Variable-Length Broadcast for Main Event Final Table Being Considered

During the annual WSOP conference call ESPN's Doug White said that the Main Event final table broadcast would run between 2 and 2 1/2 hours. An ESPN spokesman later clarified "Our plans for the Final Table are not set yet.... our thinking at the moment is that the duration of the Final Table may vary depending on what happens during taping. We want to respond favorably to the fans desire to see more hands from the heads up play." A variable-length final table has a few advantages:

• Two hours simply isn't enough time to broadcast a 9-person final table well, so any time spent showing additional hands is likely to improve the broadcast.
  
• Editing the broadcast to a length that is good is likely to result in a better product than editing it to fill a fixed time slot.
  
• The heads-up portion of the final table will happen the day of the broadcast, so adding some flexibility could make it much easier to edit the final table well.
  

On the other hand, I can see ESPN wondering how they'll deal with reruns that don't fit into one-hour time slots. All serious poker fans are going to watch the first broadcast of the Main Event final table, however, so I don't mind if they cut down the reruns to fit a time slot.

Some other interesting points from the WSOP conference call:

• Jeffrey Pollack said "It's fair to say that we’ve learned that games other than no-limit hold 'em do not draw a significant audience on television."
• Non-televised events will be streamed over the internet again, but the details haven't been finalized yet.
• The Tournament of Champions, or something similar, is likely to be resurrected in time for the next WSOP.
  

Pokerati posted a MP3 of the one-hour-plus conference call.

Update, October 27, 2009: Lon McEachern says they will air two hours from the Saturday, November 7 final table taping, then they have an open-ended time slot to air as much as the producers want from the Monday night, November 9 heads-up taping. I'm happy to see them giving it the same priority they would to a live sporting event.

Update, October 29, 2009: ESPN Producer Jamie Horowitz says: "One thing that we wanted to do this year was feature more heads-up play. This year, we’re not creating an off-air time. Our plan is to show the final table from 9:00pm to 11:00pm ET on Tuesday, November 10th, but we’re prepared to go past 11:00 if the story dictates it."

Update, October 29, 2009: ESPN's Andrew Feldman says the channel will cover the Main Event final table as news, meaning don't watch ESPN before the broadcast if you don't want to know who won. They and many others revealed the results before the broadcast last year. You'll basically have to avoid the poker world and internet from Saturday till Tuesday night if you don't want to know the results before you watch it.

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