Worst Current American TV Network Sports Division Head

[TMC1982]

Fox's Eric Shanks:
http://www.sportsmediawatch.net/2010/12/smw-top-20-of-2010-15-11.html# more

DirecTV’s Eric Shanks was named president of corporate sibling FOX Sports in June, ushering in a new era of experimentation at a network famous for it. Since taking over, Shanks has made a variety of cosmetic changes to sports telecasts on FOX, including having all FOX sporting events air in widescreen on standard definition televisions (“It's time to actually to start producing for the majority, which has invested in HDTV”), making the NFL on FOX theme the official theme music of all the network’s sporting events (“[T]here’s no better music than the FOX theme for NFL. … It gives all of our sports that marquee feel and a more upbeat way to come on the air"), and perhaps most notably, adding musical cues to live NFL game action (“Just like music in movies, you have to use it at the right times”).

Shanks has displayed a willingness to take risks, which goes back to his first stint at FOX in the 1990s. He was involved in the development of two memorable innovations – the now-ubiquitous first down line on football telecasts and the glowing puck on NHL coverage. With Shanks at the helm, perhaps FOX is on its way to creating the next successful sports TV innovation (ala the first down line) or perhaps the next infamous miss (ala the glowing puck).

NBC's Dick Ebersol:
http://deadspin.com/5449864/ex+nbc-sports-employee-dick-ebersol-is-the-biggest-failure-of-them-all

ABC/ESPN's George Bodenheimer:
http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com/2006/12/people-to-know-at-espn.html

George Bodenheimer is the President of ESPN and ABC Sports, (replacing Howard
Katz as the latter in 2003). He is the overseer of all sports programming for
ESPN.

You can thank Bodenheimer for ESPN Original Entertainment, which is responsible
for Playmakers, A Season on the Brink, 3, Beg, Borrow and Deal, and I'd Do
Anything. You can also thank him for that ESPN Mobile phone you never knew
existed. (You know, the one they put Kirby Puckett's face on the night he died?)
Notable quotes: "Anybody looking for the demise of ABC Sports is barking up the
wrong tree." - Bodenheimer in 2005, approximately a year before ABC Sports
became ESPN on ABC.

Under Bodenheimer's watch, ESPN has acquired the NBA, Monday Night Football and
NASCAR, while jettisoning the National Hockey League and losing postseason
baseball. During that same time period, ABC lost the NHL, NFL, Bowl Championship
Series, golf, Keith Jackson and Al Michaels. Oh, and the "thrill of victory" and
"agony of defeat", too.