Newspaper Agate Is Not Must-See Television

We already know which NFL teams will play against each other in 2019. But we won’t find out when and where they’ll play until tonight, as the full schedule is revealed. Feel the excitement.

We’re living in a Let People Enjoy Things renaissance, and it’s good advice. NFL fanatics can have their fun. They can bask in the two- and three-hour specialty programs created for this event. The rest of us can ponder the ridiculousness of the situation from afar. And maybe consider how and why we got to this bizarre place.

NFL Schedule Release Night is the apex of a sports entertainment market which desperately needs all oxygen to keep the flame burning and the revenue hot. First the pre- and post-game industrial complexes were built up. Then the highlight shows. Then the daily, sport-specific programming.

Finally, the last bucket of content, a truly new sector and one schedule-palooza falls into.

Agate transformed and gussied up as must-see television.

All of the information doled out in small, carefully considered doses tonight has traditionally been available in the next morning’s newspaper, in small print. And one could argue that gleaning it that way would be both more productive and enjoyable.

This is the dirty little secret Big Television doesn’t want you to discover. It’s true for the NFL and NBA draft. It’s true for the College Football Playoff ranking program. It’s true for the NBA draft lottery and any number of non-competitive sports programming.

All of the useful information will be distilled down to tiny typeface. The rest is extraneous. All the pontificating and intrigue are just filler. You don’t need it. You’ve been conditioned, with time and tricks, to think you want it.

And yeah, people like to sit idly and consume the trappings. That fact is not lost to blind pragmatism. Maybe the kernel of wisdom in all this is how willingly people waste time. Perhaps realizing that and monetizing the desire is the smartest thing television executives have ever done.

Critically thinking about any type of sports show: from the debating ones to the gambling ones to the dramatic ones, perhaps they’re all built upon the idea that there will never be a shortage of demand. Put something on a screen, tell people it’s something, and boom, it becomes something.

So, sure, enjoy the shows tonight. What you do on your own time is your own business, even if it’s tough to understand.