Contrary to the saturation-level promos ESPN has been running for the past several weeks, the cable network’s new series “Playmakers” isn’t really about football.
“The football isn’t there for football’s sake,” says John Eisendrath, the “Alias” writer-producer (and former college football player) who created “Playmakers,” ESPN’s first original drama. “It’s only there to tell the stories going in the characters’ personal lives.”
Indeed, “Playmakers,” which premieres commercial-free at 9 p.m. Tuesday, is as much a soap opera as anything. It follows the lives of players on a fictional pro football team, the Cougars, as they deal with injuries, addictions, psychological issues and the politics of the business they’ve chosen.
“It’s not about sports; it’s about the players in sports,” says Mark Shapiro, ESPN’s head of programming and production. “It’s about emotions, what they share and struggle with every day, just like any human being in any profession. But in their world, they can’t show it.”
That’s not to say football is completely beside the point, although ESPN didn’t seek and hasn’t received an endorsement from the National Football League for “Playmakers” (the Cougars are part of a fictional league). Several cast members and a number of the extras used for football scenes have athletic backgrounds, and the show has ex-players and coaches on the payroll as consultants.
As with its original movies “Season on the Brink” and “The Junction Boys,” ESPN’s goal with “Playmakers” is to get people who aren’t already habitual viewers to sample the channel, expose them to the drama inherent in sports and maybe get them to come back in the future.
“We weren’t reaching as broad an audience as we wanted to,” Shapiro says. “There are plenty of casual sports fans out there, plenty of female fans out there. It’s a unique, diverse audience that doesn’t necessarily require Xs and Os.”
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