February 4, 200422 yr "Playmakers" has been sacked. After months of speculation about its future, ESPN's originally scripted series about a fictional professional football team, will not return, a company official said Wednesday. One of the main reasons for cutting the series after the first season was the reaction from the NFL brass. "Many considerations went into this decision, not the least of which was the reaction from a longtime and valued partner," said Mark Shapiro, ESPN's executive vice president of programming and production. "We are proud of the show on many levels -- it was a creative and critical success, and we are appreciative that viewers clearly embraced this new genre on our network." In its only season, "Playmakers" won critical praise and pulled in a significant audience -- an average of 1.6 million households for each of the show's 11 episodes. Although the finale drew approximately two million viewers, longtime NFL sponsor Gatorade announced before the show that it had decided to pull its advertising for that episode. "It was an ESPN decision and now we can all move on," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Wednesday. "We're looking forward to Sunday night's Pro Bowl and another great season with ESPN in 2004." ESPN broadcasts NFL games on Sunday night, and ABC -- which, like ESPN, is owned by the Walt Disney Co. -- televises "Monday Night Football." The rights deal for both broadcasts runs through the 2005 season. Earlier in the just-completed 2003 season, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue admitted to calling Disney CEO Michael Eisner to express his displeasure with what he thought were the show's "one-dimensional" plots. The adult drama, ESPN's first series, featured plots that touched on drug use, marital infidelity and homophobia. The show caught criticism from NFL players including Bucs defensive tackle Warren Sapp, who refused to do interviews with ESPN. espn.com jackasses
February 4, 200422 yr i read that it had been produced independently and then espn picked that series up....but i could be wrong. its all about espn worrying that the nfl might take away the nfl when the contract is up.
February 4, 200422 yr crap i remember first and 10. that was a fun show if i recall. does HBO have any of those 'fun' shows anymore?
February 4, 200422 yr I liked Arli$$ but that ended a few years ago. 1st and 10 had Shannon Tweed as the owner of the team i think. And Oger from revenge of the nerds too
February 4, 200422 yr Damn I loved that show. DAMN YOU NFL!!! hmmm... Maybe they bring it back once they renew the contract with the NFL but probably not. I wouldnt doubt if they put a clause in the contract for that.
February 4, 200422 yr Damn that was a great show. I hope they sell it to one of the pay cable networks. But don't make it all nudity and language, though. Maybe an occasional F-bomb, but I felt it was perfect as is. Omar Gooding did a great job with DH.
February 4, 200422 yr does HBO have any of those 'fun' shows anymore? Yes, Curb your enthusiasm. I was never a big fan of Playmakers and when Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel did a piece on this problem they did mention the possibilty of moving it to another network. Who knows maybe CBS would pick it up and put it on Spike TV?
February 4, 200422 yr I think Showtime or HBO will pick this show up. The ratings are too strong and the production costs are small, it makes sense for them to do it. My bet would be Showtime.
February 5, 200422 yr Chad Johnson said the show was fake as hell. I agree. Screw playmakers when NFL draws more ratings and more revenue. And you know NFL could have played that season's contract up card if ESPN had pushed the point.
February 5, 200422 yr this is riduclious. I cannot believe this occured. If we had no ratings it would be one thing. But we exceeded all expectations. I am not happy about this at all.
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