How will the 3 month layoff before the wsop final table affect ratings...?

Question

...especially considering that the final table will consist of 9 nameless players who no one has ever heard of?

personally, i think it's really going to hurt, and even worse, it will give the wsop reason to continue with this preposterous stunt...while i understand that 3 months is a long time to build up a backstory for the finalists, no one in the mainstream media is going to want to give major attention to these people, which is the ultimate goal of delaying the table...and as i stated above, i think the idea is totally absurd and a desperate stunt to recapture the ratings of 2004, 2005, and 2006, the results of event are being distorted and the integrity of the event is being destroyed because of this idea, but that's another topic for another day

so, what are your opinions on how this will play out? will the gamble taken by espn and the wsop fail because of the lack of name players? or will ratings be as strong as originally hoped regardless?

Answer 1

It's actually almost 4 months and it's all to do with waiting for 3 months of episodes to air and thinking that if the main event isn't over then this will generate more viewer interest.  I don't agree with this and what it does is take a lot of excitement out of the main event itself leading up to the final table.  If there's an upside it's that you won't really have to wait long after it's done to watch it on TV as they can plan a lot better that far into the future.  I can tell you though that if I was at the table having to wait that long to get paid, especially these guys who aren't exactly loaded, is bordering on cruel.

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Answer 2

The WSOP board members were probably hoping that there would be at least one or two big time poker pros, but since there aren't any, I am sure they are kind of getting nervous. They took a gamble praying that some big time players would be there to boost their ratings, but I am afraid that is not going to happen. If they would have just played the final table the next day or even a week after they got the final 9 and then broadcasted it, I think that they would have more viewers than waiting 2 and a half months. Also, the time given for these players to study their opponents wont really help because they are all online players. It is hard to study someone who has never been televised before.

   Also, I think that the WSOP directors know that they are always going to have their certain percentage of hardcore viewers that will tune in otherwise. They were just hoping that they would attract an extra percentage of viewers by letting everyone know that the final table would be broadcasted at a later time so that these people wouldn't forget that it was going to be on TV. My bet is that the ratings will not be as strong as the past years.