The month of July is arguably the slowest on the sports calendar. The NBA and NHL playoffs have finished, NFL training camp and the college football season are still off in the distance, and unless there’s a major soccer tournament, the sports calendar can be somewhat barren outside of the marathon MLB season.
It’s a time where you might find some different and unique sporting events on ESPN and other sports channels. FS1 recently televised a darts tournament from Las Vegas. ESPN has taken to airing drone racing. But there’s another sport out there that you may never thought you’d see on national television that also made it to ESPN airwaves.
Cornhole.
The favorite game of midwestern tailgaters got national exposure with the “Championship of Bags” tournament. And here’s the amazing thing about it – people actually watched! Younger audiences especially tuned into the broadcast over the weekend – in the 18-49 demo on Saturday, cornhole actually outrated MLB on FS1!
In A18-49, Saturday's Cornhole on ESPN2 earned a larger audience than weekend's MLB on FS1 and TBS, WNBA ASG, final stage of Tour de France.
— Sports Media Watch (@paulsen_smw) July 26, 2017
Imagine Rob Manfred spitting out his coffee when being told that he was losing younger fans to cornhole.
The total audience was well over 300k viewers, which is more than double a typical episode of Skip Bayless’ debate show on FS1. That’s a win for humanity.
Cornhole had 359K P2+ (204K in A18-49), trailing the other events I listed. So was younger-skewing. On ShowBuzz: https://t.co/boIN2gVC14
— Sports Media Watch (@paulsen_smw) July 26, 2017
Maybe you never thought you’d live to see the day when cornhole got national television coverage on ESPN, but here we are. The reaction from fans varied from “this is the greatest thing ever” to “this is a certain sign of the apocalypse.”
ESPN is willing to broadcast AND analyze cornhole and not hockey.
Cornhole and not hockey.
Cornhole.
Analyzation of cornhole.
Not hockey
— ?️rendan (@bfretyy) July 23, 2017
I think I'm watching highlights of the cornhole championship on ESPN. The republic is lost. #electrolytes
— Jason Stanford (@JasStanford) July 22, 2017
Cornhole is on ESPN. Jesus was an American!
— Robert J. O'Neill (@mchooyah) July 22, 2017
Biggest joke of a spectator sport on @espn : CORNHOLE#spareme #seriously
— Brad (@BradBaldwin007) July 22, 2017
Cornhole Championships on ESPN is the best thing to watch on a Saturday since Ninja Warrior on Spike
— Danny Orr (@DannyOrr34) July 22, 2017
If you aren't watching this 2017 Cornhole Championship on ESPN you better find a tv quick
— Michael Bercovici (@MikeBerco) July 22, 2017
Maybe watching guys throw beanbags at wooden boards isn’t your idea of an exciting Saturday, but they said the same thing about poker once upon a time as well. More power to ESPN and other networks for trying something new and seeing what will catch on. Who couldn’t relate to a game of cornhole or think to themselves that maybe they too could find a random leisurely activity that would allow them some facetime on ESPN. Who knows, maybe ESPN in 2087 will be airing esports, drone racing, and cornhole as their major sports.
At the very least, cornhole definitely beats another First Take special or ESPN airing every single minor league game of Tim Tebow so keep in mind that it could always be worse.
Pic via @Bubbaprog
