CBC 'fumbled' coverage of Eskimos-Roughriders game WILLIAM HOUSTON From Monday's Globe and Mail
Football fans and CBC staffers were furious on Saturday night over the network cutting short its Canadian Football League telecast to air a movie.
Sunday, Scott Moore, the head of CBC Sports, met with CFL commissioner Mark Cohon to assure him the mistake would not happen again.
“He understood the problem and understood these things don't happen very often,” Moore said. “When you're hit with a unique situation, sometimes decisions are made that you regret.”
In a decision not unlike the NBC Heidi controversy years ago, the CBC chose not to resume coverage of the Edmonton Eskimos-Saskatchewan Roughriders game after a power outage at Mosaic Stadium in Regina caused a delay.
Instead of returning to the final 13 minutes of the game, the CBC stayed with a movie that had been running as filler for about 55 minutes.
Given that CFL fans felt ripped off, the movie, starring Nick Nolte, was appropriately titled The Good Thief.
The game, which resumed at about 1:30 a.m. EDT, was available online at CBCSports.ca and carried on television in Saskatchewan, but nowhere else.
A mid-level executive in Toronto made the decision not to air the remaining minutes of the game, to the dismay of staff at CBC Sports.
Sports staff attempted, unsuccessfully, to reach Moore.
“I turned my cellphone off at 11 p.m.,” Moore said. “And unfortunately we just moved into a new place and people didn't have my home phone number. So I take responsibility for what happened, for not having been in touch.
“Clearly, we fumbled. The wrong decision got made, for which I take responsibility.”
In 1968, NBC dropped an NFL game between New York Jets and Oakland Raiders with less than two minutes remaining to air a regularly scheduled made-for-TV movie based on the story of Heidi. After NBC left the game, Oakland scored to two quick touchdowns to win.
As it did in the Heidi game, the lead on Saturday night changed hands after the national broadcast was discontinued.
Edmonton was ahead 32-27 in the fourth quarter when the outage caused by a lightning storm stopped the game.
After the resumption 55 minutes later, the Roughriders scored 12 points to win 39-32.
Questions were immediately raised about a public network giving precedence to a U.S. movie over a Canadian sporting event.
There will be other issues.
The executive in Toronto who made the decision – her name was not released by the CBC – initially refused to approve carriage of the remaining 13 minutes of the game in any market.
Phil Lachapelle, the executive producer of the telecast, apparently convinced her to allow it to be carried in Saskatchewan.
Yet, despite the importance of the game in the tight Western Division, it was not aired in Edmonton, the second home market, or any of the other CFL cities in the West.
Moore said the CBC will immediately establish policy to ensure that a live sporting event is carried to its conclusion, barring extraordinary circumstances.
“We're having internal discussions about it,” he said. “There will be processes put in place [Monday] to make sure that the overriding principle is adhered to, and that is: When you start something, you finish it.”
After the telecast was dropped, the CBC also kept CFL fans in the dark about their options.
The network could have, but did not, run a text message at the bottom of the screen telling viewers the telecast was online and, for digital viewers, carried on CBC Regina.
An Eskimos fan in Edmonton Sunday said he listened to the remaining minutes on radio, not knowing it was online.
The CFL website announced Sunday the CBC was planning to replay the last hour of the game on its main network last night at midnight local times.
The CBC, which is in the last year of its CFL contract, lost TV rights to TSN partly because of television problems. In 2005, the network upset owners by airing games without play-by-play audio during a lockout of employees. Last year, CBC chose not to shoot the East playoffs in high definition.
Prematurely concluding live sports telecasts has incited several controversies.
In May, NBC came under fire for dropping the overtime period of an Ottawa Senators-Buffalo Sabres playoff game in favour of preview content for the Preakness Stakes.
In 1986, Hockey Night in Canada host Dave Hodge protested, by flipping his pencil in the air, the CBC leaving a hockey game late in the third period to air a news report. He was suspended and subsequently left the network.
I assume the movie that was played during the delay was regularly scheduled to air at 10 PM, immediately following the game.
I also assume, however, that the CFL must have been in close contact with CBC to advise them of the situation. Given this, there is absolutely no excuse for the entire network, save Saskatchewan, to be blocked from viewing the end of what was a fantastic football game.
This was CBC's only game of the week, and for the head of CBC Sports to not even have any possible contact with headquarters is simply baffling.
It's unfortunatly just the latest incident in what has really been a disappointing year for CFL on CBC.
Scott Moore assured fans the network would not simply go through the motions (similar to the Olympic arrangement - we'll wait to see how that pans out) for their last year of CFL broadcasts (at least for the near future). I hate to say the reality has been anything but.
For two weeks in a row, on what were CBC's only games of the week, the broadcast booth was filled with Steve Armitage and Khari Jones which left much to be desired. Granted, especially with CBC's upcoming triple header in the end of September as well as several double headers, the secondary broadcast teams need to be given airtime. But the question is why for two consecutive weeks? Where was Mark Lee during this time?
Last week's broadcast of the Eskimos/Ti Cats game was completely without the analyst panel. CBC had aired Rogers Cup Tennis right up until the start of the game, so there is an argument to be made there as to it's usefulness without a pre-game show. But the entire broadcast consisted of Mark Lee and Khari Jones in the booth, with Steve Armitage hosting and providing sideline reports all on his own. Another question is where was Elliotte Friedman?
With each passing week, it's becoming more and more clear why TSN scooped up exclusive coverage of the CFL for the next few years, as well as CBC's apparent lack of interest in going out with a bang. It's not even mid-season yet, so I'm holding out for a reversal of fortunes from here on in.
Just another example of why Canada would be better off without the CBC and the dimwits who run it. At least we had Bryan Hall and Dave Campbell to listen to on the radio in Edmonton and they didn't fumble the ball like the idiots at CBC. I hope they fire the woman who made the decision. Clearly, she knows nothing about sports or broadcasting. Perhaps she should be cleaning Mother Corps latrines.
Media Statement – Edmonton at Saskatchewan CBC Broadcas
Toronto, ON (August 19, 2007) - Canadian Football League (CFL) Commissioner Mark Cohon offered the following comments regarding the disrupted CBC broadcast of the Edmonton Eskimos at Saskatchewan Roughriders game on Saturday, August 18 at Mosaic Stadium.
“We are truly disappointed that this has happened. Our concerns and dismay have been conveyed to the CBC. We express regret to our fans and we will work with our broadcast partners to ensure that this does not happen again.”
The final hour of Saturday’s game between the Edmonton Eskimos and Saskatchewan Roughriders will air on CBC at 12:30 A.M. local time tonight in all Canadian markets.
The final hour of Saturday’s game between the Edmonton Eskimos and Saskatchewan Roughriders will air on CBC at 12:30 A.M. local time tonight in all Canadian markets.
Oh give me a break.
I could probably catch it on you tube for goodness sake. CBC sports tried to screw up curling coverage a few years ago and now they are moving to ruin football. I hope the CFL doesn't fall for their tricks like the Cdn Curling Assoc. did. Just one more reason why TSN is moving on up.
Moore should be fired! I'll be surprised if in fact that happens however, but not so much if the woman in "middle management" who is being blamed for making the blunder is. So who in a position such as his, turns their cell phone off at 11 pm as he is claiming to have done? Especially if, as he is stating, he had no land line hooked up at the time. He should quit.
As much as it pains me to say, in this downsizing media world. Could the CBC have too many cooks in the kitchen on this one? Sure a decision had to be made, however if your head of programming is "unreachable" do you not swallow the bullet and do the broadcast as planned? I mean to arbitrarilly decide only Saskatchewan gets the feed seems pretty bush even for a junior, let alone someone with experience.
Just another example of our taxpayer money at work play.
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