I'm a little sad this week because Fox Sports 1 canceled one of the few TV shows I watch outside of programming on EWTN.
"Crowd Goes Wild," a very different take on sports programming didn't even make it a year. The show (sometimes) featuring Regis Philbin, and a panel of much younger people than Regis with varied sports and media experience, was unequal parts:
News- Interviews
- Game show
- Social media monitoring
- Comedy
- Snark
- Analysis
- Live audience cheering
- And whatever else they decided to try
You can imagine how this eclectic array of content meant you never knew what exactly was going to happen. You can also see why the eclectic content wound up dooming Crowd Goes Wild to a short run since it didn't generate a big enough audience.
Big Strategic Change and the One Place You Better Be Looking for It
And yet, I predict (and I'm not a big predictor), time will demonstrate that Crowd Goes Wild is a noticeable influence on where boring, analysis-heavy, over-serious sports programming winds up heading in the next five years.
I'm basing my prediction on how much I enjoyed the eclecticism of the David Letterman morning show (which set the stage for Letterman's later work and influence on talk shows) and "Breakfast Time" (which in its short run on FX in the 1990s introduced the hosts of nearly all of the most successful reality TV programs plus set the stage for the toned-down wackiness on today’s early morning TV).
For all three of these TV programs on the fringe, the absence of pre-cursors, sizable audiences, and standard formats led to truly exciting programming where you simply weren't sure what might happen next.
And this potent combination leads to change - maybe not right away, and not for whoever goes first, but for the marketplace overall.
So when it comes to looking for big strategic change in your business, are you looking on the fringes where new things are happening outside of mainstream attention?
If you want to understand where the change is likely to come from in your marketplace, consider the equivalent spot where:
- The audience is small
- The stakes are low
- The expectations are fluid
Go to school on the fringes and see what changes it suggests for your organization’s future. - Mike Brown
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