ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” is going back to basics, the Dallas Morning News reports. No, it’s not going back to ABC; it’s ending the recent tradition of inviting celebrities to its broadcast booth. Celebs including Matthew McConaughey, Jimmy Kimmel and “Desperate Housewives” star James Denton were all previous guests, usually brought in to promote a Disney-related production, but no more, says the network. “Our viewers have clearly told us that they want us to dive deeper into the game to give them more insight,” ESPN Senior VP Jed Drake told the paper.
—Christopher Perez
Celebs Banished From ‘MNF’ Booth
Sep 12, 2008 • Post A Comment
What a wonderful example of how shamefully clueless TV execs can be.
The celebrity in the booth routine was painful from the outset, nor a number of reasons. Anyone with a pulse would have discontinued it after the first time.
I was about to complain myself. While the broadcast networks continue to give nuts and bolts I found myself with the radio coverage for MNF. Just because a game is played in prime is no reason ABC/ESPN should insult its viewers with photo ops from People Magazine. I would rather know how much a player benches than see Jessica Roma killer Simpson and much rather get more play analysis still. And if the current trio can’t do it put Mike and Mike on all the games.
Imagine that – people actually watch the program for the game!
Frankly, only Jaws has anything to offer in the way of commentary.