What would it take to get bodybuilding back on ESPN?

[_aj_]

You make some excellent points, but I think it's the contest format that's the real problem here.
For example, watching people play cards is about as boring as watching grass grow.
BUT, thanks to mini cams showing cards dealt and sexy girls throwing cash down on the table, allows it to appear exciting . While I have zero interest in watching poker stars, I recognize just how popular it is.

Here's my 3 step approach to make bodybuilding a more interesting sport :

1. Let the bodybuilders compete as serious bodybuilders.
Notice that in most other pro sports , the athletes play hard as serious athletes .
They are the performers and need to focus on playing the game only.

2. Use the best lights, music, stage venue and promo possible.
Great lighting and sound ( music) with top MC's covering it, should be the expected norm for
all major contests. Look at the top football, soccer and baseball venues with the professional coverage.
Watching a football game inside the new Dallas Cowboys Texas Stadium is a very different experience then
sitting inside a typical high school stadium.

3. I agree that the majority of contest time should be spent on posing comparisons.
I'd like to see a lot more 2 and 3 man individual pose comparisons instead of the posing routines.
I also think having them do all the mandatory shots without a break is boring.

Have them get called out just to do a front and back double bicep and maybe repeat it.
Then have 2-3 different guys get called out and only do those 2 poses with some good music and build up.
To me that would be a lot more interesting and exciting .
They could keep a running score of who wins each pose as well.
" Ok we now have Kai against Phil in a back db bi battle. If Kai can get him on this pose, he could pull off the upset."

WTF does #1 mean?

[HTexan]

WTF does #1 mean?

He means he wants to see they posing on stage nude.

[The Scott]

Fortunately, most schmoes are sterile (it's Mother Nature's way of keeping a balance) and the rest of them don't actually breed with women as they are either homosexual or just enjoying getting the poo whooped out of them by she-beasts and then masturbating to the DVD of their humiliation later on.

If capable of fathering children, their sperm count is often too low to impregnate a woman due to incessant fapping to photos of the aforementioned she-beasts or if desperate for material, old National Geographic photo-essays on nude Pygmies.

A low audience count such as this pretty much prevents ESPN from ever putting today's bodybuilding back on the air.

[SF1900]

You make some excellent points, but I think it's the contest format that's the real problem here.
For example, watching people play cards is about as boring as watching grass grow.
BUT, thanks to mini cams showing cards dealt and sexy girls throwing cash down on the table, allows it to appear exciting . While I have zero interest in watching poker stars, I recognize just how popular it is.

Here's my 3 step approach to make bodybuilding a more interesting sport :

1. Let the bodybuilders compete as serious bodybuilders.
Notice that in most other pro sports , the athletes play hard as serious athletes .
They are the performers and need to focus on playing the game only.

2. Use the best lights, music, stage venue and promo possible.
Great lighting and sound ( music) with top MC's covering it, should be the expected norm for
all major contests. Look at the top football, soccer and baseball venues with the professional coverage.
Watching a football game inside the new Dallas Cowboys Texas Stadium is a very different experience then
sitting inside a typical high school stadium.

3. I agree that the majority of contest time should be spent on posing comparisons.
I'd like to see a lot more 2 and 3 man individual pose comparisons instead of the posing routines.
I also think having them do all the mandatory shots without a break is boring.

Have them get called out just to do a front and back double bicep and maybe repeat it.
Then have 2-3 different guys get called out and only do those 2 poses with some good music and build up.
To me that would be a lot more interesting and exciting .
They could keep a running score of who wins each pose as well.
" Ok we now have Kai against Phil in a back db bi battle. If Kai can get him on this pose, he could pull off the upset."

Howard, shut up and go to bed.

[polychronopolous]

Howard, shut up and go to bed.

 

[SF1900]

If Howard really did get a divorce, I hope he gets a new gf asap and disappears from gb for a while.

[polychronopolous]

If Howard really did get a divorce, I hope he gets a new gf asap and disappears from gb for a while.

 "I'm thinking about doing another bodybuilding show marriage you guys"

[SF1900]

"I'm thinking about doing another bodybuilding show marriage you guys"

haha lol. Yes, you have to love those threads about doing another contest. 

[Alfurinn]

What do you call a heterosexual woman who supports a male bodybuilder financially?

[Papper]

What do you call a heterosexual woman who supports a male bodybuilder financially?

A sybil

[Alfurinn]

A sybil

[Azure]

What do you call a heterosexual woman who supports a male bodybuilder financially?

Dumb as fu*k

Having someone eat you out of house and home while going to the gym all day and sleeping is one of the dumbest arrangements ever. horrible ROI.

[Earl1972]

Magic Mike did pretty well.

the sequel disappointed

E

[NickEdge779]

Never. The reason crossfit is even on ESPN is because it is far more mainstream and combines cardiovascular fitness with weight training, which is what most people go to the gym to do (cardio, and general weight lifting). Crossfit isn't even that popular and is delegated to ESPN2 for that reason and the main sponsors are companies like Adidas Reebok, and Under Armor. Bodybuilding doesn't even have close to as big of sponsors as that. 75% of the people on Earth don't even belong to a gym, and the idea of working out to the average person is something "foreign" and "too much effort." Bodybuilding takes working out to the far extreme and when 75% of the entire world thinks the act of even going to the gym is too much effort, they aren't going to be remotely interested in a bodybuilding show.

[Howard]

haha lol. Yes, you have to love those threads about doing another contest. 

I guarantee I'll compete next FEB 30th .  bank on it baby.

now suck my balls

[rocket]

The reason any sport manages to maintain any length of time on television is that if it is a sport that has a measurable "quantity" that viewers can follow.  That is a key aspect to spectator sport.  As a very big sport fan, I can watch pretty much anything as long as there is a performance that can be quantified.

Bodybuilding is just a pageant with judging that nobody really fucking understands unless they are into bodybuilding.

I'd rather watch bovine bearded men vie to catch the heaviest trout.

[Alfurinn]

Sports like football, tennis or basketball have that expectation factor that thrills most people who watch them on TV. The excitement viewers get from seeing players battling with each other and when they are about to score but fail and then the try once again and finally achieve it is what makes sports so popular.

Bodybuilding, on the other hand, lacks that excitement that football or tennis can provide. There isn't a physical confrontation the same way these aforementioned sports provide, bodybuilders don't go around the stage battling with the other bodybuilders to score by tresspassing their protected territory on the stage or anything similar.

Beauty pageants appeal to other senses and interests, if you know what I mean.

[Pet shop boys]

 
What would it take to get bodybuilding back on ESPN? 

When Jose Canseco makes it in to the baseball hall of fame ...Sports fans won't see steroids as such a big deal anymore....and Bodybuilding will be featured on ESPN

But then again, what are the odds?



WoooSSHHHHHHHH

[SF1900]

I guarantee I'll compete next FEB 30th .  bank on it baby.

now suck my balls

Shut up, Howard. Go take your geritol and hit the sack for the night.

[Never1AShow]

I'm going to go ahead and disagree with a lot of what is said here.  You shouldn't just compare it to sports like football or soccer or basketball or tennis whatever.  There are plenty of sports/competitions on ESPN or on regular TV with small followings that people have no idea how to measure or judge but still watch.  Ice skating or diving are a couple of examples.  Ice skating is on tv a lot and people can't really tell much difference except if someone falls.  Same with diving, it happens so quick that only the trained eyes of people who have been watching for years can notice the fine distinctions.  Another sport on ESPN that is very niche but still people watch is volleyball.  Drag racing also.

I think the main thing bodybuilding lacks to get it back to ESPN is credibility.  And that is because of the drugs that everyone knows they are on massive quantities of.  It detracts from the accomplishment aspect of sport or competition to have this external factor like drugs, which people also know are illegal playing such a big part.  Bodybuilding has no credibility anymore due to the massive amounts of drugs that the Internet allows anyone to know about in seconds.

I really wonder whether I'd have gotten into bodybuilding if I had access to all the information about drugs back when I first started.

[Alfurinn]

Bodybuilding is not comparable to any regular sports, not even to table games which still provide that expectation factor that causes excitement and interest that keeps people watching as it happens with regular sports.

Blaming drugs as the cause for bodybuilding not being on TV is a bit unconvincing given that in regular sports athletes also take a few things from time to time. It's true that people see bodybuilders and think "that size was achieved with drugs", but that is not the main reason why bodybuilding isn't popular and not shown on TV.

Bodybuilding doesn't provide excitement and expectation as regular sports because there isn't confrontation of skills and tactics that will defeat the rival, all the previous work done before presentation is for the sake of looks; not skills "look how big I look, look how veiny I look. Don't look at him; look at me, I look better".

I said it before, bodybuilding puts patriarchy in conflict because men are not supposed to become objects for scrutiny.

[TuHolmes]

To answer the question... It would take the management of the ESPN branch of Disney to all have a massive brain hemorrhage.

There is no money in it because it is:

1. Not anywhere close to a big enough market
2. Full of drugs. ESPN has been a staunch supporter of banning PEDs and that's a requirement for bodybuilding.

It won't happen.

[The_Punisher]

Pro Bodybuilding should be on Bravo TV, I'm sure there is an Audience for that there..

[The Scott]

Why?

[Azure]

Pro Bodybuilding should be on Bravo TV, I'm sure there is an Audience for that there..

Now this could work. Especially if you could get some juicy storylines going and then show the competition as part of the season.

This would be a good option or on A&E As an informative special

It's not a sport though so no go on espn