Surprised Bryn Morris was only a sub for Grimsby. I thought his loan spell here was decent, and he's kind of hitting his prime, age-wise.
Anyway, well done the Mariners! Stupid game, typically 'FA Cup' the way all the decisions went, especially the Theo Walcott "goal". But totally hilarious to watch unfold...
Very good result for Grimsby & what an achievement
Also a good result for The Blades against a very flat very lacklustre Spurs
West Ham demonstrate yet again the almost predictable futility of them trying to defend a 1-0 lead with Man Utd romping home in the second half
Fleetwood made Burnley work hard for their expected but very narrow 1-0 win
Everton are dire even with Dyche in charge, the Gunners fans spent most of the second half singing "You are going down" at the visiting fans & they are not wrong on tonights showing.
Everton made the right appointment but did it about 4 weeks too late. Should've done it before the January window so he had a chance to get in players that would help them stay up.
Sky have made BBC and ITV forget what makes the FA Cup great - both had a chance to show lowly Grimsby and Fleetwood trying to get further in the FA Cup than ever before last night, the former with a chance to make history, and both channels chose to show the sort of dross you can watch 8 nights a week on Sky. ITV relegated the Grimsby game to a channel that most people don't even know exists. Both deserve the coming end of linear broadcast TV, they're not even trying.
Did those games really have the most appeal though? Everyone I know was watching Grimsby last night because of the possibility of them making history, taking a big scalp and cheering on a massively outranked underdog. Who cares about Manchester United against West Ham other than Manchester United and West Ham fans?
@drcongo I don't know the viewing figures but sadly I suspect @DevC and @ReturnToSenda may be proved correct, that the main channels showed the most 'popular' games.
However, that didn't stop me watching ITV4 last night, for the reasons you set out above. It was instinctively obvious to me. (But is that because my football upbringing is all about following an underdog?)
I also watched Southampton - Grimsby, but most games between two Premier League teams will get the biggest audience. I'm not sure it makes much difference when every game is on free-to-air TV anyway, whether on the 'main' channels or not.
There's an excellent episode of the Freakonomics podcast about rooting for underdogs. A lot of the research is covered here but it's a near universal human trait. If either of the main two channels had higher viewing figures last night than Southampton vs Grimsby, it will only be because so much of the country can't get ITV4 because of poor Freeview coverage or doesn't even know ITV4 exists.
Commercial telly likes certainty. Far more intrigue in the giant killings but how many people would watch it all if Saints were 2 up early?
People are generally quite lazy too and there was a study that showed older people particularly are still used to turning the telly on and selecting channel 1. Ratings are massively higher on the main channels even for the same programmes.
It is a sad reality - go on any sports website and you will almost never see an article about a smaller club on the main page of headlines and articles. Southend's troubles have never been front page news, for example, while there are endless opinion pieces on whether Bruno Fernandez's new cat could be the psychological boost Manchester United need to finish 4th instead of 5th.
There should be a klaxon every time@Malone@Malone 's thinly veiled allegiance to the devil pops up. Even using the word 'giant' on this occasion. Fantastic
Back to the channel selection discussion - not too long ago I still heard people asking, in reference to a tv programme, “what SIDE is it on?” The same people who asked me to “tape” a programme for them that they were going to miss because they were out.
@drcongo thanks for the links to the ‘underdog’ stuff...
Comments
Ok, that second pen is never a pen. But... Lol.
Surprised Bryn Morris was only a sub for Grimsby. I thought his loan spell here was decent, and he's kind of hitting his prime, age-wise.
Anyway, well done the Mariners! Stupid game, typically 'FA Cup' the way all the decisions went, especially the Theo Walcott "goal". But totally hilarious to watch unfold...
Half the quarter finalists are outside the Premier League.
So Manchester derby in the next round is a cert then
Very good result for Grimsby & what an achievement
Also a good result for The Blades against a very flat very lacklustre Spurs
West Ham demonstrate yet again the almost predictable futility of them trying to defend a 1-0 lead with Man Utd romping home in the second half
Fleetwood made Burnley work hard for their expected but very narrow 1-0 win
Everton are dire even with Dyche in charge, the Gunners fans spent most of the second half singing "You are going down" at the visiting fans & they are not wrong on tonights showing.
You've gotta hand it to Spurs: they always find a way to be hilarious.
Everton made the right appointment but did it about 4 weeks too late. Should've done it before the January window so he had a chance to get in players that would help them stay up.
At least one EFL team guaranteed in the semis
Pep vs Kompany too, nice
If we get a non-Manchester winner it can only be very fun.
Really enjoyed that Gromsby win tonight..stumbled across the coverage on ITV4.
Has there been another occasion when both BBC and ITV showed cup games live, simultaneously!?
As far back as Tuesday night 😉
Sky have made BBC and ITV forget what makes the FA Cup great - both had a chance to show lowly Grimsby and Fleetwood trying to get further in the FA Cup than ever before last night, the former with a chance to make history, and both channels chose to show the sort of dross you can watch 8 nights a week on Sky. ITV relegated the Grimsby game to a channel that most people don't even know exists. Both deserve the coming end of linear broadcast TV, they're not even trying.
All eight FA Cup games over the last two nights were available on readily accessible free to air TV live.
There is no doubt much to criticise BBC and ITV for. The coverage of football this week (if you are a football fan) doesn't seem one of them Doc.
They showed the games with the most appeal on their primary channels. That's all there really is to it.
Did seem surprising to have games on both terrestrial channels at the same time.
Good surprising though.
Did those games really have the most appeal though? Everyone I know was watching Grimsby last night because of the possibility of them making history, taking a big scalp and cheering on a massively outranked underdog. Who cares about Manchester United against West Ham other than Manchester United and West Ham fans?
Grant McCann looking highly likely to take on the PNL managers role. Can he take them down to League 2?
@drcongo I don't know the viewing figures but sadly I suspect @DevC and @ReturnToSenda may be proved correct, that the main channels showed the most 'popular' games.
However, that didn't stop me watching ITV4 last night, for the reasons you set out above. It was instinctively obvious to me. (But is that because my football upbringing is all about following an underdog?)
I also watched Southampton - Grimsby, but most games between two Premier League teams will get the biggest audience. I'm not sure it makes much difference when every game is on free-to-air TV anyway, whether on the 'main' channels or not.
A Brighton v Grimsby quarter final with inflatables being tossed about with gay abandon on the terraces feels pure 80s!
There's an excellent episode of the Freakonomics podcast about rooting for underdogs. A lot of the research is covered here but it's a near universal human trait. If either of the main two channels had higher viewing figures last night than Southampton vs Grimsby, it will only be because so much of the country can't get ITV4 because of poor Freeview coverage or doesn't even know ITV4 exists.
You don't think it would be because more casual watchers of football are interested in Manchester United than in Grimsby?
Commercial telly likes certainty. Far more intrigue in the giant killings but how many people would watch it all if Saints were 2 up early?
People are generally quite lazy too and there was a study that showed older people particularly are still used to turning the telly on and selecting channel 1. Ratings are massively higher on the main channels even for the same programmes.
It is a sad reality - go on any sports website and you will almost never see an article about a smaller club on the main page of headlines and articles. Southend's troubles have never been front page news, for example, while there are endless opinion pieces on whether Bruno Fernandez's new cat could be the psychological boost Manchester United need to finish 4th instead of 5th.
You could put Grimbsy on whatever channel you like and it's still not getting greater viewing figures than a Premier league giant's game.
Grimsbys chairman is quite interesting sometimes
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/29/grimsby-town-fc-financial-civic-value
I wonder what proportion of people under 20 regularly watch football on television, no forget that I mean watch television at all.
There should be a klaxon every time@Malone @Malone 's thinly veiled allegiance to the devil pops up. Even using the word 'giant' on this occasion. Fantastic
Back to the channel selection discussion - not too long ago I still heard people asking, in reference to a tv programme, “what SIDE is it on?” The same people who asked me to “tape” a programme for them that they were going to miss because they were out.
@drcongo thanks for the links to the ‘underdog’ stuff...
Tottenham were also on?
That's 2 undoubtedly "giant" clubs to diffuse the interest.
Not helped by them shuffling this round into 2 days now. Whereas over a weekend you'd have the 8 games probably staggered over 5 or 6 slots.