If anybody has any doubts about the absolute awesome coverage that OLN provides us here in the U.S.
Just read Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist's John Leveques ideas on how to improve the coverage.
seattlepi.nwsource.com131526 leve19.htmlOpen ↗
Tour de France lacks Tesh touch
By JOHN LEVESQUE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST
Does anyone else miss John Tesh?
Back in the days before Tesh was the bête noire of arbiters who decide what's cool and what's not,
he was introducing us to other French terms, such as peloton and le maillot jaune.
Most Americans don't remember him as the guy who brought the Tour de France to American TV
audiences. They think of him as that syrupy New Age musician the late-night talkers love to bash, or
maybe as Connie Selleca's husband from those keys-to-a-happy- relationship infomercials.
But from 1981 to '87 he would take a break from his old "Entertainment Tonight" hosting gig and do
weekend broadcasts, mostly for CBS, giving sports fans and sofa spuds a glimpse into the bizarre
world of hurtling around hairpin turns on two wheels and a prayer.
It was extreme sports before ESPN embraced the concept, but it didn't exactly catch fire in the
United States. Tesh says CBS covered the Tour because Peter Tortorici, the head of CBS Sports at the
time, found it interesting.
Tortorici teamed Tesh with producer David Michaels -- brother of sportscaster Al -- and the two
would ride from stage to stage, putting together 90-minute programs for Saturday and Sunday
broadcast during the three-week Tour. Michaels would edit the footage. Tesh would do the commentary
and, with a portable synthesizer in tow, he'd do the music, too.
Having left TV for music, Tesh hasn't been back to the Tour in years. But he still follows
the action.
"I'm a big fan," he said yesterday from Los Angeles. "I don't watch it every day, but I keep up.
Before Lance Armstrong left for the Tour, we did an interview with him."
That would be for Tesh's syndicated radio show, a weekly mix of music and chat he likes to call
"Music and Intelligence for Your Life." Tesh considers Armstrong a good friend, says the racer's two
main concerns this year were being hailed as "St. Lance" for overcoming cancer and being assailed as
an ugly American by Frenchmen opposed to the Iraq war.
Tesh, who has typical broadcaster pipes, does a spot-on impression of high-pitched Englishman Phil
Liggett, with whom he worked in the '80s and who now anchors the Tour coverage on the Outdoor Life
Network with Paul Sherwen.
"He can say nothing and it's the most important thing in the world," Tesh laughed. "He's brilliant."
But not so brilliant that Americans are flocking to OLN, which attracts about a million viewers to
its daily coverage of the Tour. Though it's an improvement over audiences from last year and the
year before, the Tour de France, even with Armstrong's bid for a fifth consecutive victory as the
major draw, remains a niche event in U.S. televised sports.
Tesh thinks it could be more.
"If we can make 'Survivor' and 'Big Brother' and 'The Mole' interesting on TV," Tesh said, "we can
certainly do it with the Tour."
The real challenge for OLN may come as early as next year if Armstrong decides to retire. More
likely the year after that if Armstrong wins the Tour this year and decides to go for six victories,
which would be a record. Four racers -- Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel
Indurain -- have won five Tours.
One idea to bring in more American viewers is to have some stages of the Tour take place on American
soil. The Tour doesn't always stay completely in France, but Roger Williams, the head of OLN, told
CBS.MarketWatch.com that the likelihood of a U.S. segment is 50-50 at best.
The hope here is that it never gets past 20-80. The Tour may be an international event but it should
stay in France. If Americans can't get into it, phonying it up to make it more appealing (see Major
League Baseball, All-Star Game) will only cheapen something that's managed to last a century without
being ruined by an American network.
Not that the Tour isn't a heavily commercialized entity already. The whole thing is a rolling
advertising circus. Has been for years.
Tesh thinks the same approach in this country would have a favorable impact.
"If you just promoted it and told the Lance Armstrong story and got Katie, Matt and Al to talk about
it every morning," he said, "it would be huge. Lance is the most amazing athlete we've ever had on
this planet."
He's got a point. Americans do respond to hype. Of course, the Armstrong factor may be the only
reason any Americans are watching at all. To most Yanks, a Tour de France without a countryman in
contention is just another esoteric sport to be ignored by the masses and ridiculed by comedians.
Better to bring back Tesh, who had a knack for making the Tour exotic and accessible at the same
time. Tesh said he'd consider doing another Tour, but only "if they could put the old team back
together."
Wouldn't that be cool?