Jim Nantz will name the Super Bowl on Sunday in Las Vegas.
Getty Images/Chris Condon
If prognostications (and betting strains) show right, Jim Nantz’s voice shall be heard by extra Americans this weekend than any sports activities broadcast within the historical past of tv.
The Super Bowl, which Nantz will name for CBS for the seventh time this weekend, appears to reset the feat of “most-watched sports telecast ever” each few years — and with Patrick Mahomes and Taylor Swift as starring characters on this iteration, Super Bowl LVIII appears primed to interrupt the file but once more. In the times previous the massive sport, consultants guessed the ultimate quantity would fall roughly around 120 million average viewers (roughly 10 Masters), whereas the betting markets set the over/beneath even larger, around 122 million. Perhaps the ubiquity of the Super Bowl removes some luster from Nantz’s accomplishment, however we predict it doesn’t. Consider a few of the historic moments this weekend’s massive sport viewers will eclipse: Nixon’s resignation (!), the autumn of the Berlin Wall (!!), the assassination of John F. Kennedy (!!!), OJ and the white Ford Bronco (!!!!), Tiger on the ’19 Masters (!!!!!) — we may go on.
The level is that if the predictions are true, Nantz will add his voice to a different piece of tv lore on Sunday night, one thing he’s performed time and again for the higher a part of the final 4 many years. When Jim Nantz speaks, America listens — and on the subject of golf broadcasts? Well, we’d advocate they pay attention intently.
As was first detailed within the Hot Mic Newsletter just a few weeks in the past, we asked Nantz to take us by his imaginative and prescient of a “good” golf broadcast, and he had heaps to share.
“I consume a lot of golf television,” Nantz advised GOLF. “What I’m looking for, really, it’s one measuring stick: Does it make me wish I was there? I know there are a million critics out there who have found a community where they can sit and complain with one another about how they think things should be done. I’m so far on the opposite end of that.”
The discourse surrounding golf’s TV product has charitably been a cesspool over the past decade. Fans infuriated by the commercialization and artistic obfuscation of golf TV have taken to social media repeatedly to voice their frustrations with golf’s two major networks, NBC and Nantz’s CBS.
It’s honest to say that a lot of these criticisms have been warranted, as even golf’s high brass agrees. Over-commercialization, overemphasis on promos and different filler, and underrepresentation of live-action have turn into speaking factors for commissioners (of each the USGA and PGA Tour), gamers and in some instances, even broadcasters. In latest years, these points have contributed to appreciable employees turnover for each networks.
But it’s additionally honest to level out that a few of the criticism has gone past constructive, remodeling at instances right into a uniquely social media-driven void of vitriol and antagonism. Nantz will get it, however he’s grown annoyed with what he sees as a predatory angle from some within the viewers.
“Even as I watch people produce golf television on other networks, I don’t see the blemishes that everyone else sees. I really don’t,” he mentioned. “I think it’s nitpicky. It’s a b-tchfest, and people find comfort in that. I find comfort and getting lost in a golf telecast.”
Nantz instantly apologized for his language, however his bigger level deserves some deeper reflection. Is it doable, as he says, that our expectations for golf TV have turn into overinflated? And if that’s the case, what ought to our expectations be?
“I’m looking for coverage that is that takes me there,” Nantz mentioned. “Coverage that gives me a cinematic experience. I’m looking for storytelling that gives me a rooting interest in the subjects that I’m watching. I’m looking for great competition. I want to feel like I’m there, because I can’t be. That’s what I want to experience as a consumer.”
Now, some golf followers would certainly argue that their pursuits are aligned with Nantz’s; that a part of the issue with trendy golf tv is that the variety of interruptions has made it unimaginable to be transported. These are legitimate critiques, although Nantz says they miss the broader level: golf tv is getting higher, simply maybe not within the methods followers are on the lookout for.
“I think it’s a lot more complex to be able to deliver [golf] to people than a lot of folks know,” he mentioned. “And the nuance that goes into production that scattered over 200 acres or more, it’s amazing what people pull off now and how far the coverage has gone — how far it’s advanced with technology and innovation.”
Of course, there’s right here’s a deeper layer of irony in all of this. The fact is that CBS’s product has gotten higher over the past half-decade, implementing a slew of enhancements which have made golf tv really feel quicker and extra agile and greater. And how was CBS able to doing this? In half by listening to the followers!
It isn’t that the followers are unsuitable. After all, the shopper is all the time proper. Rather, it’s necessary to know when to pay attention. Sometimes, as CBS realized firsthand, followers generally is a sorely wanted supply of reflection. And generally they’ll simply be a sore.
“It’s a long way of saying [that] I love golf television. I’m all in on it,” he mentioned. “I think people do it really well. Really, really well. I say that about my competitors too. When we’re not doing it, I enjoy watching it and I am not looking for mistakes.”
You can attain the creator at james.colgan@golf.com. To obtain exclusives like this one lengthy earlier than they attain the net, subscribe to the Hot Mic Newsletter beneath.
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