American TV series or program
The George Michael Sports Machine
|
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|
Genre
| Sports news
|
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Presented by
| George Michael
Lindsay Czarniak
(2004?2007)
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Country of origin
| United States
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Original language
| English
|
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No.
of seasons
| 22
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|
Production locations
| WRC-TV Studios, Washington D.C.
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Running time
| 30 minutes
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Production company
| WRC-TV
|
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Network
| |
---|
Release
| September 2, 1984
(
1984-09-02
)
?
March 25, 2007
(
2007-03-25
)
|
---|
The George Michael Sports Machine
was a
syndicated
,
sports
-related American television program which was launched in 1984. The show aired weekends, usually on Sunday nights, and originated from
WRC-TV
in
Washington, D.C.
, one of
NBC
's
owned and operated stations
. Most of the stations that aired
The Sports Machine
were NBC affiliates.
The show was an offshoot of a local program that
George Michael
, a former
disc jockey
who became a sportscaster, hosted in Washington beginning in 1980. Michael hosted the program for its entire run, which ended in 2007.
Lindsay Czarniak
, who was a colleague of Michael's at WRC-TV, joined the program as a substitute host in 2004 and became Michael's co-host in 2006.
History
[
edit
]
1984?2004
[
edit
]
Shortly after Michael joined WRC-TV in 1980, the station launched the program as
George Michael's Sports Final
, a local sports wrapup show on Sunday evenings, following the late newscast. After a successful four-year run in Washington, NBC's other
owned-and-operated stations
?at the time in
New York City
,
Los Angeles
,
Cleveland
, and
Chicago
?added the program to their Sunday late-night schedules, and it was retitled as
The George Michael Sports Machine
.
[1]
NBC concurrently began to offer the program to its affiliated stations as part of the network schedule on September 2, 1984;
[2]
WRC-TV, which continued to produce
Sports Machine
, said that this was the first time that a network had carried a locally-produced sports show (albeit one with a national focus).
[1]
In 1991,
ITC Entertainment
took
Sports Machine
into wider national syndication; at the time, the program was carried on 84 of NBC's affiliates.
[3]
The show moved to
Group W Productions
in 1995;
[4]
its successors, Eyemark Entertainment and
King World Productions
(both now
CBS Media Ventures
), continued to distribute
Sports Machine
until 2001, when NBC Enterprises (later
NBCUniversal Television Distribution
from 2004 until the show's final episode in 2007) began distributing the program.
As host, George Michael presented clips from the weekend's sporting events from across the United States and sometimes outside of the U.S. Unlike newer sports-related programming,
Sports Machine
did not usually present commentary or criticism and focused almost purely on the highlights,
[5]
and, often toward the end of the show, an in-depth story about a particular athlete. The show was also somewhat unusual in its occasional coverage of remarkable
high school sports
footage, and its occasional coverage of sports largely ignored by most other sports wrap-up shows, such as
ice hockey
,
NASCAR
and other
auto racing
events,
professional wrestling
,
rodeo
, and
equestrian
events.
Influence and criticism
[
edit
]
When the show premiered nationally in the mid-1980s, the only highlights available to sports fans on Sunday nights were those on late local newscasts and the
ESPN
and
CNN
cable networks, creating an audience niche for
Sports Machine
to fill. By the later years of
Sports Machine,
however, the rise of numerous specialty cable sports channels (notably
ESPNews
) and the expansion of Sunday evening local newscasts to either air an extended sportscast (an
extra
in common parlance) or a separate program to recap Sunday football and baseball action caused many stations to either drop the program or air it later in the night?issues made even worse in 2006, when NBC acquired the rights to
Sunday Night Football
, which in turn pushed late local news on most of the
Sports Machine's
affiliates even later.
An idiosyncrasy of the show was the large quantity of
machinery
on its set. After introducing each of the highlights, Michael would press a button which "activated" the "sports machine"?a large computer with several monitors attached to a videotape
reel-to-reel
?to play the clips. Michael and the producers chose the
computer
motif mainly because high technology was fast coming into the American consciousness at the time of the show's debut.
The show magnified highlights in order to take out the distraction of the
digital on-screen graphics
added by the networks during the 1990s.
Cancellation
[
edit
]
Beginning in 2004, fellow WRC-TV sports anchor
Lindsay Czarniak
joined
Sports Machine
as a contributing correspondent and substitute host, and she became the official co-host of the program in September 2006. However, this arrangement did not last long, as Michael announced on November 16, 2006, that he would retire and
Sports Machine
would end its 27-year run in March 2007. Michael reasoned that he would not want his contract renewed at the expense of WRC-TV's sports staff, which was slated to be reduced under NBC Universal's network-wide, cost-reduction initiative.
The last episode aired on March 25, 2007. After thanking his co-host, sponsors, syndicators and staff, Michael said this at the end of the show:
I close every show every Sunday by saying, "Thank you for letting us be a part of your weekend." Well, tonight, for the final time, we say, "thank you." Thank you for letting us be a part of your life. From everyone at the
Sports Machine,
have a great weekend, everybody. We hope to see you somewhere down the road of life. Thank you.
Michael then walked off camera, and was heard to say
"Last one out, turn out the lights!"
as the show closed for the final time.
[
citation needed
]
The end of
Sports Machine
coincided with the end of Michael's contract as lead sports anchor at WRC, and he was replaced by Czarniak in that role. Michael continued to appear on sports panel shows and
Washington Redskins
-related programs for WRC-TV and Washington-area sports talk radio stations until more production and budget cuts forced those shows to be terminated. Michael died from leukemia on December 24, 2009.
Shortly after the end of the
Sports Machine
, Czarniak became a permanent part of TNT's
NASCAR
broadcasts as a pit reporter in addition to her duties at WRC. She left that position after the 2011 season. In 2011, Czarniak left WRC to take a position at ESPN and initially was an overnight anchor at
ESPNews
before becoming a fixture on
SportsCenter
, where she anchored the 6 PM broadcast with
John Anderson
from December 3, 2012 to January 30, 2015 and later, was the sole anchor from February 2, 2015 to mid-October 2016. In August 2017, her contract with ESPN expired.
References and notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Sunday sports"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. October 1, 1984. p. 73
. Retrieved
October 9,
2018
.
- ^
"NBC action"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. May 7, 1984. p. 54
. Retrieved
October 9,
2018
.
- ^
"ITC to distribute 'Sports Machine'
"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. June 24, 1991. p. 53
. Retrieved
October 9,
2018
.
- ^
"Group W Productions gets 'Sports Machine'
"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting & Cable
. May 29, 1995. p. 15
. Retrieved
October 9,
2018
.
- ^
Hecken, Phil (August 25, 2016).
"Broadcast Throwbacks"
.
Uni Watch
.
External links
[
edit
]