Prestige sports documentary and feature storytelling has become a crowded field the past few years. Despite a growing list that includes 30 for 30 and 30 for 30 Shorts, HBO Real Sports, E:60, 60 Minutes Sports, SC Featured, and OTL, Vice has debuted Vice World Of Sports on their new Viceland TV channel.
Given this is a new foray for Vice and the bar is quite high in this space, for a debut season from an upstart network Vice World Of Sports is off to a pretty stellar start. Not all of the episodes have been home runs but early 30 for 30’s missed their mark and I’m sure Real Sports wasn’t the well oiled machine it is now during its debut season. The show delivers visually compelling and immersive storytelling, often finding hidden gems that look at the social and political narratives that connect to sports stories.
I’ve enjoyed the first half of the first season but wanted to get more insight on the show’s vision, plans, and how they plan to differentiate in what’s become a hot sector within the sports media landscape. Below some insights from my interview with Executive Producer Evan Rosenfeld.
How is Vice Word Of Sports different?
If you’re a fan of the space, I imagine you won’t be disappointed by Vice World Of Sports. What sets the program apart is the storytelling style as well as the types of stories they select, both of which dovetail nicely into Vice’s broader content strategy. Rosenfeld, who has done work across multiple networks including ESPN, HBO, and Showtime highlighted how the series will be different than what’s already out there:
“These are all the stories that those networks, like when you talk to them and talk about the stories, they like them, but are too scared or it’s too different for them to do. These are the stories that for years I’ve been wanting to do and wanting to work on and thought about doing.”
“I think for me, ESPN’s 30 for 30, HBO Sports were really the guys that started the mainstream sports docs. 30 for 30 took it to another level and gave it the freedom to be their thing. I think with us, it’s a more immersive look at stories, and it’s also about what’s happening now and how what’s happening in the sports stories relates to something bigger than whatever game is being played.“
Format
Vice World Of Sports has a pretty unique format – one topic for a full thirty minutes with limited commercials. While I’ve enjoyed this format which allows stories to be meatier than segments on Real Sports and 60 Minutes Sports, but not as big of a commitment as let’s say a 30 for 30, I wondered if this would potentially limit the stories Vice World Of Sports would be able to tell. However Rosenfeld shared that won’t always be the case with episodes later this season on an Indian Reservation basketball rivalry and another a special on Emmanuel Mudiay being a full hour.
“We’ll figure out how much time we need for each story and we’ll play around with it. Essentially, we landed on 30 because an hour was too long for some of these. An hour is the weird space between an hour and a half and half-hour. You can get a little more detailed, but it’s hard to really do what you want with a film. And when I’ve seen our pieces longer, the energy level drops down. I just like to smack people in the face with the story and keep it going. I think an hour is too long, but ideally we’d have six or seven more minutes and I think that would be the perfect length for these. But then when you add another 15 on top of that, you’re going to lose people. I think the Vice audience isn’t such a sports audience. Hopefully we’re going to change that a little bit, but it’s easier for people who aren’t a huge sports fan to enjoy these stories at this length. But we’ll play around with it for sure over time. We’ll have longer ones.”
More mainstream stories?
If you look at the first season thus far and what’s coming the rest of the season, you’ll notice the show largely avoids mainstream American pro sports and mainstream collegiate conferences. While other programs like Real Sports and 60 Minutes Sports have been selective in pursuing mainstream stories and instead opting to shine a light on off the radar stories and features, Vice World Of Sports will go the entire first season without having an episode focused on anything well known domestically. However it sounds like we may see that change in future seasons.
“It’s not like we have consciously ignored them, it’s just the best stories that have come on our plate haven’t included them.”
“I think one big thing we look at for stories we want to tell is access. So that’s a big part of it. When it comes down to the story, we need to be able to do our thing. We don’t want to be told we can’t go here, or we can’t film that, or you are not allowed here, because it’s very hard to tell the actual story when that’s the case. That’s one big challenge when you are dealing with any big organization. Sometimes they are a little protective over the properties and they don’t want to do that. But I think what will be helpful is our show, we’ve completed the first season, it’s out there, and we have our work to show them. Hopefully, they’ll be impressed enough to allow us to do our thing.”
Coming To ESPN
About a month ago, Vice and ESPN announced a content partnership although specifics were a bit lacking. Rosenfeld shared that Vice World Of Sports will be re-airing on ESPN starting in a few months, a huge win for the show and Viceland as they look to build awareness for the new show and network. Depending on how the syndication goes it sounds like other Vice Sports content maybe making its way over to ESPN as well.
“They are going to re-air our show to their audience, and then as we do stuff in the future we’ll explore the relationship and see how we kind of interact. I think anything sports-wise is endearing and really open to be kind of used within this relationship and put on ESPN. It’s very exciting.”
Second Season filming but not announced
It’s been hard to gauge how well Viceland is doing given the new network is not rated by Nielsen. Without any info there, it’s been difficult to determine which shows have broken out and those might not be back for a second season. For those who have enjoyed Vice World Of Sports, indications are a second season will indeed happen and have eight episodes. Given the ESPN syndication will likely bring the show to a new audience, you may see Vice World Of Sports become one of the new network’s more recognized programs.
“I don’t think I can officially confirm anything, because they do announcements for stuff like this. But we’re filming. We’ve already filmed a number of episodes. If you visit my Instagram or Sal’s Instagram or anybody, you can see that’s happening.”
Vice World Of Sports airs tonight on Viceland. You can also find full episodes as well on Youtube.
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