Bridge on TV in the U.S.

[Mbodell]

I mean even a lot of the tv poker shows very little poker and is very shallow in terms of poker strategy. A typical world poker tour final table show would run 2 hours and show maybe 12-15 hands of poker, of which at least half was all in preflop races. You wouldn't see patterns of play, or small blind winning, or how the chips were flowing.

 

There is a fair bit of coverage over the players background and why we should root for/against them and a lot of random talking from the commentators. The WSOP coverage on ESPN is similar where stupid "the nuts" segments take up much of the poker time. At least the ESPN coverage of the main event has enough segments of coverage when you are in the last 100 or so that you get some feel for the personalities of the players even if you only see something like 2% of the hands even on the final few tables.

 

I think a bridge documentary like the one on Gavin from a few years ago would be quite watchable. I think something that is like the reality show that was mentioned here might work where a good chunk of time is getting to know the players and then you get to see a few key hands from the players or a few key decisions in the play.

 

I think a KO team event might make sense to show to as you could get some feel for the play and who the players are and only cut to the significant hands. Showing something where 1 season of episodes is the entire Spingold tournament might work as you'd get to know the teams from the early episodes and see them advance to the next round each week.

 

But really the bbo viewgraph already does a good job of covering the events it covers, and an edited down version of some tournament might make compelling youTube type material as well, thinking of the non-TV untapped media.

[hotShot]

New people would get interested in Bridge if they see cool people play bridge on TV.

 

So if the "smallville" stars or the "desperate housewifes" (or whatever TV show is considered hot) would play bridge in the show, people would get curious.

 

A documentary on famous and/or successful bridge players would be interesting.

 

And I think that it is possible to show bridge on TV. A mixture of personal involvement and what if analysis can do the trick.

The viewers could see the card in advance the commentators could debate the best bidding and play in advance and the express excitement if the players choose a different pass at different tables.

[vuroth]

I agree with Fred. To an extent, I thought that CTV's "In the Cards" with Gavin Wolpert et al did a serviceable job of meeting the criteria - young people, exotic locations, etc.

 

Then again, it's entirely possible that young people are going to be MORE strongly influenced by youtube/facebook than television. Someday soon, we may find that television is starting to go the way of the radio.

 

V

[hrothgar]

New people would get interested in Bridge if they see cool people play bridge on TV.

 

So if the "smallville" stars or the "desperate housewifes" (or whatever TV show is considered hot) would play bridge in the show, people would get curious.

The question now becomes one of Return on Investment...

 

How much are you willing to spend to have the starts of Desperate Housewives/NUMBERS/Nip Tuck/Whatever side down and play a rousing game of bridge? I don't think that we can count on TV producers doing anythign out of the goodness of their hearts... If "bridge" isn't germane to the plot, you're going to have to pony up big bucks to see any kind of product placement. (BTW, I recall seeing folks playing bridge on a episode of House a couple seasons back... of course, this scene was set in an assisted living community. The plot demand showing something that old people do. But any publicity is good publicity, or so they say)

 

Me, I consider this sort of expenditure pointless.

[ArcLight]

Here is a great way to boost bridge playing in the USA.

 

In the USA there are around a million people in jails and prisons (and or half way houses).

 

How about as a pre-condition for parole, all people must learn basic bridge.

As part of their parole they must score 60% on a set of Bridge Master level 1 and 2 problems. And be able to make basic bids.

 

In addition, if you show proficiency as a bridge players (scoring 70% on bridge master level 3 hands) you earn a certain degree of protection (from Bubba and Bootie) and/or gain soem privileges like being able to bathe twice a week.

[kenrexford]

Here's an idea. Few of us really know that much about Emperor Nero except that he apparently fiddled while Rome burned, according to legend. Also, he was apparently very cool, if whacked. Lots of parties and stuff. Very E.

 

One opening seems to be underplayed. Is it not quite interesting how the modern Nero, Inc., fiddled with their cards while Rome (aka Wall Street) started burning, in G-burg? The parallel might be easy to extrapolate. If the powerful and elite find this game more important and addictive than such mundane drivel as maintaining a major financial corporation on the verge of collapse, then perhaps I should learn this strange game myself.

 

Opportunity from calamity.

[Rain]

Also, isn't betting on sports a large part of the reason sports like football/baseball (and in Asia, horse-racing) are popular?

 

The fear is that matches may be fixed, but I can't think of a way to prevent this at the moment.

[gwnn]

there was a House MD episode with a young girl playing bridge with lots of old people IIRC.

[kfay]

there was a House MD episode with a young girl playing bridge with lots of old people IIRC.

lol. the beginning of this episode are about the only 5 minutes i've ever seen of house... but it was exciting :)

[Fluffy]

I've been watching the dart's world championship tonight, I watch snooker regurarilly, I liked australian football a lot when it was shown, I love curling, I even look at a mad swiss sport akin baseball but played with big wooden shields instead of gloves.

 

And I know most of the rules of these sports I never played!

[Hanoi5]

The ACBL (or some other powerful and millionaire guy/girl) should finance one of these endeavours. The Desperate Housewives played poker, what if they changed that to bridge? They just need to grease the hands of the writers/producers/directors and voilá!

[mike777]

The ACBL (or some other powerful and millionaire guy/girl) should finance one of these endeavours. The Desperate Housewives played poker, what if they changed that to bridge? They just need to grease the hands of the writers/producers/directors and voilá!

In 2009 the ACBL expects to run a deficit, in other words they do not have the money. Any money they get seems to be going towards building a new headquarters from scratch.

[Hanoi5]

Use one of your charity events to pay for this 'adventure'. You lose a charity this year but you'll surely gain more adepts in the coming year or 2.

[neilkaz]

I'll chime in here and mention that when I was a kid back in the mid 60's...there was a bridge program on TV weekly in the US. I recall watching it with Grandma and that it was black and white it was so long ago.

 

This is how I learned bridge basics to be honest and since it was clear to me that Dad was better than Grandma I had him teach me more than simple basics.

 

Almost all we did when I was a kid was play games...either board or cards or sports or whatever...but it was compete at games. This doesn't hurt one later in life.

 

Anyhow..I recall the program basically had US expert/WC players vs others and was well done.

 

If a 7 year old kid can enjoy it and learn to play, it can't be that bad..and when being 9 years old if the same kid in a club game with Dad since at the last minute his regular PD was really sick can raise his dad's vulnerable 3♦ opening to 7NT and claim on the lead once he saw dummy with ♠ AKQx, ♥ AKxx, ♦ Kxx, ♣ Ax ....ie count 13+ tricks and be certain that Dad has at least AQxxxxx in ♦...ie 100% red vs white back then....the program on TV couldn't be so bad.

[Elianna]

I'll chime in here and mention that when I was a kid back in the mid 60's...there was a bridge program on TV weekly in the US. I recall watching it with Grandma and that it was black and white it was so long ago.

 

This is how I learned bridge basics to be honest and since it was clear to me that Dad was better than Grandma I had him teach me more than simple basics.

 

Almost all we did when I was a kid was play games...either board or cards or sports or whatever...but it was compete at games. This doesn't hurt one later in life.

 

Anyhow..I recall the program basically had US expert/WC players vs others and was well done.

 

If a 7 year old kid can enjoy it and learn to play, it can't be that bad..and when being 9 years old if the same kid in a club game with Dad since at the last minute his regular PD was really sick can raise his dad's vulnerable 3♦ opening to 7NT and claim on the lead once he saw dummy with ♠ AKQx, ♥ AKxx, ♦ Kxx, ♣ Ax ....ie count 13+ tricks and be certain that Dad has at least AQxxxxx in ♦...ie 100% red vs white back then....the program on TV couldn't be so bad.

One of the problems is that the parents (and in many cases the grandparents) of today's 7-year-old don't play bridge.

[Hanoi5]

Another problem is that the attention span of a child today is not the same as it used to be.

[Phil]

I think Phil Gordon would make a great commentator.

 

He already commentates on the Celebrity Poker Showdown or whatever it's called, has a lot of poker recognition and blogs for ESPN so people would tune in and say 'hey... Phil Gordon plays bridge?' I wouldn't be surprised if he'd do it... lol. Josh would know better than I, I suppose.

 

Anyway this has been touched on before, I think. You explain Texas Hold'em to people in the first 5 minutes of the show. This really cannot cannot be done with bridge. It's a medium that would not suit it well, imo. Probably will never succeed.

I've already talked to Phil (Gordon) about this and he's interested.

 

ESPN has been approached. They don't seem to be jumping all over it.

 

Yes I have a format in mind.

[nige1]

• I agree with the theory of Stuart Maurice (ex-partner): that only genuine prestigious National (or better World) championships will attract wide TV audiences for Bridge.
  
• These competitions must pit famous players against each other. Ideally these should include controversial eccentrics and charismatic characters like Zia Mahmoud. .
  
• For a game as complex as Bridge, rather than professional sports commentators, you need expert Bridge commentators with a sense of humour, like David Burn. In the UK, there have been many Briidge programs on TV amd Wireless. The most popular was the first: Terence Reese's and Harold Franklin's long-running and excellent wireless program Bridge on the Air. This had expert presenters and expert competitors. It spawned one of the best bridge books of all time.
  
• In Bridge, some complications are inevitable but the systemic tower of Babel should be flattened for TV purposes. For example everybody could play the same Standard System.
  
• In order to justify the imposition of a standard system, perhaps the format should be an individual tournament.
  
• In the long term, we must hope for simpler rules and regulations, so that Bridge tests bidding and play skills rather than sophisticated legal expertise. In the short term, perhaps we could adopt sensible on-line rules (like BBO's), rather than fragmented, cumbersome, and controversial face-to-face rules. To this end, you might use bridge-mates to enter bids and plays, linked to computers. Although, unfortunately that would lessen the visual impact.
  

[neilkaz]

I think Phil Gordon would make a great commentator. 

 

He already commentates on the Celebrity Poker Showdown or whatever it's called, has a lot of poker recognition and blogs for ESPN so people would tune in and say 'hey... Phil Gordon plays bridge?'  I wouldn't be surprised if he'd do it... lol.  Josh would know better than I, I suppose.

 

Anyway this has been touched on before, I think.  You explain Texas Hold'em to people in the first 5 minutes of the show.  This really cannot cannot be done with bridge.  It's a medium that would not suit it well, imo.  Probably will never succeed.

I've already talked to Phil (Gordon) about this and he's interested.

 

ESPN has been approached. They don't seem to be jumping all over it.

 

Yes I have a format in mind.

Rather than trying for ESPN, perhaps see if you can drum up some interest from a minor cable network ?

 

A few people I know have done backgammon shows which have made it onto networks like Eurosport 2 (if my info is correct) but they've not had sucess getting bg onto US TV.

 

.. neilkaz ..

[benlessard]

In Japan Go and shogi show are very, very popular. So its surely a good start to look what they are doing over there. The problem is that if you make a show for bridge players the ratings will be lows and if you make a show for everybody then they wont be a lot of bridge in it. Poker shows are totally unwatchable for any1 that know poker.

 

The types of show that might work is a high stakes bridge table or an all around show about professionnals gamblers (backgammon, pools, sports bettors etc...)

[Vilgan]

It'd sure be a lot easier if it was following a movie that poked bridge into popular culture a little bit. Virtually everyone under the age of 40 thinks of it as a nursing home game that blue haired ladies play while waiting to kick the bucket. Two routes.. Rounders style with lots of focus on the drama/money/competitiveness of it, or Searching for Bobby Fischer style.

 

Lots of other things make it elsewhere... heck Starcraft is televised constantly in South Korea. But sparking that initial interest is probably going to be very hard in the US.

[Phil]

Or like Wordplay.

 

Maybe "The Backwash Squeeze and Other Improbable Feats" can get an indy deal.

[PeterGill]

Andy Pedersen's April 2007 documentary on Gavin Wolpert and Vince Demuy attracted several hundred thousand viewers on Canadian TV. Ref for example

http://www.thecoast.ca/Articles-i-2007-04-...the_bridge.html

 

If you want good looking young people for a bridge TV show,

the current World Junior Pairs Champion Cecilia Rimstedt is one of many: ref http://www.worldbridge.org/people/person.asp?qryid=17703

 

But this thread's topic is Bridge on TV in the U.S. ....

 

I think that if US's new School Bridge League succeeds,

then bridge on US TV can succeed. Backed by Bill Gates' money, www.schoolbridgeleague.org aims to educate US schoolkids about "doing good"

by teaching them a syllabus of very basic bridge which illustrates concepts

such as respect, partnership, trust, following a set of rules etc.

Then those few kids who really like bridge can go on to learn

duplicate bridge properly at Summer Camps etc.

 

If it eventually takes off at every school in USA (and later the world),

as hoped for, then bridge will be understood by the vast majority of

young Americans, and TV and movies will then have a readymade audience.

This benefit is only a byproduct of the main aims of the whole project.

 

I think their aims are very good, although their initial progress has been slow.

The parent body of the whole concept The League www.theleague.org

doubled its staff in 2008, so there's hope. There would be even more hope

if the concept was publicized and supported more within the bridge community.

 

Peter Gill

Sydney Australia

[Hanoi5]

there's an error in the schoolbridgeleague.org. And I couldn't find any information on bridge at theleague.org.

[jtfanclub]

How about as a pre-condition for parole, all people must learn basic bridge.

You think you're kidding, but in fact Bridge and Bid Whist are very popular in prisons, and the ability to not assault your partner when he does something stupid is certainly considered in parole.

 

Why ESPN? Wasn't Poker made popular on the Travel Network? People who watch ESPN are mostly looking for adrenalin rushes- big hits, car crashes, slam dunks, etc. I would think the Travel Network would be a better natural audience.

 

I think explaining the auction (highest bid determines trump and declarer), the levels (Game, Slam, Grand), and Doubling would be good, and then only look at the final contract. "At table 2, Sabine and Auken have pushed Rodwell into a risky 5 heart contract instead of the safe 4", and suchlike. The whole auction might be shown on the screen for a moment, but I wouldn't bother discussing the bids themselves.