Last week, ESPN began to broadcast the Korean Baseball Organization or KBO. ESPN has been broadcasting a game every day since the KBO season started. The league was founded in 1982 and currently has ten teams in the league. The Kia Tigers have won the most championships in the league with eleven titles. The KBO also has former MLB players in the league, like for Phillies outfielders Aaron Altherr, Ben Lively, David Buchanan, Tyler Saladino, and more. With ESPN broadcasting the KBO, should ESPN or Disney consider bringing back Wide World of Sports?
ABC Wide World of Sports debuted on April 29, 1961, with host Jim McKay and continued until January 3, 1998. Wide World of Sports played a massive role in debuting events around the world for fans to watch from Formula One to the Penn Relays. As television evolved, many broadcast networks began to bring these events over to their networks; however, broadcasting these events has become very expensive.
After Wide World of Sports ended in 1998, ABC continued to show events. When the century began in 2000, ABC and ESPN were losing more sports to other networks. This prompted the other networks to launch their own sports networks in the mid-’00s till early 2010’s from Versus (Now NBC Sports Network), National College Sports Network (Now CBS Sports Network), and rebrands of Speed Channel (Now FS1) and Fuel TV (Now FS2).
Disney was still losing many leagues to competitors, particularly auto racing when the only association they had left was NHRA, who left for FOX Sports after 2015. In the last couple of years, ESPN did get back into the auto racing game by bringing back Formula One with the telecast from Sky Sports. Between ABC and ESPN, they telecast the NFL, CFL, MLB, College Sports, NBA, Formula One, KBO, UFC, WNBA, Wimbledon, Esports, Drone Racing, and others. With ABC and ESPN airing these leagues, it would now be the time for Disney to revive Wide World of Sports.
Nostalgia is a powerful term, and Wide World of Sports fits this category. When you think about Wide World of Sports, you think of Jim McKay, Becky Dixon, Frank Gifford, Julie Moran, Robin Roberts, who have hosted the show. You think of those broadcasters wearing gold jackets with the ABC Sports logo, and the countless of events that each host brought to you every weekend from the Indianapolis 500 to Formula One’s Monaco Grand Prix, Olympics, NASCAR, College Sports, Relays, and so much more.
Reintroducing Wide World of Sports would not only pay tribute to those that came before them but could re-engage past audiences as well as bringing in a new audience. Disney already has a theme park called ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, and it is smart to tie into the history of the name as well as incorporating the programs that already air on ABC and ESPN.
I think the executives at Disney should at least have a conversation about bringing back Wide World of Sports. It’s not just a name; it’s history in the sports world. It’s a name that has introduced audiences to names like Mario Andretti, Muhammad Ali, Mary Lou Retton, Richard Petty, Joe Frazier, and countless other stars from all sports. Having Wide World of Sports again would be the icing on the cake.
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