't get on my nerves too bad today. Goodyear on the other hand...

[garyshell]

My local ABC affiliate chose to cut to an infomercial as soon as Helio came down from climbing the second fence. The one thing that struck me about the coverage was that Marty and Scott had the good sense to shut up when Helio climbed that second fence. And I appreciated that very much. The rest of their coverage, as always, sucked.

Gary

[Quash]

Seriously, get rid of goodyear and Reid. It is taking credibility away from the series.


Agreed! After watching the F1 coverage I found myself wondering how if they were even watching the race.

[Mark]

Absolutely diabolical. If this was supposed to persuade me to subscribe to Sky Sports then forget it.

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed the sound, it sounded like they were talking down a telephone.

As for the commentators, did they do any commentating? Apart from going to adverts and introducing pointless retrospectives. Even at the race start they went silent, just at the point where in F1 they would be talking at 100mph..

[Jag_Warrior]

Absolutely diabolical. If this was supposed to persuade me to subscribe to Sky Sports then forget it.

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed the sound, it sounded like they were talking down a telephone.

As for the commentators, did they do any commentating? Apart from going to adverts and introducing pointless retrospectives. Even at the race start they went silent, just at the point where in F1 they would be talking at 100mph..

Personally, I really enjoyed Scott Goodyear's (constant!!!) old stories of what things were like when he was such a successful driver. There are several years in the 80's and 90's that I can't remember, so that's probably why I can't remember Scott ever being all that successful. But as much as he jabbered about it today, it surely must have happened.

[methanolHuffer]

Is Scott Goodyear afraid that people will forget he used to race cars?

Or is he trying to pull one over on newer fans by leading them to believe he was a decent driver?

He has an ego deficiency issue in some way. Most Canadians are not like him.

[chuck34]

Is Scott Goodyear afraid that people will forget he used to race cars?

Or is he trying to pull one over on newer fans by leading them to believe he was a decent driver?

He has an ego deficiency issue in some way. Most Canadians are not like him.

To be fair, I don't think Scott was a horrible driver. Indy '92 could have very easily come out the other way 'round. Then he would have been the first to come from 33rd to win, pretty much giving him huge status. Then he should have won the '95 race. But the big dummy couldn't figure out not to pass the pace car. Then there was the last restart in '97. What would have happend had the lights and flags all been on the same page? So who knows? What would the evaluation of Goodyear be if he were a three time 500 winner?

Now that I've defended him a bit as a driver, I will say that he is complete and utter crap in the booth. He should have been out of there years ago.

[DBell]

Overnight rating for the race is a 1.1, about the same as last year if I'm not mistaken. I guess Danica leaving had very little effect, going by the first race. I've felt that for all the fans she is said to have, few of them actually tune in to watch the races. If ABC put some sort of effort into their production and got announcers that didn't bore you to sleep, I wonder if it would make a difference in the ratings.

[call_me_andrew]

Maybe a lot of people did leave because of Danica, and a lot of new faces tuned in hoping to see someone else hit a fence head first. People are sick.

[elan 02]

Nice thought CMA, Maybe you need a reallity check!

[Lousada]

To be fair to Scott Goodyear, he is hired as the driver-commentator. So it's his job to be telling stories about how it is like as a driver. And to be fair to ESPN, name one north american driver from the 96-12 era that has the credibility on ovals AND road courses?? I can only think of Paul Tracy and Buddy Rice, who both do not appear to be interested in the job.

[garyshell]

To be fair to Scott Goodyear, he is hired as the driver-commentator. So it's his job to be telling stories about how it is like as a driver. And to be fair to ESPN, name one north american driver from the 96-12 era that has the credibility on ovals AND road courses?? I can only think of Paul Tracy and Buddy Rice, who both do not appear to be interested in the job.

How about Parker Johnstone or Tommy Kendall? While they may not have the same oval chops as Goodyear at least they both can project an image that is light years better than Goodyear. He's like listening to fingerails on a blackboard.

Gary

[FIAT1]

Indy500 is the biggest race and they have most idiotic people calling it on tv. Goodyear is boring and if I hear phrase "catching him is one thing ,passing is onother" one more time ,Im gona puke. Bring Paul Page back or someone like him.

[F1boat]

I don't know why are you so angry, I kinda liked the coverage.

[FIAT1]

I don't know why are you so angry, I kinda liked the coverage.


Good for you then. We all have our standards on what we like to see and hear.

[garyshell]

I don't know why are you so angry, I kinda liked the coverage.

What coverage did you listen to? The one with Marty and Scott?

Gary

[heliocastroneves#3]

I'm used to listen to the insanely awful dutch commentary during F1 races and when they do broadcast IndyCar, the commentary is even worser than it already is during F1 races. This means that I'm glad, I could watch the race via an ABC livestream to be honest. Scott Goodyear and Marty Reid are just superb, compared to the dutch commentators.. :)

[garyshell]

I'm used to listen to the insanely awful dutch commentary during F1 races and when they do broadcast IndyCar, the commentary is even worser than it already is during F1 races. This means that I'm glad, I could watch the race via an ABC livestream to be honest. Scott Goodyear and Marty Reid are just superb, compared to the dutch commentators.. :)

YIKES! That's a scary thought!

Gary

[DBell]

I'm used to listen to the insanely awful dutch commentary during F1 races and when they do broadcast IndyCar, the commentary is even worser than it already is during F1 races. This means that I'm glad, I could watch the race via an ABC livestream to be honest. Scott Goodyear and Marty Reid are just superb, compared to the dutch commentators.. :)

Holly cow H3, are you sure the Dutch commentators are breathing? Maybe the issue is they are actually dead. That's the only thing I can think of that would make Goodyear and Reid superb by comparison. :)

[Lousada]

Holly cow H3, are you sure the Dutch commentators are breathing? Maybe the issue is they are actually dead. That's the only thing I can think of that would make Goodyear and Reid superb by comparison. :)

The problem with Dutch commentators is not that they are dead, because the excitement is there. In The Netherlands there isn't a culture of co-commentating. At sporting matches there is just one commentator and that commentator is not allowed to shut up for one second. So that one guy babbles on and on and on. And something that really pisses me off is that the commentators are allowed to have favourites. It's like the all-Danica-all-the-time-show EVERY SPORTING EVENT.
Luckily we can receive Belgian, German and British TV for some decent sportscovering.

[Lousada]

How about Parker Johnstone or Tommy Kendall? While they may not have the same oval chops as Goodyear at least they both can project an image that is light years better than Goodyear. He's like listening to fingerails on a blackboard.

Gary

It appears to me like ABC/ESPN wants something more from a commentator than just being able to tell commentate well. This completely mystifies me, but I cannot explain it otherwise. Remember that dreadful pitreporter a few years ago, Brienne Pedigro or something?? I presume that for the driver-analist they are looking for someone famous and accomplished rather than a good commentator.

[garyshell]

It appears to me like ABC/ESPN wants something more from a commentator than just being able to tell commentate well. This completely mystifies me, but I cannot explain it otherwise. Remember that dreadful pitreporter a few years ago, Brienne Pedigro or something?? I presume that for the driver-analist they are looking for someone famous and accomplished rather than a good commentator.

Yep, and that logic escapes me.

Gary

[F1boat]

What coverage did you listen to? The one with Marty and Scott?

Gary

The ABC one, I found it to be OK. Not as good as the BBC commentaries of F1 or as Ben Edwards commentating the BTCC (the best guy IMO), but in our local stations I have heard horrid commentators, biased and repetitive. And the Eurosport guy commenting motorsports in English... I dunno why, but I can't stand him :(

[Mark in Oshawa]

How about Parker Johnstone or Tommy Kendall? While they may not have the same oval chops as Goodyear at least they both can project an image that is light years better than Goodyear. He's like listening to fingerails on a blackboard.

Gary

Tommy Kendall would cut the BS with a sharp knife. Remember him on the Champ Car broadcasts?? He would call a spade a spade. A lot of us Canadians like Scott Goodyear, but we would like him to realize TV is not his forte. Nice guy, but coupled with Marty Reid he is painful.

This broadcast was just so so, but to be honest, doing a race on TV like this is a tough production. The on air talent can make or break you, and ABC has to learn their guys are killing them. They tried to give us some insight to the Lotus electrical woes, and tried to tell us a little about that, but they never finished. They did show Helio's pass for what eventually became the lead, but they didn't realize the siginificance of it despite everyone at home probably cluing in that was going to be what won the race; especially since they were the top two guys who had made their pit stops for the last time and the guys in front of them all had to stop.

As for the Danica factor, it wasn't one. As I have said a million times before, if Danica's name was boosting Indycar ratings, they wouldn't have sucked the last 5 years.

[Jag_Warrior]

Listening to Scott Goodyear and Marty Reid is ALMOST as entertaining as watching paint dry. Just like with Speed's F1 broadcasts, you need a serious, knowledgeable guy (Matchett), an adult in the room (Varsha) and a jokester (Hobbs).

So I agree with Mark and Gary: Tommy Kendall now!!!!!!!!!

I don't know if anyone else remembers this, but back when ABC/ESPN had the CART races (mid/late 90's?), they showed a race on ABC or ESPN with commentators. But on ESPN2, there was no commentary - just the sweet sound of race cars. I can't remember where that race was held (Road America maybe... can't say for sure). But I remember wishing that I had a way to watch picture in picture. Who else remembers that? Anyway, maybe Indy Car should ask ABC to just drop the announcers altogether, if that's the best they can do.

[Marbles]

What I find most curious is that despite nearly universal protestations in this forum against the duo of Reid and Goodyear over the last several years they soldier on as if no else WANTS the job. Do these guys have a following... like over at TF or something. Does Marty have video of a high level ABC exec pushing a sheep through a fence? There has to be some idiot high up the ladder who "likes" these guys for whatever reason. No doubt they'll throw in Cheever come Indy because God knows an American broadcast booth can never hold enough maroons.

It's a treat hearing Griffin do F1.
Page is still good enough for ESPN, just not as good as Marty?

It's April 1st, howsabout after they're typical stroke-fest pre-race they throw it up to Paul "Whoah!" Page, Bobby "CEEment Wall" Unser and Sam "Prosey" Posey.