After the St. Louis Rams pound the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship game Sunday afternoon, switch channels to ESPN for a post-game wrap-up of the day's playoff action.
Stay tuned following NFL Primetime, and something unexpected will hit television cable boxes across the nation. "The World's Sexiest Athletes," a two-hour special scheduled to air Sunday at 6 p.m., will recognize 10 male and 10 female athletes. It is perhaps the most pitiable broadcast by ESPN in my personal memory.
Degrading to both male and female athletes, ESPN has sidestepped its sports journalism integrity, falling victim to sweeps-week to adopt the sole thing attracting viewers -- sex. The network has defended its stance to avoid stereotyping the show in a negative connotation.
"This show will explore not just the physical appeal, but the intangibles of charisma, style and personality of today's most popular and successful athletes," said ESPN senior vice president Mark Shapiro in a statement released last month.
That must explain the tournament bracket on espn.com that visitors can use to vote for their "sexiest" athletes. Web surfers can browse through a bracket, similar to the one used in March Madness, where they are capable of choosing the world's most attractive professional sports stars from the 32 male and 32 female athletes in each bracket.
The profiles for the athletes provided by the site don't add credibility to the awards either, as only a mug shot and small description are given prior to voting. The show itself will encompass "exclusive interviews with the athletes and offer the audience a close-up look into their lives, while presenting... a definition of 'sexy' in 2002."
The press release was rather vague when describing the term "close-up look." How else could the nation's most-watched sports television station fill up two hours of worthless programming?
ESPN has set a new low in its programming by promoting and airing this special. There are already dozens of other award ceremonies for various reasons. Another show just adds to the clutter of worthless pop culture.
To borrow a page from The Onion, America's finest news source, it seems that we have finally started the healing process after last year's tragedies, and have begun to care about "stupid [expletive]" again.
Reach the reporter at steven.ganczaruk@asu.edu.
