Sunday, December 03, 2006

An Open Letter To Fox Television

Dear Fox Television:

You are not even competent enough to be considered an embarrassment to the digital arts, or whatever TV is called. We do not watch New England Patriots football on your network because we want to, we do it because we have to twice a year when we host NFC opponents, unless a game gets shown on NBC or ESPN. At least pretend you want us to watch your network.

I'll give you some pointers on how to get us to want to watch you. First, show the damn field, not 800 shots of the sideline, people's heads, you name it. Second, if you have the need to put the cameras on a player on a bench, put some of his stats on the screen so viewers can see what he has done today, not too many advertisements for your next game or more than one for your next garbage show. We care about our game right now, thank you very much, not some stupid show that most of us would not watch even before you pissed us off with incessant over-promtion of it.

Third, stop showing the commentators in the booth every three minutes, show the game. We do not care that Vasgersian is in the broadcast booth, we care about what is happening in the game between the Patriots and their opponents. We remember Vasgersian was an XFL announcer, that is bad enough, we don't need shots of him every twenty minutes. Fourth, When a play warrants a replay, hurry up and get the replay on the screen, not a shot of the back of someone's head.

Finally, at least attempt to display competence in your camera angles and presentation of plays as they develop. We want to see what happens as each play unfolds, but missed at least a half dozen plays today because of your overall cluelesseness. We understand if someone fakes out the entire defense, and the camera crews in the process, once in a while. But today's overall presentation of the New England Patriots - Detroit Lions game was an embarrassment to television. If the Billboard Music Awards ad appeared one more time my head would have exploded.

Please do yourselves a collective favor, and watch how rival network CBS produces telecasts. They focus on the field, put meaningful statistics on the screen in between plays, and keep advertisements for non-football things to a minimum. They seem to want us to watch their network, unlike you.

Get a clue. I will give you one and only one thing over CBS: Beasley Reece has never appeared on your network. At least not that I am aware of.

Regards,
Jeff Patterson
Patriots Fan

2 comments:

Bill-DC said...

I watch these games now with the sound off and my music on(no John Cougar Mellencamp jammed down my throat).

Also, I'm really fed up with the stats jammed down my throat. I don't play fantasy football anymore and I'm sure geeks who do know where to go. I need to stick a piece of cardboard covering up the ticker.

It's really easier to just blow the game off entirely, do somthing with my son and watch whatever Redskins highlights are on You Tube.

maryjanejeff said...

WEEI is ripping the Fox telecast right as I type this. And even threw in a Beasley Reece reference. I know my stuff, I tell you.