The NYC marathon was televised live on ESPN2 live yesterday. And it was...it was really bad. Worse in some cases than your local affiliate covering your local marathon. It seemed like ESPN was actually upset to have to run it. The Race coverage had all of the feels of a fluff piece during Good Morning America. Runners are watching, and we're interested in watching, but not in what you think we are. Here are a few tips to make live marathon coverage better:
1) Find a commentator who cares: ESPN regular John Anderson did the commentary with Tim Hutchings and Carrie Tollefson, (Hutchings and Tollefson are always excellent), but Anderson who has run the NYC marathon came off as glib and annoyed, with rather less than interested commentary ("Now they're getting busy") You got the feeling he ran the NYC Marathon due to a bet he lost. He clearly has no interest in the sport, and they should find someone who actually, dare we say, like running and like to run. Clearly there has to be someone at ESPN or ABC who does. Find them.
2) The people who are watching are runners, and we like it: Imagine if ESPN were to run a football game with out the status of time left or what down it was, or we didn't know how many timeouts were left, because ESPN didn't think it was something you didn't need to know. During the coverage of the Marathon. ESPN gave us no stats, no pacing per mile or even display a map on where the runners were on the course. They didn't even give us halfway splits, but they did give us the splits of the last 6 miles, because that's the most important part. All of the information is important, and it's important to share that with us. Keep that in mind the next time ESPN runs the World Series of Poker.
3) Interview with the Elites and the favorites: ESPN clearly didn't think this event was important to talk to the participants the day before at the NYC press conference. To ESPN it was just a bunch of brown foreigners running, except Alana Headley, there was time for her story (she dropped out) In fact, ESPN interviewed favorite Sally Kipyego literally 5 seconds before she started the marathon. Not the best time for an interview, guys. You didn't even cover the first American women finishers. Who are the people fighting to win this race, where are they from, and why were they here? ESPN failed at all of those basics.
4) No one really cares about Ethan Hawke (or any other celebrity): It's great that Ethan Hawke is running and running for a cause, but Ethan Hawke is an actor and an attention whore. There are 50,000 people running the NYC marathon, for charity, for themselves to overcome and prevail. People who run and love running. People who are doing if for themselves without a camera or press every single day. And we come together on those days and we become one. Go talk to them, instead of the rich actor. And also:
5) Please don't run and interview people: It's stupid and amateurish. You literally look like someone who literally doesn't know what the hell you're doing. Love to see you try to do that during a football game. Save your energy. You look stupid.
Hopefully this will help.
Probably not.
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