ESPN2 show offers wild mix

The show began in October to expand the 'brand.'
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Brian Donlon, a wisecracking taskmaster with a Mike Schmidt mustache and a Denis Leary delivery, scanned the rundown sheet listing plans for the next morning's "Cold Pizza," a television experiment on cable channel ESPN2.
Donlon, formerly a producer at CBS' "Early Show," is "Cold Pizza's" executive producer.
Producing a daily TV morning show is like arranging a bric-a-brac shelf during a tornado: News is flying around, and you have to decide what to grab, what to write, how to get the video, which guests will be available when, and where, and how you can get them on camera.
It's a process that lasts 24 hours, and not a minute more, because every morning the last two hours of your day's work are shown on national television.
"We're in one of those days that we're not thrilled with," Donlon said to his staff at the daily 3 p.m. meeting, which was starting at 3:30. "We're in a little bit of flux on the front half of the show."
The lineup
For the next morning's two-hour show -- this was in mid-April -- Donlon's staff planned to cover the Florida Marlins' pitching, European travel, violent video games, Barry Bonds, The Bachelor, rock band Blondie's comeback, Iraq, a Hollywood mogul who's buying minor-league teams, a New York jazz vocalist, a baseball umpire's new book, NFL draft picks Eli Manning and Kenechi Udeze, the Queen Mary 2, "Family Feud" host Richard Karn, and more.
Like every day, it was a lot. But if the lead item was the Marlins' hot start -- and that wasn't a barn burner -- then "we're having off-lead issues," Donlon said.
Meanwhile, female cohost Kit Hoover was out with strep throat. And Marlins manager Jack McKeon, in Philadelphia with his team playing the Phillies, wasn't going to be available in the morning.
"McKeon is going to breakfast with friends," associate producer John Stone said.
Donlon thought fast. "Would the pitching coach come on at 7? Chris talked to him at that Wiffle-ball tournament. ... "
Expanding the brand
ESPN launched "Cold Pizza" in October as part of an effort to expand -- to expand the hours when people watch the cable giant's programming, to expand the ESPN "brand."
The show mixes sports with news and entertainment, aiming to peel off any sports fans watching Katie Couric or Regis Philbin and maybe some viewers from parent-channel ESPN, which runs repeats of the 2 a.m. SportsCenter highlight show all morning.
"'Cold Pizza' will broaden the boundaries of the morning television genre," ESPN executive vice president Mark Shapiro said when he launched it. Shapiro has also added to ESPN's schedule shows such as the controversial football drama "Playmakers" and the broadcasting game-show "Dream Job."
Expanding into entertainment beyond pure sports seems like a difficult trick for ESPN, but it may be the Disney-owned channel's destiny, said Steven Miller, who teaches broadcast journalism at Rutgers University.
"How many times can you report that you got a 1.1 rating for the Detroit-Calgary game?" he said.
Stellar journalism
"Cold Pizza's" small staff of TV and print news veterans often does stellar journalism, and this night, despite Jack McKeon's breakfast plans, the staff would come through again, with an out-of-the-blue segment on steroids legislation.
But the show's mix of hard news and goofball segments has confused some observers. One media critic called the show "schizophrenic," contrasting its "in-depth study" of sexual-assault allegations at the University of Colorado with its use of Hooters girls in other segments.
Donlon bristled. "One has nothing to do with the other," he said. Should the show have done a less in-depth study? he wondered sarcastically.