Can Ron Jaworski Make You Want to Be the Fourth Man in the Booth?

MDS is in Bristol for an ESPN Media Workshop. Here's his latest dispatch from behind the cameras of the Worldwide Leader.

Monday Night Football's first year on ESPN was a huge ratings success, but ESPN decided to make a major change this season, dumping Joe Theismann in favor of Ron Jaworski.

Why shake things up when the ratings are so good? I put that question to a couple of ESPN decision-makers today, and John Skipper, the executive vice president for content, had an interesting answer:

"We want everybody who watches it to want to be in the fourth chair -- we want everybody to think they wish they could be in the booth. With Jaws we thought there'd be a little better chemistry."

I don't know many football fans who would have wanted to be the fourth person in last year's booth of Theismann, Tony Kornheiser and Mike Tirico. Tirico was fine, but Theismann and Kornheiser felt about as comfortable together as recently divorced parents forced to sit with each other at their kid's Pop Warner game.

With Jaworski, fans would kill to be in the booth. He's insightful, he's easy going, and if the preseason is any indication, he makes Kornheiser more comfortable and charismatic. I'd love to be the fourth man in that booth. I just hope ESPN won't ask me to be the fifth man in a booth with those three and Christian Slater.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-31-2007 @ 12:51AM

BILLY BERGIN said...

THE BEST ANNOUNCING COMBOS HAVE BEEN 2 IN A BOOTH STARTING WITH CURT GOWDY AND JACK CHRISTENSEN, MADDEN AND VARIOUS PARTNERS AND HANK STRAM AAND JACK BUCK. KORNHEISER IS BIGGER JOKE THAN DENNIS MILLER
GET HIM OUT OF THERE AND PLEASE ESPN DON'T HIRE ANY MORE BRAINYS,NON ATHLETICS, FROM COLUMBIA/NORTHWESTERN. THEY BELONG BEHIND A TYPEWRTER NOT A MIKE.

8-31-2007 @ 1:44AM

Mike Beckwith said...

I have to agree with ESPN partially. Does that make sense. Well...

Listening to Theisman wanted me to rip out my left...no, make that my right testicle. Love him.

8-31-2007 @ 2:25AM

George B Vieto said...

Get Jesse Ventura, Jim Ross, Bobby Heenan, Mike Tenay or Joey Styles in the booth and get rid of Tony Kornheiser.

8-31-2007 @ 6:53AM

PFS said...

I don't really care for ESPN's MNF crew at all. I love Korn on PTI, and Jaws is a good/irritating analyst for the studio shows, but in the booth, i find the whole thing too busy, with both guys jumping all over each other with their schtick, loud and over-the-top. Maybe they'll get better when the regular season starts, and the games will matter enough for them to actually seriously watch it and analyze the play on the field.

8-31-2007 @ 12:07PM

Dick Sloan said...

Instead of letting Chicago fans see their team play the rematch of the Super Bowl in the Exhibition game, Jaworski blocked the view of the game while he pontificated for two hours about the problems of the Atlanta quarterback and his dogs. No football clips, just a display of his ignorance of the law and of why people pay to watch football players not middle aged pundits on the screen. Analyze the game, not the off field antics of "celebrities".