As FOX Sports rewrote the record books with its presentation of Super Bowl LIX drawing the largest average viewing audience for a television program in U.S. history, there were mixed reviews surrounding its new scorebug. The network was met with criticism from fans in deviating from the look it had used throughout the year, debuting a modern and minimalistic graphic asset displaying the down and distance, score and quarter. In fact, the generally unobtrusive visual element drew the attention of Dan “Big Cat” Katz during Monday’s edition of the Pardon My Take podcast.
Katz, a Barstool Sports personality who has been with the company since 2012, called FOX deciding to debut the new scorebug as “a war crime” and referred to it as being “disgusting.” This led Eric Sollenberger, commonly known as “PFT Commenter,” to question why networks have commonly engaged in this practice during the Super Bowl. CBS Sports revealed a new scorebug during Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, and FOX Sports had debuted a cartoon-inspired element two years earlier as well.
“This is something that you need like at least a full year to workshop in case you lay a dud,” PFT Commenter said. “This one was so bad, it looked like they screwed up and had to redevelop and redesign their scorebug like four hours before kickoff, and they just had time to make like two rectangles that they would put on the screen.”
Henry Lockwood, the producer of Pardon My Take, had stated that the FOX Sports scorebug resembled that used on Barstool Sports streams since the company does not have rights to certain on-air elements. PFT Commenter also mentioned the empty space in the middle of the scorebug without a background, leading Katz to contend that whoever came up with the component should be fired.
“I don’t know how that gets through,” Katz said. “It goes to what we say all the time. Just hire a regular fan for these high-level meetings, have them sit down, show them the scorebug and they’ll immediately be like, ‘What the f**k is that?’”
PFT Commenter conveyed that it is necessary to debut the scorebug a full season ahead of time so viewers can become used to it rather than revealing it during the Super Bowl. Furthermore, he surmised that the approval rating regarding a new scorebug is probably around 20% and then asked Katz if he hated the new element every time it was revealed. Katz concurred that this was a fact rather than fiction, thus backing what PFT Commenter was articulating.
“To do it during the Super Bowl, even if it’s halfway decent, which this one was not, we’re still going to act like it’s the worst thing in the world,” PFT Commenter concluded. “This was worse than anyone could have expected though.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
