The thrill of live sports comes from the awareness that any moment could become legendary. And for the people producing live sports on television, that means the spotlight is brightest in the big spots.
The lesson was unfortunately driven home last weekend at Augusta National, as the CBS Sports production crew got stuck with a camera shot from behind Rory McIlroy as he sank a putt to win his second consecutive Masters.
McIlroy’s shot was never really in doubt, and he had held a lead all tournament. Even without much uncertainty as to the outcome, viewers hammered CBS for the inopportune mistake.
In an interview this week on The Pat McAfee Show, CBS announcer Jim Nantz briefly acknowledged the “mistake” before chalking it up to the realities of making “split-second decisions” over dozens of hours of coverage across the weekend. Nantz ended his response by praising the CBS crew as the “best in the business.”
“It’s live television. We all make mistakes,” Nantz, who has called the Masters since 1989, said.
“If he would have missed it, we would have had the all-time story in the history of golf. But I’m really proud of our crew. You’re making … so many decisions, split-second decisions. The things that were shown, produced by our crew, hundreds of people involved over the course of four days, some 30 hours of television, I can’t speak to the difficulty and some of the decision-making and some of the things that people are responsible for. I just know that our crew is the best in the business.”
Later, Nantz (with McAfee’s help) showcased the sharply produced live footage from after McIlroy’s victory, as he traipsed the course and celebrated with family and friends. The veteran announcer praised his crew for capturing the more historically important spot.
Any broadcaster working a huge event like the Masters knows they will be judged by how they capture the biggest stories. In some cases, viewers might be more lenient if those moments crop up suddenly.
Not being prepared to fully show the ball on the winner’s final putt is harder to forgive. But while even Nantz understands the flub was genuine, he doesn’t believe it overshadows the hundreds of other shots CBS produced at a high level throughout the tournament.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.