I know there are some sports fans here, so this shouldn't be out of place.
I had to tape the final episode of ESPN's Dream Job, and I just saw it last night. I was disappointed that Zacharias Selwyn lost. I thought he would be the hands down winner. Mike was good, but not nearly as good as Zach. He didn't have that comfort with the camera that Zach had (although this can be worked on), and he didn't have that smooth conversational flow (something I don't think can be learned very easily). Zach sounded good, had excellent writing, and oozed personality.
Tony Kornheiser and Al Jaffe both made a terrible decision to drop Zach. Tony even said that Zach was clearly the most talented person up on stage. Al made a similar comment, adding that Zach was more of a feature reporter.
The first two segments before Maggie and Zach were cut were a call of a famous play (Jordan's "The Shot", Kirk Gibson's walk-off, Jeter's flip, and one more I can't remember) and a PTI segment with Tony.
Everybody was weak on the play call I thought. Maggie sounded like her usual hyperventilating self, and Zach's voice got a little away from him, but nobody did too good. Sports announcing is a difficult skill that few do well, so I don't hold it against any of them. Besides, when was the last time you heard Linda Cohen call a play?
Zach's PTI segment was easily the best, and everybody thought so. Al may not have liked the "hot urine" comment, but Zach took a position and held it. Tony said that of all the segments, the one with Zach is the one that felt like a real segment with Wilbon. The rest were stilted and sometimes even boring, Zach's was smooth and lively.
El Centro has been getting stale over the last couple years and fresh talent, something a litle different, is needed. Kit Hoover was spot on when she said that she would love to see Zach shake up the show a little. And if the decision to cut from 4 to 2 was left up to the people like the other votes where, Zach would have walked away with the job. He had a tremendous talent to play off of others, and making him into a feature reporter would burry one of his best talents. At this time, SportsCenter doesn't need another Scott Van Pelt, it needs a new Kenny Mayne. Even that doesn't do Kerry or Zach justice. Zach not Kenny, but at least he's different form the rest of the crew.
Tony did say something right when he said that if he ran the station he would hire Zach on the spot and build a show around him. Al needs to listen to that and not let Zach get away.
This week I'll write an email to Tony and Al.
Besides, anybody that gets burried that badly in a sports trivia contest shouldn't be a SportsCenter anchor. Well, both Aaron and Mike did terrible. Zach could have taken them both combined.