“If you don’t want to know the scores, please look away now.”
April 14, 2017 4:18 PM Subscribe
If You Don’t Want to Know What This Article Is About, Please Look Away Now [The New York Times] “The formula remains the same after all these years, its familiarity a comfort, its consistency its charm. Every Saturday night, about 10:20 p.m., Kate Silverton, the anchor for the BBC’s 10 o’clock news — the marquee news program of Britain’s national broadcaster, watched by more than four million people — hands over from the corporation’s home in London to a studio in Salford, where the BBC’s sports arm is based. One of four sports presenters sits waiting. A cheery welcome and short introduction follow. And then, every week, without fail, comes that warning. It is such an intrinsic part of the broadcast, and has been for so long, that it is not far short of a national ritual, one of those few sentences a whole country knows by heart.”
Spoiler alert! Go and put the kettle on.
posted by arcticseal at 4:27 PM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by arcticseal at 4:27 PM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
Oh boy, pet peeve time...
I watch a lot of soccer including the UEFA Champions League on Fox channels. In that tournament, once out of the group stage and into elimination rounds, match-ups are randomly assigned AFTER the current round's matches are played. That means its completely irrelevant to one game how any other game goes. Yet, for some bizarre reason Fox and its commentators insist on displaying and talking about goals happening in other games that go on in parallel to the one they're actually broadcasting and commenting on
It drives me bonkers.
It's NEVER* OK or even necessary to do this. If someone wants to know everything at once they can look it up online. All it accomplishes is that it ruins the other games for people like me.
*) there is one exception: it's OK to cross the wires for games on the last day of group rounds but even then only if a group is particularly tight and teams may be adjusting strategy based on what's happening in other games.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 4:54 PM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
I watch a lot of soccer including the UEFA Champions League on Fox channels. In that tournament, once out of the group stage and into elimination rounds, match-ups are randomly assigned AFTER the current round's matches are played. That means its completely irrelevant to one game how any other game goes. Yet, for some bizarre reason Fox and its commentators insist on displaying and talking about goals happening in other games that go on in parallel to the one they're actually broadcasting and commenting on
It drives me bonkers.
It's NEVER* OK or even necessary to do this. If someone wants to know everything at once they can look it up online. All it accomplishes is that it ruins the other games for people like me.
*) there is one exception: it's OK to cross the wires for games on the last day of group rounds but even then only if a group is particularly tight and teams may be adjusting strategy based on what's happening in other games.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 4:54 PM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
On the other hand you've got NBC who can't make it through an Olympics without airing Today Show ads that spoiling in the results of contests they've time-delayed.
posted by ckape at 5:28 PM on April 14, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by ckape at 5:28 PM on April 14, 2017 [10 favorites]
Yet, for some bizarre reason Fox and its commentators insist on displaying and talking about goals happening in other games that go on in parallel to the one they're actually broadcasting and commenting on
It drives me bonkers.
It's NEVER* OK or even necessary to do this. If someone wants to know everything at once they can look it up online. All it accomplishes is that it ruins the other games for people like me.
Those other games would be games you'd be watching on something other than Fox, wouldn't they now?
posted by jamjam at 7:25 PM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
It drives me bonkers.
It's NEVER* OK or even necessary to do this. If someone wants to know everything at once they can look it up online. All it accomplishes is that it ruins the other games for people like me.
Those other games would be games you'd be watching on something other than Fox, wouldn't they now?
posted by jamjam at 7:25 PM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
No, that would at least be some sort of rationale. But they're ALL on Fox channels. They broadcast every single game on Fox Soccer+ Fox Sports etc.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 9:01 PM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Hairy Lobster at 9:01 PM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
beIN Sports on the other hand, where I watch La Liga etc, understands that giving away what happens in other games is just something you don't do.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 9:04 PM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Hairy Lobster at 9:04 PM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
Anytime I think of Match Of The Day, which is pretty much daily because most of the media I consume is about English football, I get this song in my head and annoy everybody around me.
I never thought much about how antiquated MOTD is because though its influence has waned (not nearly as much as Soccer AM, it's still an anchor to the week. The commentary still carries weight. That said, even though I've lived nearly my whole life in America, because I've relied on the BBC for my footie news for most of my life, I guess I'm acculturated to it. It's like the institution of Monday Night Football here in the US. (Sorry, that one doesn't work in England.)
Which I guess might be why I'm at odds with Hairy Lobster's approach to watching football matches and tournaments. While the match at hand matters, there's always the next round. Goal differentials matter. Injuries matter. Everything matters! This morning I couldn't fully enjoy Sheffield Wednesday's win because of the Fulham result and worry about the Newcastle/Leeds match. (This is a terrible time in the season...)
posted by kendrak at 10:41 PM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
I never thought much about how antiquated MOTD is because though its influence has waned (not nearly as much as Soccer AM, it's still an anchor to the week. The commentary still carries weight. That said, even though I've lived nearly my whole life in America, because I've relied on the BBC for my footie news for most of my life, I guess I'm acculturated to it. It's like the institution of Monday Night Football here in the US. (Sorry, that one doesn't work in England.)
Which I guess might be why I'm at odds with Hairy Lobster's approach to watching football matches and tournaments. While the match at hand matters, there's always the next round. Goal differentials matter. Injuries matter. Everything matters! This morning I couldn't fully enjoy Sheffield Wednesday's win because of the Fulham result and worry about the Newcastle/Leeds match. (This is a terrible time in the season...)
posted by kendrak at 10:41 PM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
Hm, I'm not sure I understand. Nobody stops anybody from looking up the results from other games or switching channels if it matters to them. But commentators and chyrons spoiling other games I'd also like to watch ruins those for me without any net benefit that I can see. Unless it's too much to ask of people to pick up a phone and look up scores.
In fixed bracket tournaments the next round does indeed matter but not for Champions League games. Nobody knows who's gonna play who until the current round is over. Match-ups are randomized for each round.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 10:56 PM on April 14, 2017
In fixed bracket tournaments the next round does indeed matter but not for Champions League games. Nobody knows who's gonna play who until the current round is over. Match-ups are randomized for each round.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 10:56 PM on April 14, 2017
I preferred it when they remained silent and find the new version strangely irritating -- even though most weeks I'll have been at the game and they'll have announced the other scores over the PA.
If you haven't seen the episode of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? mentioned in the article, it's on YouTube.
posted by bebrogued at 2:05 AM on April 15, 2017
If you haven't seen the episode of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? mentioned in the article, it's on YouTube.
posted by bebrogued at 2:05 AM on April 15, 2017
So you're actively avoiding learning the scores of sports you're interested in, that you're planning on watching later? How many teams do you follow that you need to watch them all in full?
This is an alien concept to me. I have my team, and I watch them*. The out-of-town scores update me on the rest of the league and their impact on my team, and that's all I'm really interested in. I couldn't imagine watching an entire game between two teams I don't like.
Obviously I'm missing something. Do you follow multiple teams, have the time to watch multiple games, or is there some other reason?
* Well, lately it's been more cringe watch and yell obscenities, since my Blue Jays seem to have forgotten how to play baseball and are off to their worst start in 40 years.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 3:16 AM on April 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
This is an alien concept to me. I have my team, and I watch them*. The out-of-town scores update me on the rest of the league and their impact on my team, and that's all I'm really interested in. I couldn't imagine watching an entire game between two teams I don't like.
Obviously I'm missing something. Do you follow multiple teams, have the time to watch multiple games, or is there some other reason?
* Well, lately it's been more cringe watch and yell obscenities, since my Blue Jays seem to have forgotten how to play baseball and are off to their worst start in 40 years.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 3:16 AM on April 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
Obviously I'm missing something. Do you follow multiple teams, have the time to watch multiple games, or is there some other reason?
From that NYT article...
posted by Mister Bijou at 3:48 AM on April 15, 2017
From that NYT article...
The BBC received 700 complaints in 2013 for naming the winner of a Formula One Grand Prix race before the highlights had been broadcast. And that was dwarfed by the torrent of criticism received after the news headlines revealed who had won the Great British Bake Off. Sometimes, even now, people still do not want to know the scores.(My bolding)
posted by Mister Bijou at 3:48 AM on April 15, 2017
Do you follow multiple teams?
Good God no. By the playground bylaws that govern being a British football fan, you make your choice at 6 and you damn well stick with it no matter what (thanks early 80s Ipswich Town! Your fleeting period as one of Europe's most progressive sides ruined my life).
(There are exceptions of course: you can have a soft spot for a local team; you can keep an eye out for a lower division or non-league side; maybe your parents followed different clubs. But this is pushing it. You're not a glory hunter are you?)
have the time to watch multiple games?
Match of the Day is only a highlights show: the most interesting bits of one, sometimes two, games are shown for 15 minutes or so, then the rest are goals only (or the nearest things in the case of a game that's ended nil-nil), interspersed with breathless interviews with players and managers, and analysis from some more-or-less observant ex-pros.
is there some other reason?
There are really very, very few people who do this for the weekly football fixtures (rather than, say, the Formula 1) -- I'd say the handful who complain when they muck it up are the only people who are trying to do it. I don't think there's anyone alive who would do it every week -- as in The Likely Lads, it tends to be about big or decisive games. While watching MotD over the course of a season turns the league into a soap opera, it's not *that* compulsive.
posted by bebrogued at 4:10 AM on April 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
Good God no. By the playground bylaws that govern being a British football fan, you make your choice at 6 and you damn well stick with it no matter what (thanks early 80s Ipswich Town! Your fleeting period as one of Europe's most progressive sides ruined my life).
(There are exceptions of course: you can have a soft spot for a local team; you can keep an eye out for a lower division or non-league side; maybe your parents followed different clubs. But this is pushing it. You're not a glory hunter are you?)
have the time to watch multiple games?
Match of the Day is only a highlights show: the most interesting bits of one, sometimes two, games are shown for 15 minutes or so, then the rest are goals only (or the nearest things in the case of a game that's ended nil-nil), interspersed with breathless interviews with players and managers, and analysis from some more-or-less observant ex-pros.
is there some other reason?
There are really very, very few people who do this for the weekly football fixtures (rather than, say, the Formula 1) -- I'd say the handful who complain when they muck it up are the only people who are trying to do it. I don't think there's anyone alive who would do it every week -- as in The Likely Lads, it tends to be about big or decisive games. While watching MotD over the course of a season turns the league into a soap opera, it's not *that* compulsive.
posted by bebrogued at 4:10 AM on April 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
I get really amused when people on Twitter get upset because their team didn't feature as one of the prime games on MOTD. It's like a personal affront that some producer thought your teams game wasn't the most interesting match of the week.
posted by COD at 7:24 AM on April 15, 2017
posted by COD at 7:24 AM on April 15, 2017
So you're actively avoiding learning the scores of sports you're interested in, that you're planning on watching later? How many teams do you follow that you need to watch them all in full?
People do this for TV shows all the time. Doesn't seem too odd to me. I work a lot of evening shifts in my occupation and do not have time to watch certain series/shows/events in real time. I still like to go into those programs without any spoilers so that I can get the same up and down excitement and enjoyment other people do.
posted by Fizz at 11:20 AM on April 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
People do this for TV shows all the time. Doesn't seem too odd to me. I work a lot of evening shifts in my occupation and do not have time to watch certain series/shows/events in real time. I still like to go into those programs without any spoilers so that I can get the same up and down excitement and enjoyment other people do.
posted by Fizz at 11:20 AM on April 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
So you're actively avoiding learning the scores of sports you're interested in, that you're planning on watching later? How many teams do you follow that you need to watch them all in full?
Yes, I watch a lot of football. I have two teams that I follow as an outright fan but I also just love watching great football and there's a lot of that to go around these days so I watch any match I can that holds promise. I'm also somewhat blessed that my teams happen to be among the biggest teams so they play in many competitions and all their games are usually broadcast. I swear I didn't pick them because of their success. Just luck of the draw, I guess.
My home team is Bayern Munich and they usually play Bundesliga, DFB Cup, Champions League and Club Worldcup. I watch all their games.
My home away from home team (due to extensive summer travels there during my entire childhood and friends we made in Cataluña) is Barcelona and they usually play La Liga, King's Cup, Champions League and Club Worldcup as well. I watch all their games.
My emigrant home team would technically be the LA Galaxy. I do watch a few of their games and occasional go see one but never got seriously invested. Looking forward to the new LAFC though. Feels like fate. Closer to where I actually live and their colors are black, a touch of red and gold. So like the German flag. Must be a sign, right?
On top of that I follow certain other teams in my leagues though not necessarily every single game:
Borussia Dortmund: great energy and fun to watch in the right matchups
Redbull Leipzig: new and very young team, great energy and attitude, fun to watch them play and grow
Real Madrid: great skill plus I fucking hate Ronaldo and love to watch him when he's pissed off and loses (rarely unfortunately)
Athletico Madrid: they're like the Spanish version of Dortmund and fun to watch for similar reasons. So I watch them play any of the other big teams.
Same with Bilbao. Not all games, just the big ones.
Champions League: I watch all games. This is where some of the greatest football is played these days. Because I watch all games and a lot of them happen in parallel this is really where the problem is. This is where they give away results even though knowing them is utterly meaningless during the elimination rounds.
World Cup qualifiers: I watch the big match-ups to see what the other contenders are doing. I follow Germany of course but it's always fun to watch certain other teams. I've seen them give away scores here too and that sucks. I'm OK with them showing the live group table as long as they don't actually tell you what the scores are or who's winning. My brain can edit that out somehow.
And of course I watch the big tournaments when they're on: Euro, whatever the American equivalent is called that I can never remember and of course the World Cup.
So, yeah, I do watch a lot.
I may have a problem.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:28 AM on April 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yes, I watch a lot of football. I have two teams that I follow as an outright fan but I also just love watching great football and there's a lot of that to go around these days so I watch any match I can that holds promise. I'm also somewhat blessed that my teams happen to be among the biggest teams so they play in many competitions and all their games are usually broadcast. I swear I didn't pick them because of their success. Just luck of the draw, I guess.
My home team is Bayern Munich and they usually play Bundesliga, DFB Cup, Champions League and Club Worldcup. I watch all their games.
My home away from home team (due to extensive summer travels there during my entire childhood and friends we made in Cataluña) is Barcelona and they usually play La Liga, King's Cup, Champions League and Club Worldcup as well. I watch all their games.
My emigrant home team would technically be the LA Galaxy. I do watch a few of their games and occasional go see one but never got seriously invested. Looking forward to the new LAFC though. Feels like fate. Closer to where I actually live and their colors are black, a touch of red and gold. So like the German flag. Must be a sign, right?
On top of that I follow certain other teams in my leagues though not necessarily every single game:
Borussia Dortmund: great energy and fun to watch in the right matchups
Redbull Leipzig: new and very young team, great energy and attitude, fun to watch them play and grow
Real Madrid: great skill plus I fucking hate Ronaldo and love to watch him when he's pissed off and loses (rarely unfortunately)
Athletico Madrid: they're like the Spanish version of Dortmund and fun to watch for similar reasons. So I watch them play any of the other big teams.
Same with Bilbao. Not all games, just the big ones.
Champions League: I watch all games. This is where some of the greatest football is played these days. Because I watch all games and a lot of them happen in parallel this is really where the problem is. This is where they give away results even though knowing them is utterly meaningless during the elimination rounds.
World Cup qualifiers: I watch the big match-ups to see what the other contenders are doing. I follow Germany of course but it's always fun to watch certain other teams. I've seen them give away scores here too and that sucks. I'm OK with them showing the live group table as long as they don't actually tell you what the scores are or who's winning. My brain can edit that out somehow.
And of course I watch the big tournaments when they're on: Euro, whatever the American equivalent is called that I can never remember and of course the World Cup.
So, yeah, I do watch a lot.
I may have a problem.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:28 AM on April 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
HL: I too am looking forward to LAFC. The pyramid scheme marketing on the Galaxy shirt bothers me.
Mainly a Liverpool fan. Was a Barca fan when they were mes que un club. Then they bought Suarez and Xavi left. Also a Dortmund fan. Big Klopp fan, too.
And I like AM for the same reasons you do. They punch way above their weight.
posted by persona au gratin at 2:00 AM on April 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
Mainly a Liverpool fan. Was a Barca fan when they were mes que un club. Then they bought Suarez and Xavi left. Also a Dortmund fan. Big Klopp fan, too.
And I like AM for the same reasons you do. They punch way above their weight.
posted by persona au gratin at 2:00 AM on April 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
And I love to see Ronaldo whiff. Good times.
posted by persona au gratin at 2:01 AM on April 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by persona au gratin at 2:01 AM on April 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yeah, the Herbalife thing also bothers me a lot about the Galaxy.
If the LAFC pans out maybe we can get a MeFite fan club going and have game-watching meetups.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 5:18 PM on April 17, 2017
If the LAFC pans out maybe we can get a MeFite fan club going and have game-watching meetups.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 5:18 PM on April 17, 2017
So, wait - whatever DID happen to the Likely Lads?
posted by Chrysostom at 3:48 PM on April 19, 2017
posted by Chrysostom at 3:48 PM on April 19, 2017
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posted by Fizz at 4:25 PM on April 14, 2017