"NFL reaction to series a factor in cancellation"

ESPN.com

"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."

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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.

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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.

So the NFL really knows how to make their displeasure known. A series that tarnished the image of the sport (and hence hurt the brand) got Tagliabue involved. Which is a more forceful reaction than they had to the SB half-time show.

Makes me think this guy is right.

NFL must be high-fiving behind closed doors

The NFL is in perfect position here: It gets to tut-tut and claim the high moral ground that such a terrible, depraved thing could ever happen on our dime when in reality the holiness of the $2.5 million commercial spot is not only maintained, it probably is enhanced.

You think anyone is ever going to try to stage a Lingerie Bowl again? You think anyone's going to be stupid enough to take on the greatest god in television, the Super Bowl, with vague promises of pay-per-view titillation? The Super Bowl has already delivered the real thing, Bosco. It gave you The Other Jackson. There will be no one trying to upstage next year's halftime show

What's interesting is that no one suggests that there is an opportunity for clean counter-programming. Inside the little compound of media and advertising, there are no desirable consumers more conservative than Chandler on "Friends". They worry they will lose eyeballs to the Lingerie Bowl, but not that people will click away because of Nelly or Janet Jackson.

And this guy is probably right, too.

Expect more 'oops' on live TV

"There will be lots of public clamor," says Roger Desmond, director of the school of communications at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. And ultimately, nothing will change. "The networks will continue to do more of what they know works, which is big stunts," he says, particularly when they can be "positioned" as an unplanned surprise to everyone.