Over the weekend, I was watching two different sporting events that I originally thought were supposed to be live and were advertised as such, but were actually "taped live". The two events were UFC 70 on SpikeTV on Saturday evening and the Lexington Stakes on the WWL on Saturday afternoon.
My first disappointment was on Saturday afternoon, espn's coverage of the Lexington Stakes. Every year in anticipation for the Triple Crown, I watch all of the ESPN coverage of the warmups to the Derby to get up to speed on all of the contenders and know which Pony to put money on during the Kentucky Derby. As everyone will probably agree, putting a wager on a live sporting event, whether in person or watching on TV makes the even that much more enjoyable, so when the pre-race info was about halfway through I logged into my fictional sportsbook website (online gambling is illegal so imagine I did this) and went to the Horses section to place my fun money wager. Well, after looking for about 15 minutes trying to make sure I was at the right race track for the right race, I decided to check results, and what do you know the race had been run already and this was on tape delay. Nowhere on the coverage did espn mention that this wasnt a live event. I don't remember what they were broadcasting when this race actually was run, but when they have ESPN, News, The Deuce, Classic, ESPNU and other stations, they couldnt have found another channel to broadcast this event live?
My second disappointment came on Saturday night with the Free Showing of UFC 70 on SpikeTV. This one was a little bit easier to figure out, as it didnt end until midnight and the event was in England. Anyone with any brains realizes that this would mean the event took place at 4am in England, so it was obviously tape delayed.
Do both of these networks really think that in the world we live in today where news is avaiable in realtime on countless places on the web that people would be fooled into thinking something was live. Or more importantly do these networks care so little about their core audience that they can show an event tape delayed and say its live? I went on Wikipedia before the UFC event and saw the results online and was able to parlay this knowledge into a couple of friendly wagers with some friends at the bar over a couple drinks, as Thomas Tusser said, "A fool and his money are soon parted."
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I watched UFC 70 because I wanted to see that guillotine leg kick Cro Cop does. I had the same thought as you. If this is in England then how can this be "live" unless everyone in the arena is cool with attending a UFC match at 3am.
Personally, I am far from a UFC "fan" so I could resist temptation to find out the results early. I was surprised to see Cro Cop lose but that kick to the head by Gonzaga was, in two words, "fucking awesome".
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