America’s Funniest Home Videos Drop Kicks NASCAR

Written By: Kerry Murphey
November 10th, 2008

Who won the race at Phoenix on Sunday night? Many on the east coast are asking this very question after ABC dumped their coverage. The simple answer is, “America’s Funniest Home Videos” was the clear winner here. Early in the 7pm eastern hour, Allen Bestwick notified viewers that the remaining coverage of this race would be switching over to ESPN2 in order to fulfill other network obligations for the eastern and central time zones. Most viewers probably were thinking, wow there must be something important coming on, like a scheduled football game, or some other previously scheduled live event. Then the news came that it was the ancient (debuted 1990), but still on TV for some reason “America’s Funniest Home Video’s”

So many expletives come to mind, but this is a family website, but I think sheer confusion comes to mind. ABC is moving coverage of NASCAR’s second to last race of the year with about 39 laps to go, for a taped show that no one cares about and can be seen anytime online or reruns? This is the equivalent to leaving baseball’s NLCS/ALCS playoff game to watch Knight Rider (which I like by the way). These two audiences are most likely very different.

Another issue that comes to mind, is moving coverage from ABC Network, over to ESPN2 on cable means millions of folks getting their signals over the air had no choice whatsoever to make the switch. If I were on the east coast without cable or satellite, I would be seething beyond belief. Essentially NASCAR has enjoyed flag-to-flag coverage since 1979, and in one swoop the sport has been knocked backwards 30 years.

From the Phoenix media center, drivers weighed in with their opinions after hearing about this debacle.

Jamie McMurray: “I didn’t get that memo, no, it seems a little odd to me, as big as NASCAR is and as many people as there are who watch the sport. I can’t imagine being a race fan and being on the East Coast and trying to watch this and then going to that. I mean, maybe if the President was going to talk; maybe if something big happened. But I can’t believe that America’s Funniest Home Videos would take priority over us. I mean, I like that show. But I’d rather watch the race.”

Jimmie Johnson: “Well, I thought it went dark and nobody could watch it, so the fact that it was on another television channel was — I mean, it’s better. But to go to America’s Funniest Home Videos, that one hurts, no doubt. I thought we have a lot of characters. Why do we need that show?”

Sports blow-outs have been moved in the past to a sister network, for instance a baseball game in the 8th inning with a score of 15-2, or football in the 4th quarter with 3 minutes to go at 45-3 and a new game was starting. However this is motorsports where ANYTHING can happen on The Final Lap in turn 4 coming to the checkered flag. Sure it had looked as though Jimmie Johnson might run away with this win in the closing laps, but what if his engine had blown like teammate Jeff Gordon’s did, or a tire had blown, or any other of the millions of things that could happen.

When ABC made the commitment to run NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and their final 10 races, this shouldn’t have meant “unless it runs too long.” Does NASCAR not have a line in their contract that reads “flag-to-flag” coverage? My guess is the folks in Daytona Beach, along with Brian France and Mike Helton were indeed not pleased at these developments.

The simple answer to all of this, is money and ratings. NASCAR’s TV ratings for the Texas race was 5.89 million viewers and America’s Funniest Home Videos was ranked 42nd in the latest Nielsen Ratings with 7.8 million viewers. I suppose a couple million more viewers means more to ABC, than having sports credibility, and to be affiliated with ESPN is simply shameful.

So what are your thoughts, make your comments below and we might talk about them on this weeks “The Final Lap CHAT” Podcast.

UPDATE: OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM ABC: “After two red flags,  rain in Phoenix and 4 1/2 hours on ABC, we were still 34 minutes from the end of the telecast as it turned out. We told fans in the East and Central from the second red flag on that the race was moving to ESPN2.  ABC’s entertainment viewers and NASCAR fans were both well served in a tough spot, and we are fortunate to have ESPN2 among our networks to serve the fans.”