It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for them.
With a dearth of new sports programming to air due to the coronavirus pandemic shutting down pro leagues and college tournaments, on March 22 ESPN is bringing back “ESPN8: The Ocho,” its daylong lineup of weird and “seldom seen” sports that pays homage to a gag from the film “DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story.”
The lineup this year does include dodgeball in the form of a replay of “America’s Dodgeball Continental Cup” pitting the U.S. against Canada.
Other sports featured in the lineup are ultimate Frisbee, competitive eating, cherry spitting and arm wrestling.
There’s a fair dose of old-school esports: The 2019 Golden Tee World Championship, in which competitors play the golf arcade game Golden Tee Golf, will air at 4:30, followed at 5 by the 2018 Classic Tetris World Championship.
Also on tap is the Stupid Robot Fighting League, which looks like this.
The programming will run all day Sunday on ESPN2. The stunt was introduced on Aug. 8, 2017, and repeated each year on the same date, the eighth day of the eight month.
But with sports fans starved for something to watch as all major sports are currently canceled or suspended, the network will try it this weekend in hopes of drawing some fans who want to put the state of the world out of mind for a while and cheer for a stone-skipping championship like it’s March Madness.
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