This news will make some of you jump for joy, but I personally find it depressing: ESPN has pulled all of its poker programming in the wake of the federal goverment’s indictments of the big online poker sites. The logic here is obvious; if the poker sites aren’t able to buy airtime for those shows, and nobody else is, the shows aren’t profitable.
“We are aware of the indictment only through what has been announced publicly,” Bristol, Connecticut-based ESPN said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “For the immediate future, we are making efforts to remove related advertising and programming pending further review.”[..]
ESPN, the most-watched U.S. sports network, which airs the “World Series of Poker,” declined to elaborate beyond its statement, according to Chris LaPlaca, a spokesman.
Certainly it’s only a matter of time before NBC and GSN follow suit and pull their shows, “Poker After Dark” and “High Stakes Poker”, respectively. So the poker sites are being shut down and yet Farmville and Mafia Wars roam free. That’s not the kind of world I want to live in.
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On the bright side, this will drastically reduce the amount of Norman Chad in my life.
Oh, you’ve been divorced? I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned that before, Norman.
I’ll miss Norman Chad’s jokes the most.
Two Norman Chad jokes made at the same time? We may not always agree Otto, but get out of my head!
We’ll always have to agree to disagree on politics, UU, but on pretty much everything else I’ve got your back.
But seriously, Norman Chad is a universal evil that all Americans can unite to stand against. He’s like Osama Bin Laden or mimes.
Norman Chad is like a bad Vaudeville act. Whoever hired him should be forced to work for QVC.
More bad news: the substitute is Womyn’s Basketball.
@Otto, thanks. And if I only had one bullet for OBL or a mime it would be an impossible decision on who to use it on.
That’s a true conundrum. I’d probably shoot Bin Laden and then use his corpse to beat the mime to death.
I mean, what’s he going to do? Call for help?
Should probably start a Lon McEachern fund so he doesn’t start showing up calling a Bridge tournament somewhere.
@Menacell
Womyn’s basketball isn’t always horrid. Do they stop the game every time someone dunks? Yeah, sure. So what? I stop my rec league games every time I dunk or hit a three or set a particularly vicious screen. It’s my time to shine, and I’d like you to recognize.
Good. Now they can get back to real sports like car auctions!
/I know, I know: ESPN is the “Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.”
//Is poker really “entertainment,” though?
///Really?