George Michael's Sports Machine Ends Its Run

Every sports guy and gal has at least once or twice in his or her lifetime turned on The George Michael Sports Machine. What else is on at 11:30pm on a Sunday night. And if you haven't-it's alright. We won't lump you in with the rest of the culturally illiterate, too fast. To quickly get you caught up, George Michael was somewhat of an icon in sports television. And now after 23 years, George Michael is turning the key on Sports Machine one last time.

Personally, I've flipped to his show over the years to see which sports he felt were important to highlight that week. It wasn't so much that he chose the top sporting events in viewer-ship or popularity. That wasn't his modus operandi. He chose sports stories in such a way so as to present a well-rounded sports show. He weaved into his sports show lesser-known sports interests. Turning it into a potpourri of sporting events highlights. He selected sports events of an obscure nature to cover on the show long before it was in style to do so, e.g., rodeos and car racing. And he did so without sounding like a used car salesman like many sports reporters, anchors, and analysts nowadays feel they have to sound like when covering lesser-known sports in order to draw and keep viewers attention. No, he attracted and retained viewers to his show with very high ratings for over 23 years with a cool, calm, and well-crafted style. That's a long time to be that successful, and to do so without catering to the most newsworthy of sporting coverage.

I said 'without catering to the most newsworthy of sports.' That doesn't mean you didn't get coverage on his show on some of the biggest sports topics of the week. He always had some interesting things to say on some of the biggest sports stories of the week. Whether it was an interesting lead-in to the story or the simple fact that he felt it important to cover it, you knew you were going to get an interesting sports show with George Michael. He simply made the show interesting with his well-balanced coverage of both well-known and lesser-known sports stories. Plus, his was one of the only sports shows which gave you the results before the highlights. " And the Royals beat the Braves, today 3-2. Now let's go to the highlights."

He was a pioneer in a weekly sports highlights show. In 1984 his sports show, then called George Michael's Sports Final, became the first nationally syndicated sports highlights show. Eventually it was to be broadcast to 194 markets and 10 foreign countries.Can anyone even name a sports anchor today that has a show which is nationally syndicated? Even more so, his sports highlights format is what you see on ESPN, today. In other words George Michael's show was the forerunner to today's ESPN, which largely started as a sports highlights show.

Well, Mr. George Michael has decided to end the Sports Machine program. Doing so amicably and honorably saying to executives over the show, "that if anyone had to go because NBC needs to show its stockholders its reducing costs, he should be the first to take the bullet." NBC, which distributes the Sports Machine and owns the Washington D.C. affiliate, WRC TV, where George Michael has been a sportscaster since 1980, requested drastic staff cuts due to budgetary issues and to show its stockholders it was trimming costs. And so now, NBC and Mr. George Michael have agreed to turn off the show. George Michael, his 20 staffers, and the show, The George Michael Sports Machine, will have one more go at it. This Sunday, March 25, is when it airs. Check your local listings.

All is not lost by any means, although upon his announcement, George Michael said he would never again do a day-to-day sportscast as he had at WRC TV since 1980. He has been asked to call four NASCAR races on DirecTV this summer with Fox sports analyst Darrell Waltrip. George Michael said, "my one dream is to work with David Hill (Fox Sports chairman), he flys by the seat of his pants." And so now, George Michael has his ticket and he's on his way.

Alex Van Pelt, a current sports anchor on ESPN, and who grew up in the Washington D.C. area watching George Michael said, "the current T.V. sports industry is indebted to the retiring sportscaster." Several national sportscasters are indebted to George Michael for helping them launch their careers in sportscasting, e.g., Joe Theisman, Tony Kornheiser, and Michael Wilbon.

He's had some interesting gigs throughout his lifetime. He appeared one time many years ago, before his Sports Machine show and his sports anchor job, on ABC's Wide World of Sports. He was a record promoter and disc jockey and could be heard on the big AM stations WFIL and WABC in the 60's and 70's. And he was once named Billboard's Best Disc Jockey of the Year. He's also appeared in Jonathon Demme's Silence of the Lambs, and Ron Shelton's Tin Cup. His Emmy Award-winning feature on World Champion bull rider Lane Frost, killed in a tragic bull-riding accident also spawned the major motion picture, 8 Seconds, starring Luke Perry and Stephen Baldwin. Michael not only starred in the movie as himself, but also as a contributing consultant.

In the midst of ESPN and 24 hours of mind-numbing sports on channel after channel now, he'll be missed because their was a calm comfort to watching his show. It didn't feel like a race to the finish. Michael has won more than 40 Emmy awards and members of his Sports Machine staff have received over 100 for their work on the show. Well-liked Andrea Brody used to be George Micheal's co-host on the show until 2004 when she went on maternity leave. From 2004 on former Speed channel pit reporter Lindsay Czarniak has been co-host on the show. George is gracious to his former employer saying, "for 27 years NBC in New York let me do most anything I wanted to do on the show because we produced ratings and profit." George Michael you did a lot more than that for the rest of us.

If you'd like to send him an e-mail wishing him best wishes you can do so at george.michael@nbcuni.com Be sure you tell him you saw the story here.