Sure TNT knows Drama…But does it know NASCAR? I’d say not!
TNT is just one of 4 broadcasters in the NASCAR circuit and after this past weekend’s race I believe them to be the worst one of all. As a fan and a writer I have never seen such a hate towards a broadcast until last night. I, like most, watched the race from the comfort of my home and was utterly displeased by the show.
TNT has been saying that they have “wide-open” race coverage that allows the race fans to not miss a second of the action and we have only seen this coverage once at Daytona. When the race fans want the wide open coverage the most it is never to be seen or had and this past weekend’s race would have been a great time to optimize their wide-open coverage and get their ratings up with this being the first ever Sprint Cup Race at Kentucky. But, unfortunately for all the fans, TNT failed to bring in a good broadcast.
When I asked fans who watched the race I got the same answer from about 50 people; which was: “Way too many commercials” and “poor use of in-car cameras”. I must say that I whole-heartedly agree with these fans. And the fans have a lot to be upset about with the broadcast and it all starts with the commentators that TNT has and ends with the lack of race being shown! Larry McReynolds, Wally Dallenbach, Kyle Petty and Lindsay Czarniak have got to be the worst broadcast team in the history of NASCAR and their “Countdown To Green” last about an hour and a half; which is something most race fans don’t care to see. But that’s only the first way that TNT went wrong!
Secondly, with Kentucky’s Inaugural race TNT thought it was a brilliant idea to put an extra 40 cameras around the track and in the cars. So when you want to see something happen on the racetrack all you see is the in-car camera of a driver and not the action outside of the car. One fan, Andrew Morris, had a lot to say about this to me via Twitter and here is a clip of the conversation: “ENOUGH with the in car views!!! No one gives a shit!!!! Use them when something happens to that car, otherwise, SHOW US THE DAMN RACE!!!!!!!” That is just the beginning of the furry from the fans! Andrew and others had a lot more to say as the race progressed.
Why? Most TV broadcastings of the races will show fans at home the green flag pit stops or the race off pit road…now this would be about the time that TNT goes to a 6 minute commercial break. No kidding, a 6 minute commercial break! Were fans happy? Oh No, check out Andrew’s response to that: “Guess there are no pit reporters to talk through the drivers pit stops.#TNTfails”.
Drama can be fun, but horror can be better! The movies that make the most noise are the ones that make horror movie news headlines and are the talk of all the top horror podcasts! Get your scare on, and maybe there will be a little drama as well.
And once TNT comes back from commercials instead of showing the action on the race track they decide to “show you what you miss” by replaying certain pit stops and a lot of fans were unhappy about this as well. TNT decided to show more in-car camera shots and single car shots of certain pit stops with no reporter reporting the action on pit road, which never happens because the other broadcasts have pit road reporters. And if you would have wanted to see the race off pit road it was all wishful thinking because it wasn’t shown until another 3 minutes of commercials were over! This is very unfortunate for all of the NASCAR Fans at home who sat through this horrendous broadcast.
My overall “grade” for TNT’s broadcast is an F! You left fans sitting at home watching commercials and missing all the action on the track. That is not acceptable in the NASCAR Community. And many fans have told me that they may not watch next weekend’s race since it is the last broadcast of NASCAR on TNT for the season. I hope that TNT sees some of the fans reactions, concerns and anger and tries to fix their issues before next season or their ratings will be non-existent.