WSOP Begins Airing on CBS Sports Network
Surprise! The 2022 World Series of Poker is on television!
When CBS Sports starts airing episodes from the 2022 WSOP and it is a surprise to host Lon McEachern, that’s a problem. Evidently, the CBS Sports Network did start airing episodes on July 21. And the WSOP didn’t mention it.
For years and years, ESPN was the broadcast home of the World Series of Poker. Most people have not seen a televised episode since the WSOP moved to CBS Sports Network. Not only do a lot of people not have that channel in their cable or streaming packages, there has also been little effort to advertise the episodes. There isn’t even one particular day of the week for the episodes.
This is less than ideal, to say the least.
Quiet Announcement
On July 20, PokerGO posted a news piece on its website entitled “CBS Sports Network Schedule for WSOP 2022 TV Episodes.” The information in it revealed that the episodes would begin airing the following day, July 21.
At that point, the WSOP had just wrapped its primary schedule at Paris and Bally’s in Las Vegas but was just getting its Tournament of Champions underway. Many players hadn’t even made it home yet after the series.
The worst part, however, was that so few people saw the information. PokerGO tweeted it, but the WSOP didn’t even retweet it. In fact, the tweet received only one retweet and 11 likes.
The 2022 @WSOP begins its run on @CBSSports starting tomorrow, July 21st, at 8PM ET / 5PM PT.
Fans will be able to enjoy over 50 hours of poker content from the 2022 series over the course of the next few months!https://t.co/RVtj8oWZQK
— PokerGO Tour (@PokerGOTour) July 21, 2022
Lon McEachern, one of the people who puts voice to the WSOP for the network, did not even know it was happening. He, too, was surprised that the episodes were airing so soon after the series, and was quite irked that there was no promotion for it. (His tweet received six times as many likes, if that matters.)
HEY!! @CBSSportsNet Did you know that the @WSOP just ended and that YOUR network is already running shows from this year's festival?? How about tweeting out some support with a promo or 2? #GoodForAll https://t.co/ujxPAlgfxS
— Lon McEachern (@lonmceachern) July 22, 2022
The CBS Sports Network Twitter account didn’t even mention it until July 27. It then tweeted that the network was airing two hours of the $25K Heads-Up Championship right then and then that it was airing two hours of the $25K NLHE High Roller right then.
Unsurprisingly, neither tweet received even one like or comment.
For the next two hours, tune into CBS Sports Network for some @WSOP Heads-Up action. pic.twitter.com/0BUoZshNB3
— CBS Sports Network (@CBSSportsNet) July 28, 2022
Full Broadcast Schedule
Most people seem to have missed out on the first two nights of coverage, which were July 21 (three hours on a Thursday) and July 21 (four hours on a Wednesday). They missed the entirety of the $100K High Roller Bounty, $2,500 NLHE, $25K Heads-Up Championship, and the $25K High Roller. That was seven hours of weekday night airtime that went largely ignored.
There is more on the schedule. Perhaps people will tune in…if they know it’s on.
-Thursday, August 4: $50K NLHE High Roller (8pm-9pm ET)
-Thursday, August 4: $10K Omaha Hi-Lo (9pm-11pm ET)
-Thursday, August 11: $25K PLO High Roller (8pm-10pm ET)
-Thursday, August 11: $1,500 Monster Stack (10pm-midnight ET)
-Thursday, August 18: $50K PLO High Roller (8pm-10pm ET)
-Thursday, August 18: $1,500 NLHE (10pm-midnight ET)
-Thursday, August 25: $10K 2-7 Triple Draw (8pm-10pm ET)
-Thursday, August 25: $100K NLHE High Roller (10pm-midnight ET)
-Wednesday, August 31: $3K PLO 6-Max (8pm-9pm ET)
-Wednesday, August 31: $1,500 Millionaire Maker (9pm-11pm ET)
Obviously, CBS will add more to the schedule, since the 15 hours of Main Event coverage is not mentioned.
