ESPN2's Cold Pizza VS FSN's The Best Damn Sports Show Period

[TMC]

Which cable sports show at this point, deserves to be canceled? Both programs have at this point, in all likelyhood, alienated a majority of their respective audiences by suddenly betraying their original premises.

"Cold Pizza" started out as ESPN's version of the "Today" show or "Good Morning America." It had Jay Crawford playing the straight man for three "hot" women: Thea Andrews (the "Canadian Girl"), Kit Hoover (the "Southern Girl"), and Leslie Maxie (the "Black Girl"). But then over the next year, suddenly Maxie disappears and Kit & Thea are forced to take a back set in favor of Skip Bayless & Woody Paige to make the show look more like CNN's "Crossfire." To make matters worse, VH1 reject, Kane "Mr. Soulpatch" Peterson became the "unofficial" subsitute host over Leslie Maxie.

I assume that ESPN brought the two sports writers along so that "Cold Pizza" wouldn't look too much like a fluff program. The problem is that the rants of Bayless & Paige really started to bog the show down over time. ESPN already has at least three shows that's dedicated to arguing sportswriters: "The Sports Reporters", "Pardon The Interuption", and "Around The Horn."

Now comes the news that Kit Hoover & Thea Andrews are completely off the show in favor of obscure and conservatively dressed "SportsCenter" anchor Dana Jacobson. Part of the appeal of "Cold Pizza" at first was that it was a sports show for outsiders (in contrast to a professional sportscaster like Jacobson and to a lesser extent, Bayless & Paige).

As for "The Best Damn Sports Show Period", Fox messed up big time when they suddenly decided to make Tom Arnold & John Salley the sole stars of the show. TBDSSP, went in the opposite direction as "Cold Pizza" as it's new format is now focusing way too much on the entertainment/Hollywood spectum where it should be focusing more on the sporting universe.

Original main host Chris Rose, who was the glue that held the show together (just like you can argue that Kit Hoover & Thea Andrews were for "Cold Pizza"), played a perfect straight man for the jittery and spastic Tom Arnold. Now, TBDSSP has taken a more formulaic approach in the form of a late night talk show (a la "The Tonight Show") instead of a loose, anything goes tailgate party.