There’s a great line in Jurassic Park where Jeff Goldblum’s chaos theoretician criticizes the disastrous decision to clone dinosaurs. “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could,” he warns, “they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
I thought of Goldblum while watching TBS’s cringeworthy Final Four show Saturday night, which awkwardly tried to resurrect the ghost of basketball inventor James Naismith in a segment that just felt like an eight-minute-long Capital One infomercial.
Wearing fake glasses and a bad haircut, comedian Will Forte engaged the halftime crew of Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson, Magic Jonhson and Bruce Pearl in a mock quiz contest called “Naismith or No-smith” between the two games.
Forte, who plays Naismith in Capital One’s March Madness TV ads currently airing, is a funny actor. But this wasn’t funny. It was lame, tedious and a waste of valuable air time. (Don’t get me started on the unnecessary Chainsmokers concert in between Final Four games in Indianapolis, either.)
Respect the game. This is the Final Four. Fans are tuning in to watch the two biggest games of the college basketball season before the national championship. That’s all the entertainment you need. The focus should have been on UConn vs Illinois and Michigan vs. Arizona. We don’t need these silly gags that sound funny in a conference room, but just end up ticking off viewers.
Here was TBS with millions of viewers eagerly awaiting Michigan-Arizona after UConn’s 71-62 win. The cast of seven (seven!) bodies around that desk have used that valuable time to deliver an in-depth preview of Wolverines vs Wildcats. Or dissect the budding Huskies dynasty. Instead, we got an awkward attempt at a Saturday Night Live skit. And a concert.
TBS had Magic Johnson on set but didn’t really use him. What about asking him about Michigan State’s legendary 1979 NCAA title game against Larry Bird’s Indiana State that changed basketball forever? Or why that game is still the most watched college basketball ever with 35.1 million viewers? Hell, if TBS wanted to go the comedian route, they had Bill Murray in the stands rooting for his son Luke, a UConn assistant coach. That would have been a more interesting conversation that blended comedy and game talk.
As podcaster Brent Axe wrote on X/Twitter: “Why stop with a concert in-between games no one is asking [for]? We get Will Forte to do an awkward segment as Dr. Naismith while sitting next to, you ready for this… Magic Johnson.”
One college basketball insider agreed. “I think we can all agree this worst bit in television history and completely disrespectful to Final 4,” tweeted Official Ohio State DG.
Here’s some free advice to sports producers at TBS as well as those at Netflix, with their equally overwrought MLB Opening Day coverage: I know you’re obsessed with reaching the “casual” viewer, but respect hardcore sports fans too. Not every sporting event has to get the Super Bowl treatment, with concerts, comedians, and kayaks.
And next time you think about whether you could, stop and think about if you should.
