Associate Professor and Graduate Director Dr. Ethan Tussey recently contributed a chapter in the television studies anthology How To Watch TV 2nd Edition (NYU Press, 2020). His work joins a collection of television scholars that reflect the best research in television studies.
He was invited to provide his particular expertise regarding sports television. He wrote about ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption arguing that it represents a turning point in sports programming, the beginning of a shift away from game recaps and highlights and toward the sports debate format. The success of Pardon the Interruption inspired 24-hour sports networks to embrace debate as a strategy for maintaining relevance in a digital age. Dr. Tussey argues that the ubiquity of the sports debate format has effectively pushed the politics of sports out from the margins and into mainstream conversation.
“It was an honor to join such a prestigious collection of scholars and contribute to an accessible and critical conversation about television. It was a particular thrill to research and write about one of the shows that I feel has had an enormous impact on television aesthetics in the digital age,” says Dr. Tussey.