The first thing to note about the XFL’s opening week is that it more than accomplished its goal. The whole point of putting the XFL on Saturday night was to try to capture more 12 to 24 year old male viewers, and NBC said it hoped for a 4-5 share. Initial ratings figures have the XFL garning a 10 share on Saturday night. There’s no way it will keep that high a share throughout its 10-week season, but it seems likely to meet and probably exceed its expectations as far as number of viewers.
As for league itself. Ugh.
I thought the level of competition on the field was respectable. A lot of sports writers are comparing the games to NFL games and finding the XFL lacking, but in that they’re just buying Vince McMahon’s hype. The XFL didn’t come close to the NFL, but it was certainly equal to (and in my opinion better than) the Arena Football League which, like the XFL, is filled with gimmicks but is taken seriously as a legitimate football league.
There were some standout performances…and some not-so-standout performances. It was fun watching former Western Michigan University quarterback Tim Lester airing it out for the Chicago Enforcers. On the other hand after watching a few series it became obvious why he never fulfilled his potential in the NFL.
As for the off-the-field stuff, I expected all of the cheerleader shots and other crude devices, but thought that was held pretty much in check for most of the broadcast. McMahon thinks you can never have enough sex on TV, but I think he’s dead wrong about that. Proof of how wrong McMahon is was demonstrated when NBC switched from showing the Las Vegas game with Jesse Ventura, to the Orlando game with Jerry “The King” Lawler.
Lawler embodied everything that critics feared the XFL would be about. After a few minutes of Lawler I was hoping Andy Kaufman would rise out of his grave and smack a few chairs over Lawler’s head. Lawler clearly knew nothing about football. Ventura wasn’t exactly a font of football knowledge, but Lawler acted as if he had never even seen a football game. Instead he engaged in endless banner about the cheerleaders involving the sort of innuendo that can only be truly appreciated by 13 year old boys (which, again, is the target market for the XFL).
On the other hand I thought putting microphones and cameras everywhere worked very well. Now what the XFL needs to do is add a third announcer who actually knows a lot about football who can explain what all of the arcane calls and terminology actually mean to the casual fan. Unfortunately, I suspect as time goes on the XFL is going to focus more on the spectacle rather the on-field game in an attempt to try to replicate this weekend’s high ratings.
Loading ...