Former SportsCenter anchor Trey Wingo took ESPN to task late Thursday night for turning off the general audience for The Masters in an attempt to appeal to broader audiences.
At the Par 3 Contest on Wednesday, ESPN everything man Jason Kelce showed up to serve as a celebrity caddie. Comedian Kevin Hart did the same. They dominated TV time throughout the broadcast and left many upset.
Wingo, on his own podcast, slammed the Worldwide Leader for messing with the tradition of the beloved event.
“You can’t cut off your base to find somebody else. Know who you’re talking to,” Wingo said. “Know who you’re sending this out for. Know who’s going to be watching it. When you turn on the people that matter the most about the thing that you’re putting out there, you have lost the proposition. And I want to be clear. I want ESPN to be incredibly successful. I want them to continue to have The Masters for as long as they want it, because when it’s left to their own devices and the people that do golf, they’re great. It’s all the other crap, for lack of a better term, that’s being shoved down golf viewers’ throats that is turning people away.”
A WWE character appeared on ESPN to talk about The Masters this week. It wasn’t all that surprising. The network’s move away from a platform rooted in strong, sound sports coverage to one built around spectacles and viralability has touched every part of the business. The logic is simple: appeal to broader audiences, bolster the bottom line.
Wingo argued that, in this particular instance, that modus operandi can have the opposite effect.
“Why are you trying to gain, tangentially, some fringe viewers while, at the same time, you are taking your core viewers and pissing them off?” Wingo said. “And, oh by the way, it’s not just users on Twitter. It’s not just The Hollywood Reporter. You can be in danger of losing the thing you hold most dear — the rights to this tournament.
“Let The Masters speak for itself. It doesn’t need all this hyperbolic nonsense.”
Sam Burns and Rory McIlroy (-5) tied for the lead at the end of Day 1.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
