During PTI’s commercial breaks, the TV will cut to a 5-second glimpse of off-camera life at the show.
In one of the earlier incidents, Tony K was saying something to Mike, turned and looked straight into the camera, and stopped speaking. He whipped his head around to his right, looking off-camera,giving the impression of being surprised he was on air. ESPN went to commercial right after that, but this “glitch” has continued since then.
I’ve noticed this happening for about a month now - does anybody know what’s going on?
(For those who don’t know, PTI is a talking-head sports show on ESPN every weekday at 5:30).
I’m not sure what your question is. If it’s why they’re cutting to a live shot in the middle of a commercial break, it’s because all TV is desperate to do anything to keep viewers’ attention and try to keep them from changing channels as soon as a commercial hits. Showing the stars or a behind-the-scenes view as a tease to the next scene is a common technique. SNL does the same thing
If you’re asking about a particular reaction, then I can’t help you.
I read somewhere that its purpose is to try to get the DVR folk from skipping right through it. I am one of those who usually catch PTI on DVR, but, if anything, I’ll stop during the “cut-in” and then go back to fast-forwarding after that’s over.
It may also be a reference to Tony K’s old radio show on ESPN radio (which was awesome stuff by the way). In the early days, if you listened via internet, they kept the feed live during the commercial breaks (and there are a LOT of commercial breaks on ESPN radio).
It was fantastic, real sort of insider’s view - they’d curse and eat and bullshit and talk to the phone guests ahead of time (and even talk to their colleagues who’d call up during the break to say something) and you’d get to hear it all.