PBA World Championship Kicks Off ESPN’s 37th Year of PBA Coverage New 19-telecast schedule includes nine live shows, four major championships
11/14/2016The Professional Bowlers Association returns to ESPN for the
37th consecutive year, beginning on Sunday, Dec. 11, with live coverage of the PBA World Championship from the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev. – the first of nine live telecasts and the first of four major championships on the new schedule.
The ESPN schedule includes a total of 19 telecasts – two more than aired on last year’s schedule – and the most live shows to air since the
2008-09 season.
“We’re proud of our nearly 40- year relationship with the PBA,” said ESPN Senior Vice President- Programming and Global X Scott Guglielmino. “With premier championships and unique events like the annual Chris Paul PBA Invitational, bowling fans can look forward to another season of compelling and action-packed competition on the lanes.”
The new ESPN schedule begins with six telecasts from the GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling VIII at Reno’s National Bowling Stadium. The live PBA World Championship at 1 p.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Pacific) on Sunday, Dec. 11, will be followed by the finals of the PBA Cheetah (Dec. 18) and the Chameleon, Scorpion and Shark Championships (on Christmas Eve day and Christmas day), a re-air of the World Championship on New Year’s Day, and a special “USA vs. The World” team showdown on Jan.
8 featuring the top five American players vs. the top five international players based on WSOB qualifying. The Shark Championship will be the concluding event of the PBA’s 2016 season.
PBA’s “Big February” returns to ESPN with three consecutive majors: the Barbasol PBA Players Championship on Feb. 12, the FireLake PBA Tournament of Champions on Feb. 19 and the USBC Masters on Feb. 26. The USBC Masters will be part of a live doubleheader on Feb. 26. The Masters will be immediately followed by the World Bowling Tour Men’s and Women’s Finals, presented by the PBA, marking the first time in PBA history that two separate events will air back-to-back as live telecasts.
Other highlights of the new ESPN
schedule include:
• The annual Chris Paul Family Foundation PBA Celebrity Invitational is set to air in a new prime-time time slot on Friday, Feb.
17, at 9 p.m. Eastern.
• The Mark Roth/Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship finals will air live from Bayside Bowl in Portland, Maine, on April 16, leading into four consecutive Sundays of PBA League telecasts that will follow.
• New to ESPN will be the PBA Main Event, a live special telecast on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 5) from Katy, Texas, just outside Houston (the site of Super Bowl 51), and live telecasts of the semifinal and final rounds of the Grand Casino Hotel & Resort PBA Oklahoma Open on Saturday and Sunday, July 1 and 2. Details on both of these events will be announced soon.
Article was posted with permission from Stars & Strikes, America's Bowling Newsmagazine. www.starsandstrikesbowling.com
