I've had this idea for a LONG time. New television channel that broadcasts every minute of poker tournaments. I'm sick of idiots at ESPN cramming entire final tables into one hour. I know that it would be impossible to air an entire final table on ESPN. Or is it? Create a new channel that devotes itself
to poker tournaments!
The All Day Poker Network, or ADPN, is devoted to poker tournaments. Similar to ESPN's World Series of Poker broadcasts, there would be a featured table, with brief views of other tables. Unlike ESPN's WSOP broadcasts, this would be all day. There would be a ticker at the bottom, similar to ESPN's Bottomline, that would show chip counts and highlights. The channel could start airing an hour before the tournament day is supposed to start with interviews, and end an hour after the tournament day ends, with a show similar to SportsCenter. During the time where the tournament is not aired, there could be reruns.
Several distinguishable features and doodads that would separate this channel from WSOP, World Poker Tour, and other poker shows are:
Player Cam: This would be like Dealer Cam on WSOP, but on the player! They'd either have to be wearing a hat, or have the camera in their hair. Either way, it would bring a new perspective to poker shows worldwide.
Insightful Announcers: IMO, the worst part of poker on television is the announcers. I know that some of them try to sound like they're having a fun time, but we know it: they're plain bored. Reading from prewritten scripts can do that to a person. It appears especially obvious on WSOP airings, where Norman Chad often sounds prewritten and rehearsed, and Lon McHerron sometimes announces community cards before they are shown. Because this would be a live show, the announcers would have to come up with lines solely by watching video monitors in their soundproof announcing booth.
Variety: ADPN would air all tournaments available. If they could gain the rights, they would show WSOP and WPT, as well as unaired tournaments. If they had multiple channels, they could even have lesser-scale tournaments.
Bye-Bye Commercials: There would be no real need for commercials besides money reasons. If they were able to work up a big bankroll, ADPN could air several monthly "commercial-free" sessions.
True Player Judgements: Another irritating part of poker on T.V. is the fact that many people assume that all tournament players are "lucky, unskilled bastards". Take Chris Moneymaker, for example. He won the 2003 WSOP main event. Because of lack of airtime, the many-hour sessions are crammed into one hour per session. To maximize viewer contentness, ESPN and Travel Channel and other channels only show the huge pots and lucky moments. It appeared that 75% of Chris Moneymaker's hands won were luck. And it can seem that a player gets pocket rockets every 2 hands. I was at the 2003 WSOP, and was actually thinking that the dealers were rigging the deck to give off less pocket aces. And Chris Moneymaker was, overall, ANYTHING but lucky.
Something to Watch: Not counting the obese Americans that spend all day watching T.V. and eating, this would be a good show to watch when nothing's on. Poker has a lot more action than people think.