The Worldwide Leader is playing catch-up

Last year, FSN decided to start producing a highlight show to compete with SportsCenter. At the time I thought it was an interesting idea at best, and I remember at least one article comparing the real-life situation to one of my favorite shows of all time, Sports Night, which was about a witty, up-and-coming highlight program on a fictional cable network. The parallels are obvious.

I didn't watch the show much at first, but for the last two months or so, I've become increasingly disappointed by SC. They have moved further and further from providing highlights, or meaningful analysis and have devoted countless segments to their own original reporting. While this was acceptable in the sports doldrum that lasts from the day after the Super Bowl until Opening Day, it is inexcusable now. Over the last few weeks, I have seen more content on the NFL draft, and recently, college football programs that I have on baseball.

By contrast, FSN Final Score provides all highlights and recaps - no need for clever or touching segments. This is sports, I want to see the scores, and if the analysts on TV are progressively getting dumber (see Baseball Tonight) then I don't care what they even think about the games.

However, the most interesting development in this competition has only come in the last few weeks. Final Score had a unique look in contrast to SC; the video only takes up 80 percent of the screen. A ticker is included at the bottom of the screen, a la SC, but along the right margin Final Score displays their upcoming segments, and puts a title on top of the screen. The result is losing a few inches on each side of the screen, but having greater awareness about what is coming next. This has been their style from the first days of the show, and only changes to full screen when there is a death in the sporting world.

SportsCenter has adopted (some might say ripped off) this style of presentation from Final Score. They now list upcoming stories on the right margin of the screen in identical fashion to the FSN upstart. Perhaps the best thing for a stagnant behemoth like SC is to get pushed around and be forced to adapt, but I'd really rather that they used more creative tactics than plagiarism.

Bravo WWL, bravo.