Watching the first round of this weekend’s Built Ford Tough Series event in Tulsa online on PBR-TV was a better experience than watching PBR events on Versus TV. I just wish my computer screen was a lot bigger!
We saw and heard a bull riding event up close, with commentators who gave us the information we needed at the time we needed it…and weren’t afraid of a few seconds of silence when there was nothing to say. THAT is how you build excitement.
We also got to see a lot more of Flint, and he was on fire–much better than having to watch commercials. Nice job on singing the intro to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
In comparison, the Versus TV guys talk non-stop, ignoring what’s happening in the arena half the time, thinking they’re so amusing when they joke among themselves, while we viewers are trying to figure out what the score is or what bull we saw…sometimes even which rider!
One technical quibble: the rider name and home town shown on the screen are in a time warp—one rider behind, and once completely wrong: the screen said Shane Proctor, but the rider was actually Sean Willingham.
Speaking of Sean, you know how since last year I’ve been saying, “Bull riders are the new rock stars?” Well, here’s a direct quote from Clint: “Talk about a man who’s a rock star–Sean Willingham.”
The PBR should hire me, right?
It was good to see JB Mauney and Brian Canter back after serious injuries…and a bummer that Ryan McConnel and Guilherme Marchi were pulled from competition because of previous injuries acting up.
Best outfit: Robson Aragao’s black and white Spiderman motif.
The bulls were top shelf–they tossed Renato Nunes, Austin Meier, Chris Shivers, and Travis Briscoe. Yikes!
Looking forward to Round 2 tomorrow (8:30 pm EST).
Bullridingmarketing Blog 
Corrected my website link, since apparently I can’t type.
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My dad and I text during every PBR event on Versus and I went off this past Sunday (final round in San Antonio) because Hummer and Justin wouldn’t STFU during the draft. Drove me absolutely bananas.
On that note, I just found your blog (love it!) so I’m reading through past posts and not sure yet if you follow the riders on Twitter, but Brendon hinted at the issue of how annoying the commentating is the other day by tweeting to Luke “let’s retire & get a TV show & talk bout how bad every1 rides compared 2 us back when we used 2 ride! Ha “
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Welcome to the blog–it’s great how many women are into bull riding! We’re forming a lobby to alert the PBR that they need to pay attention to female fans. If you have any ideas for a group name, please post them. So far, a few people like “Bullsisters.” (Do you think Hummer and the Justins will get it?)
I missed that comment by Brendon–there are so many PBR tweets I can’t read them all–but I like it! I might just have to respond to that one.
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Shannon–
Thanks for straightening me out on the swimmer’s name! All those gold medals, not to mention the smoking scandal, and I couldn’t remember his name. How embarrassing–must be all the water I get in my ears after I do laps.
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For true talent in sports commentary and the ability to come up with something to say when there is, in reality, absolutely nothing to say we used to tune in Golf tournaments. But nothing comes even close to curling …..
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LOL– Curling is one of the sports they ought to drop from the Olympics in favor of bull riding. I mean, honestly, how many countries have people who curl?
Your comment on golf reminded me of an old Bill Cosby routine where he “commentated” a golf game in that hokey hushed voice they all use, and did the crowd “noise,” too.
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Ok, this is bizarre–the only other sport I care about is Olympic Swimming. I’ve been to many professional events and have met quite a few swimmers. Small world, huh? 🙂
The commentator stuff I mentioned is mostly things I’ve heard in the background while my dad or my husband is watching their sports or something I’ve heard second hand. Things that have made me turn my head and ask “what did he just say?”.
You make some good points about the commentating, though, and you’re right. I think they could probably do a better job. Seeing some of Flint’s routine could be entertaining, although, I’m not as enamored with him as I was when I first started watching. I also would love to see some of the bulls after a rider comes off. They can be fun. Sometimes they end up providing me with my favorite moments when I’m at a live event.
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Gah. I forgot to ask you if you could please email me. I want to discuss something else, but it’s off topic. Thanks!
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That is really funny about the swimming! Then you can help me out on this. I’ve been wracking my brains for The Torpedo’s real name. I’m pretty sure his first name is Michael. I’ve tried to retrieve his name from my brain vault every time I’m doing laps in the pool, but it isn’t working. Of course I could look it up on the internet, but it’s the principle of the thing! Talk about a guy who outlived his 15 minutes of fame…
Or it’s just my brain damage.
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I believe you are talking about the Thorpedo who would be Ian Thorpe. I wanted to meet four Australian swimmers–him, Michael Klim, Brett Hawke and Grant Hackett. I’ve only been able to meet Michael. I was this close to meeting Grant and missed him!
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I discovered yesterday that I mixed up the Thorpedo with Michael Phelps! Whew– that means I’m only half crazy.
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PS– I agree about the bulls! They were hilarious in Worcester, and when I was at the Madison Garden event, one of them was just amazing: when he bucked off whoever it was, he wasn’t going to leave the stage. He went to one side of the arena, looked at the crowd like he was waiting for applause, then went to the next side, did the same thing…he went all around the arena, stopping in front of each section of the crowd. When he figured he’d showed off enough, he trotted off through the exit gate. I was clapping; I don’t know about anyone else.
The PBR should have a highlights reel of bull behavior after the ride.
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I love the idea of a video reel of the bulls! You should email them about it.
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I feel for you! It must be so frustrating to be unable to see even the small-screen version of the events. You’d think that after bumping into the Versus schedule a couple of times, the PBR would schedule around the Tour de France. It wouldn’t be hard–venues have much more flexibility in their scheduling, which I know from my rock and roll days at a big booking agency. Who’s in charge of this?? Another person to haunt.
The only other sports I watch are rodeos (rarer and rarer on TV), and Olympic swimming, so I don’t have much to compare in terms of announcers. But as a kid, I watched the Yankees, and announcers talked about the game and the players–no irrelevant hot air. They shut up when someone was at bat, or when a pitcher was winding up—and the silence built up the tension, so when someone made a hit or ran, people went bananas. No fake hype necessary.
On radio, “dead air” is awful—you can’t see anything, so when you hear nothing, you’re in a black hole. But with the PBR, Flint can fill in any gaps. Even if the arena action is halted, the announcers could tell us what’s going on, re-cap the round, tell us what’s next—anything but run off at the mouth about kids and wives and talk nonsense like, “He came here to win.”
You and I might not be able to come up with anything to say between rides, but guys with experience in the sport have plenty of knowledge in their heads; they shouldn’t be spewing crap while they neglect to tell viewers the rider’s name, bull’s name, and scores. That’s what drives me crazy. I want to know what’s going on while it’s happening—all of it.
I agree—JDub and Justin McBride together are annoying enough, then throw Craig Hummer into the mix, and I’m ready to slit my wrists. I mute the TV when I’m not seeing a ride. They just don’t get it. A few seconds of not talking won’t make anyone turn off the TV. Nobody’s gonna get bored while bull riding is on!
BTW—Would you like me to post a blurb and the link for “Turn Him Out!” on this blog? It would be great for everyone to know about it.
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I can’t watch the events live because it doesn’t work with my family schedule here in the pacific time zone (esp. since I’m the only one who really watches it on tv), so I tried to watch Friday’s last night and it wouldn’t load! I tried two different servers, but still no such luck. It was especially frustrating since the commercial popped right up and played with no problem. I’m going to try again today, but if it doesn’t work I’ll have to be satisfied with the highlights show.
Speaking of tv: every year I’ve been watching, they haven’t been able to show this event, which is a big one in regards to bull power, because of the Tour De France. I can’t imagine it would be that hard to schedule this event at a different time of year and put one of the smaller events during this time.
As for the tv commentators, I’ve found that most of them in all sports are not especially worth listening to (much), but I really feel for them having to fill in all that dead air time when the action is halted for whatever reason. I’m not sure I could come up with much to say in those many instances. So, I tend to be a little easier on them (except JW sometimes and certainly when JW and Justin are in the booth together. sheesh!).
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