BPAA discovered long ago that three-game singles formats don't excite TV viewers By Dick Evans
03/23/09
It was interesting to see the PBA try a three-game singles format on TV that the BPAA tried years ago without much success.
The old BPAA National All-Star format featured three-game matches to decide the champion, much like the USBC Masters did before luring national television exposure for the Masters.
TV was young when the Bowling Proprietors Association of America landed a Saturday night television date for the All-Star Tournament. To stay true to the old tournament format, the proprietors decided the TV program would feature the women in the first TV game and the men in game two and three.
To accomplish this, the women bowled two games before the telecast started and then the men bowled one game off camera while the women were bowling game No. 3 on national TV.
But in 1961 Bill Tucker was so far ahead in accumulated pins during the long 11-day format that by the time the men went on national TV all Tucker had to do was not throw all gutter balls to win the tournament.
Talk about boring TV.
To their credit, the proprietors tweaked the TV format before the 1962 telecast from Miami. That meant that Shirley Garms and Joy Abel plus Roy Lown and Dick Weber dropped all their accumulated pins before the telecast started with Garms and Weber emerging victorious in their three-game matches.
That bowling format disappeared from TV when the BPAA dropped the National All-Star after the 1970 tournament.
Few may remember but the Masters and Queens were four-game duels for many years until John Jowdy convinced Darold Dobs, executive director of the ABC, that three-game matches would allow for more qualifying games in the Masters' double-elimination format.
That format change is one of the reasons that the Masters became more appealing to many of the PBA players.
Over the years I have watched hundreds of three-game matches in the Masters and for the most part they often became dull by the middle of the third-game and a few already were won.
The ABC was smart enough to adopt the PBA's stepladder format when the ABC finally garnered national TV exposure for the Masters.
You never are going to convince me that three-game singles matches belong on national TV.
The old National BPAA All-Star proved my point.
Email address: Evans121@aol.com.
Column
It was interesting to see the PBA try a three-game singles format on TV that the BPAA tried years ago without much success.The old BPAA National All-Star format featured three-game matches to decide the champion, much like the USBC Masters did before luring national television exposure for the Masters.
TV was young when the Bowling Proprietors Association of America landed a Saturday night television date for the All-Star Tournament. To stay true to the old tournament format, the proprietors decided the TV program would feature the women in the first TV game and the men in game two and three.
To accomplish this, the women bowled two games before the telecast started and then the men bowled one game off camera while the women were bowling game No. 3 on national TV.
But in 1961 Bill Tucker was so far ahead in accumulated pins during the long 11-day format that by the time the men went on national TV all Tucker had to do was not throw all gutter balls to win the tournament.
Talk about boring TV.
To their credit, the proprietors tweaked the TV format before the 1962 telecast from Miami. That meant that Shirley Garms and Joy Abel plus Roy Lown and Dick Weber dropped all their accumulated pins before the telecast started with Garms and Weber emerging victorious in their three-game matches.
That bowling format disappeared from TV when the BPAA dropped the National All-Star after the 1970 tournament.
Few may remember but the Masters and Queens were four-game duels for many years until John Jowdy convinced Darold Dobs, executive director of the ABC, that three-game matches would allow for more qualifying games in the Masters' double-elimination format.
That format change is one of the reasons that the Masters became more appealing to many of the PBA players.
Over the years I have watched hundreds of three-game matches in the Masters and for the most part they often became dull by the middle of the third-game and a few already were won.
The ABC was smart enough to adopt the PBA's stepladder format when the ABC finally garnered national TV exposure for the Masters.
You never are going to convince me that three-game singles matches belong on national TV.
The old National BPAA All-Star proved my point.
Email address: Evans121@aol.com.
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