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Daily News, Los Angeles Tom Hoffarth column [Daily News, Los Angeles :: ]
[August 15, 2014]

Daily News, Los Angeles Tom Hoffarth column [Daily News, Los Angeles :: ]


(Daily News (Los Angeles, CA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 14--The more you get to know about ex-Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ted Lasso, the more you are probably apt to be kicking yourself.

This buffoon has lassoed you into relegating yourself to the La-Z-Boy very early on a Saturday morning to pretend you care about watching English Premier League soccer.

Or football. Or whatever Lasso infamously wants to call it.

Call it a win-win for NBC.

Lasso may be an idiotic characterization of a know-it-all former U.S. football coach hired to reinvent London soccer, brought to life by former "Saturday Night Live" actor Jason Sudeikis.

But the real deal is NBC's marketing department has figured out a way to swiftly strike a funny bone with American viewers who may still may be indifferent, or even feel inferior, when it comes to grasping the concept of why so much attention is paid to this iconic sports franchise imported into our living rooms against our free will.



Lasso speaks our jocular language, exposing our stereotypes, whether we want to admit it or not. And now we get to guffaw along with it.

A new six-minute video featuring the reprisal of Lasso, which allows him to explain that he lasted just "six and a half hours" as the Spurs' misinformed coach -- "and I don't know how that translates to British time" -- before he wanted to get into "punditry." It has done that Internet viral thing since NBC released it last week to promote Saturday's return of the Premier League exposure -- including Manchester United vs. Swansea City at 4:45 a.m. on NBCSN, and Arsenal vs. Crystal Palace at 9:30 a.m. on Channel 4.


The reviews came as quickly as the afternoon tea you were trying to drink came out of your nose.

Time magazine calls Lasso "as ignorant as ever." Adweek refers to him as someone who "can't get a grasp ... of really anything requiring a modicum of basic thought." But at the same time, he's "one wanker you don't mind spending a little more time with." While comedy provides a common ground in getting any kind of message across, the Sudeikis satire is even sharper in a sports-centric context because fans of the game already consider themselves to be a little more cerebral than others. Now, let's blow their minds by pointing the finger back at them a little.

"We wanted to approach this in the way we have with 'Sunday Night Football,' and show Americans there's a good reason why the rest of the world pays attention to something else called 'football,' " said Bill Bergofin, NBC Sports senior vice president of marketing. "Americans are not exposed enough to it, or may not have a reason to be interested, outside of the World Cup. The challenge is to activate those who are scratching their heads and make it OK not to know anything. This kind of greases the skids for people who can say, 'If Ted Lasso doesn't get it, then it's OK for me to get in on the joke as well.' " Sudeikis, who took two days late last month to do the NBC short, volunteered to come back and reprise his role even though he is in the middle of making two movies. In one of them, he's playing a far more serious role as track coach Larry Snyder in the biopic about Olympic star Jesse Owens called "Race" that will be released next year.

While Bergofin said the Sudeikis character isn't modeled after anyone in particular, it's easy to see and maybe hear former Chicago Bears coach and ESPN NFL analyst Mike Ditka -- down to the aviator glasses and bushy mustache -- while adding a Lane Kiffin-type visor.

As this storyline goes, Lasso couldn't implement his American know-how into the "beautiful game," so he's out of coaching and does what most would expect: get into broadcasting.

That includes embedding him on the set with "Premier League Live" anchor Rebecca Lowe as well as broadcasting a match with play-by-play man Arlo White.

Insanity ensues over Lasso's misunderstanding of the word "live" -- a verb or adjective? -- and then becoming so bored in the booth he messes around with his headset.

"None of it was scripted," Lowe said. "But the way (Sudeikis) does it, he sort of carries you along. It was impossible not to laugh. How they edited out the laughter, I don't know. At the end of my bit, I was literally pinching my own skin to stop myself from smiling, but I failed on so many occasions." White said he's sure "there will be some outtakes going out soon, drifting throughout the season, because there was so much great stuff left out there." A bump in NBC's soccer ratings may eventually be the way to measure the success of this ad campaign, which includes an edited version appearing in 8,000 movie theaters across the country over the next few weeks.

The network says a record 31.5 million Americans tuned in to NBC Sports Group's 2013-14 Premier League -- more than double the 13.3 million who watched last season on ESPN, ESPN2 and Fox Soccer, according to Nielsen numbers.

Having spent some $250 million for the rights to three years of Premier League matches, NBC needs to also spend marketing money in the right places. YouTube had 8.3 million views of the first Lasso video that came out a year ago. The current video hit 3 million viewers after three days.

Sports TV marketing campaigns can be a dicey business, too. Fox Sports 1 launched a spot Wednesday under the tagline "Sorry for all the football" that has a disgruntled wife flipping off the camera to start a testimony about how so many games on TV has possessed her husband and ruined her marriage. Response on Twitter has been mixed, with some wondering why it's more of a cliche presentation that portrays men as lazy slobs and women as nagging.

Bergofin points out that the fact the Lasso video has been embedded in websites from the Huffington Post, E! Online, Variety, Slate, USA Today and even rival CBSSports.com speaks to the smarter, accepted content.

It's received favorable response on many hard-core soccer sites, which get the wink-wink, nudge-nudge jokes. WorldSoccerTalk.com says Lasso "captures everything that is wonderful and irreverent about the Premier League and British culture." "It's not a cliche to say it's harder and harder to break through everything out there," said Bergofin, who admits his 12-year-old daughter is now reciting Lasso lines from the piece.

"One of the side benefits is it has been big in London as well, more or less by accident. I think the side benefit is the teams in the league have loved Lasso as much as we do. It's validation for them as much as anything that their cult following in the U.S. is getting the royal treatment.

"The intent is to bring in people who are new 'football' fans but don't know it yet. I know I've become a fan in the process." Be warned: You're next to be Lasso'd. Just keep calm and get fired up, as the coach would say.

RECORD, PAUSE, DELETE Gauging the media's high- and low-level marks of the week, and what's ahead: A VOICE OF REASON Marcellus Wiley reports via email that it's "so far, so great" after undergoing surgery Tuesday for a cyst and multiple nodes on his vocal cords that will keep him off his KSPN-AM (710) afternoon drive sports-talk role as well as ESPN's "SportsNation" series until Sept. 2. "My prognosis is great and I already feel I'm breathing easier," Wiley wrote, noting the condition was caused by "a lifetime of acid reflux and exacerbated by excessive usage over the last seven years being a broadcaster." The 39-year-old, who recently had kidney issues that got him to join a class-action suit against the NFL with more than 750 other players who contend the league put their health at risk by the misuse of prescription painkillers, is not supposed to talk for a week, then begin rehabilitating his voice in five-minute increments next week before going on his honeymoon through the end of the month. Wiley said he recently had experiences where he lost his voice and had trouble with constant coughing and shortness of breath. He consulted with Dr. Sunil Verma at UC Irvine, who tried changing his diet by eliminating foods that affected his reflux. But in the end, surgery was needed. "I look forward to returning next month and hanging out with my friends, viewers and listeners on both shows, God willing," Wiley added.

CIRCLING BACK With KFWB's official announcement this week that Jim Rome will start their all-sports lineup change by holding down the 9 a.m.-to-noon slot starting Sept. 1, the next step is the announcement of a program director and fill in the rest of the day's listening. "Finding a Los Angeles radio home was my top priority for 2014," said Rome, vacationing in Europe this week. "KFWB is the right place and this is the right time. I'm ecstatic and can't wait for the launch. It's great to be home." Rome left Fox Sports Radio and the Premiere Radio network at the end of 2012 to join the new CBS Sports Radio lineup. KFWB representatives recently told LARadio.com that news anchors Bill Seward, Ted Sobel and Bob Harvey would continue with their roles.

FAME FINDS HIM Pete Arbogast, who will be entering his 20th season calling USC football games on the radio, has become the latest inductee into the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame, scheduled to take place at their next annual awards lunch Jan. 26, 2015. When longtime USC voice Tom Kelly moved from radio to Prime Ticket in 1989, Arbogast took over and had a six-year run until 1994, returning in 2001 and sticking with the school's radio package ever since doing games on KMPC-AM (1540) and KSPN-AM (710). "It's always been amazing to have this job I actually dreamed about as a kid and now to be honored alongside the greats is really humbling and equally amazing," Arbogast said. Indeed.

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