Global TV are idiots: Worst TV ever!

[Ed G]

For those of you who don't know, those of us in Canada who aren't able to go the Canadian CART races get coverage by Global instead of getting the american feeds. (Maybe that's why everyone goes to the Toronto race)

I knew the coverage was going to be bad but I didn't realize how bad it could be. Be warned this is a bit of a rant but it shows that the ABC coverage could be a heck of lot worse.

First the 2 1/2 good points
1. They did some good CART 101 (little segments on the technology) with an excellent one on the steering wheel showing all the buttons and the uses.
2. We got to see the podium presentation (and laugh at Alex when he didn't know who Chris Hadfield was)
3. (only worth 1/2 a point) we got some qualifying coverage but it SUCKED!!!

OK the bad parts.
First the qualifying show. I was expecting a F1 style show with the commentators introducing things during the slow periods etc... but with as much coverage of the cars as possibe.... NOPE we got 40 minutes of 3 guys sitting there yacking amongst themselves going over pop-off valves, current standings, practices followed by coverage of the last 5 minutes of coverage of each group which was impossible to follow because there was no lead in and we have no idea of who is in each group or what the times are looking like. It was Horrible. There was only one interview and that was with Carpentier at the very start of the program and you could tell that he was told not to talk about how well he did (suspense you know) but it was obvious that he had problems. I don't think we got to see Tracy at all,

As for the Race. I didn't even bother with the pre-race show but tuned in to see 3 wrestlers come up on stage and yell into the mikes (that's another rant: what happened to Chris Hadfield... the guy was obviously there and willing to take part; talk about your perfect engine starter. It was a shame I thought after we had guys like Gretzky and John Candy that they sell out to the WWF for some cash... at least I hope the race got money for that)

During the race it was rather hard to follow what was going on... we NEVER got to see or hear about anyone popping into the pits for fuel during the early yellows and were only told later during the race that Andretti had done so... who knows who else did. After the first pit the morons kept on confusing the Players cars and kept on going on about how Patrick was leading the race until they finally got it right. Then when Patrick had his accident and drove into the pits and the stewards announced that his car was beyond repair the bozos said that it was Alex who was out. Likewise when Dario retired we couldn't see who was in the car because there was an umbrella in the way but when the driver jumped out we got a 1/2 second glimpse... but of course they said that it was Paul.

Did we ever get to see de Ferran and Tags second stop? nope we were just told about them 3 laps later. Then when Tag was passing Gil for 13th we got to watch Fernadez for 3 laps. Again I don't think I ever got to see any of the second pit stops for any driver. Mike was in the pits 4 times... don't think I got to see one of those.

As far as covering the Candians:We only saw Paul when he came into the back of the shot before we moved cameras. And only got to see Tag when he was in the action. Patrick got his most airtime when he crashed and we got to see him in the pits.

As for a sense of strategy? There was none. You had no idea of who had pitted, how long ago or what the standard pit window was. Half the time the position scroller was stuck showing only the first 3 places. It was increadibly frustrating. It reminded me of when I was trying to figure out the races during Driven (but wasn't that bad)

Please tell me that Global wasn't controlling the cameras and the viewing for everyone else in the world.

[macdaddy]

I hear what you're saying.
The pit-stop strategies were nearly impossible to follow.
Came back late from commercials once and missed a restart.
Never mentioned Andretti until he was in the top-5.
But...
A pre-race and post-race show was a nice treat.
First post-race interviews I've seen pretty much all season.

[macdaddy]

One more thing I found quite pathetic...
During the race, an interview with Chris Hadfield was featured.
This man is famed throughout Canada. Performed the first Canadian spacewalk.
But the interviewer introduced him as the first Canuck to walk the moon.
Think she would have been clued in as to whom she was speaking to.

[enemy-ace]

Ed G. you have pretty much summed up the whole mess that global made of that race. They did a terrible job last year and they did another horrible job this year. Hopefully they're contract to cover the race locally will expire soon. This was the first year in along time that I haven't attended the race and after Global's coverage I'll be sure to be there live next year come hell or high water.

[Liz]

Well we didn't get much better coverage trackside. It was All Andretti All The Time.

The good bits:

They FINALLY have learned how to pronounce Gil's name.
They FINALLY have learned how to pronounce Helio's name.
They said Mikey was driving for Team Penske.
They said Mario was driving for Motorola.
The only big cheer in our grandstand was when Mikey hit the wall in the first turn.
Tags is very cute.

The bad bits:

Mikey was mentioned in every single sentence, from first practice on Friday until sign-off on Sunday. Gil could have done barrel rolls and driven upside down across the Player's Bridge and still the announcers would have been burbling about what Mikey was doing in the port-a-loo. It was like listening to Murray and Martin burble about Jensen Button.

There are at least fifteen different ways to pronounce "Bruno Junqueria". None of them so far have been correct.

The announcers spent a lot of time telling us on Friday that Mikey was not in "the black car". They spent a lot of time on Sunday during the race referring to Cristiano da Matta's Newman-Haas car as "the black car." Obviously they had figured out who was NOT in it, but never did figure out who WAS in it.

All in all the coverage was terrible. I admit it. But until halfway through the race, the racing was great!

[elephino]

I'd assume the feed was the same with different commentators.

I was just happy we got Paul Page and Parker Johnstone commentating. As much as I enjoy what Jeremy Shaw writes, I don't enjoy his commentating that much.

[senna12]

I had taped the F1 race early that morning, was watching it when the Indy started..I switched the tape off, and started to watch CART. After about 10 minutes, I turned it off, for all of the reasons mentioned above. Worst coverage I ever saw 10 minutes of, for sure.