CBS To Produce Fantasy Football Show On Aug. 20

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 4:31 am

CBS Sports is the latest national television entity to dive into the fantasy football industry as the network announced it will air its first-ever fantasy football show later this month. CBS joins ESPN, Fox Sports and The NFL Network as national networks producing free fantasy football shows this summer.

The 2005 CBS Sportsline Fantasy Football Show will air on Saturday, Aug. 20 at 1 p.m. ET. CBS Sports’ NFL analysts Randy Cross and Gus Johnson will co-host the one-hour show along with CBS Sportsline.com’s fantasy writer Michael Fabiano. The trio will offer their advice on everything from draft strategies to the Top 10 overall players in fantasy drafts this season, as well as analysis of this year’s rookie class.

“Fantasy has got a huge fan base and we want to draw some of that fan base into our broadcasts,” said Harold Bryant, a coordinating producer at CBS Sports. “We want to show the fans we’ve got some expertise in that area. We’re trying to appeal to both the hardcore fantasy fans and the new fans, trying to give them a little insight from our guys. And we’re basing it on Sportsline’s rankings, their scoring system.

“We’re going to try to make it a fun, edgy show. We want there to be some debate. Everybody knows the top few guys; we’re going to go a little deeper. We’re trying to actually talk to some of the players and get their (fantasy) input. So we’re going to have some sound-bites in there from players. We want it to be a network quality fantasy show.”

Bryant believes the reason so many networks are jumping further into the fantasy fray for the upcoming football season is simple: The industry is growing and many of the NFL’s fans are playing fantasy football so it makes sense to produce content that will appeal to this growing and passionate demographic.

“It’s also a younger demographic,” Bryant said. “We want to hook them and show them that (CBS) is the place to watch sports and fantasy is a big part of that. So we’re not necessarily trying to hook an older demographic or a demographic that’s already with CBS. We’re trying to hook new people and bring them in.

“I think a lot of the hardcore fans are going to watch our network anyway, but how are we going to get new ones in? The fringe fans who are flipping over to ESPN or the Net to get their information, what’s going to get them (to CBS)? We thought this was something that could help that out. Hopefully that will carry over to the season. We’ll do more fantasy stats in our pre-game show and the games to kind of draw people in as well.”

According to Joe Ferreria, executive producer of fantasy games at CBS Sportsline.com, the more shows of this magnitude that arise the more it emphasizes the point that fantasy sports is no longer a “closet industry.”

“You saw evidence of that last year with some of the innovations CBS had on its NFL coverage,” Ferreria said. “During the pre-game show we had fantasy stats throughout the entire pre-game show. CBS introduced two stat packages called Game Tracks and Stat Tracks that were pretty unique and pretty cool in the game where you had the stats for the players after the play pop out of the score clock. To be honest that really speaks directly to the fantasy fans.

“So CBS has been on board with this. I think the chance to do a television special on a major network in the heat of the draft season has been something that we’ve dreamt about for awhile, but for a lot of different reasons it didn’t come to fruition. But now we’re extremely excited we’re able to pull this off.”

Nag' · Post by **Nag'** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 5:09 am

I've been wondering, as the FF explosion brings more guppies into the pond and allows them to quickly learn the strategies & theories of the game, will they be able to immideately compete at the highest level of Fantasy Football (NFFC, WCOFF, etc) and in turn level the entire playing field or will their lack of experience & nuances of FF simply make it easier for the sharks to take advantage and create a wide gap between themselves and the newbies?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 5:23 am

Originally posted by Nag':
I've been wondering, as the FF explosion brings more guppies into the pond and allows them to quickly learn the strategies & theories of the game, will they be able to immideately compete at the highest level of Fantasy Football (NFFC, WCOFF, etc) and in turn level the entire playing field or will their lack of experience & nuances of FF simply make it easier for the sharks to take advantage and create a wide gap between themselves and the newbies? Nag, it's interesting to note that according to our Fantasy Sports Trade Association survey, the average fantasy player has been playing only eight years. So this is a very, very young industry even though some of us have been playing for around 20 years. These shows -- and remember that ESPN, Fox and The Football Network are all doing one this year and the ESPN "girlie" fantasy ads don't hurt, either -- will continue to grow the awareness of fantasy sports and bring new people in each year. The newbies of 2005 could very well be the best players of 2007, 2008 and beyond. It's not like this is rocket science or anything.

All of this is good for our industry and those of us who are on the ground floor running with these events (NFFC, NFBC and WCOFF) will benefit from the increased awareness of fantasy sports.

Matt Hooper · Post by **Matt Hooper** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 6:23 am

The playing field won't likely be 'leveled' as long as there consists of as many options in the FF venue. There will always be owners incapable of spending any time analysing the game, or those of us who have a refined ability to 'out-dork' the competition. Just like there'll always be a freebie league that only counts TDs - and a high-stakes event with more rules then the tax code...

ie: Food chain... Circle of life...

The gups will find their safe shallow breeding grounds - and will occasionally strike out into 'big blue' to see how they measure up. They either evolve to 'sharkness' - or head back to the reef to retire or repair...

... I feel like Jacques Costeau/Steve Zissou...

"Zee inexperienced manager - he will likely curse himzelf at ze pick of Freddie Taylor - in ze first round..."

Things would only get messy if there weren't any guppies around to feed off of... then it becomes a shark feeding frenzy. And to be honest - some people look for that anyways...

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 7:25 am

The playing field won't likely be 'leveled' until I retire from fantasy football.

Matt Hooper · Post by **Matt Hooper** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:06 am

There he is!

Hey champ... it's been awhile since I've seen a bowl o' your "sugar coated E-goh's"* on the board.

* - fortified with vitamin R, O, and I!!

TradeStar28 · Post by **TradeStar28** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:18 am

Originally posted by Gordon Gekko:
The playing field won't likely be 'leveled' until I retire from fantasy football. I guarantee you will not make the PLAYOFFS this year in NFFC.

Your existence as a Champion in NFFC is shouldered by Moose Muhammed, Reuben Droughns in FA, and the fact that the playing field was only 224 teams...Oh and u had more luck then a Goldman Sachs client with 500 shares of BIDU @ IPO price of $27.

You said you can't win from the bottom of the draft, you said you wanted to drop Domanick Davis mid season.....

My thoughts is that your team was run by your partner. He probably called all of the shots in regard to drafting, free agency, lineups. No wonder he wanted to dump you for his own team in 2005.

One thing I do appreciate about you (probably the only thing), is that you don't use all caps on the message forum like that dork who won WCOF in 2002.

For that, thank you!

Nag' · Post by **Nag'** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:28 am

Damn, yet another thread with potential for a discussion that's been highjacked by Fisherman Gekko.

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:50 am

Originally posted by FI$HER:
I guarantee you will not make the PLAYOFFS this year in NFFC. LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU WIN A 100K CHAMPIONSHIP! MAYBE YOU SHOULD STICK TO YOUR SMUT MAGS? THANKS!

[ August 08, 2005, 02:55 PM: Message edited by: Gordon Gekko ]

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:53 am

Originally posted by FI$HER:
You said you can't win from the bottom of the drafti was good enough to overcome the handicap

Originally posted by FI$HER:
My thoughts is that your team was run by your partner. He probably called all of the shots in regard to drafting, free agency, lineups. No wonder he wanted to dump you for his own team in 2005. you can have all the thoughts you want. i didn't put any time into it. i basically showed up and won 100K. that's the best ROI I could ever get. thanks for pointing it out