Re: Big Break Disney
Originally Posted by
ctyankee 
In my view, you don't need to have been there to see how the segment was 'produced.' There is no way they want to have a PGA Touring Pro embarrassed as that will ensure others won't ever come on the show. What they said was that J.B. Holmes hit two shots to the green and these were used to mark target circles from the pin. I'm sure that's completely true. What they didn't say was that he was given ONLY two shots to hit the green. Let's face it, if Holmes hits two great shots to the pin the contest would stink much as if he were to hit two shots on top of one another (anywhere) much like if he were to hit one or two stinky shots. The only good option is what they showed happen and they can only control that by having him hit several shots and selecting the two that made for a good contest.
Unfortunately for the show there has been no drama toward the end. Partly, that's due to the format and part of that is bad luck. So three weeks and three shows where you could have turned it off pretty early and know who was going off. They can hype a miracle recovery shot or a playoff all they want but with the hour coming to a close and knowing that they still are going to another commercial break, you know that's not happening. And that only makes these sound bytes more queasy to digest. You know the 'recap video' the golfer isn't discussing how things could go wrong, he wants to talk about how things went right. So they need to prompt the competitors with pointed questions like 'how could K-Max get back into this thing?' so they have the sound byte to 'produce' suspense.
After my post I listened to Golfgal's Big Break interviews this week. She asked one player -- I think it was Vincent -- if J.B. Holmes indeed hit the glass on his first shot, and if J.B. hit those spots on the green with only two shots. Vincent chuckled, and said, "That's what we were told." Apparently the players were on the practice range when J.B. hit the two wedge shots.
I completely agree with your next paragraph. Big Break producers have settled into a lazy blueprint, version after version. The most lame and worthless aspect, IMO, is the worst case scenario and best case scenario comments during a lopsided elimination. We understand a guy could hole it from 230 yards, followed by a 3 putt from 8 feet. It's roughly the same odds as any of these guys making it huge on the PGA tour. I wish Big Break would get rid of those worthless after the fact fillers and play real time sound bytes from the bench, whether it's conflict or humor, anything.
This Big Break had a short turnaround time and the editing is weak, as I feared. K-Max lost a multi round putting playoff with several other players who had 4 points to get into that elimination. Big Break could have dealt with that in a single transition sentence but instead they didn't spell it out at all. We saw K-Max miss the putt on the low side, then Celini said K-Max is off to elimination.
Also, there was very choppy editing during elimination. K-Max tried to make a point with great emphasis, that he wants to play on the PGA tour and this is his opportunity to win. But it was obvious that sentence was heading beyond that, hardly stopping with the word win. Big Break cut it off and awkwardly spliced Kevin Erdman's voice almost immediately, with an unrelated remark.