I am not sure there is As much TV appeal as you think Dan
Yeah thats what I was saying, given time when the TV demand comes back it seems like a good idea
Oh right. Yes we defo need another Moneymaker effect given all the bad press of late.
Poker in general needs a hero, someone that could possibly spearhead it’s popularity to the mainstream again.. Just like Hulk Hogan did for Wrestling in the 80’s. This person may not need to come in the form of a poker player..
Also for people that do not understand poker to the degree that a normal poker player would, they also need a commentator that has some sort of charisma, intelligence and comedic appeal.
Gabe Kaplin is a great example; he was smart funny and also gave good analysis on the cards too. Since leaving HSP their ratings plummeted.
The most popular shows on TV are aired between the hours of 8-10pm that’s the time when people are relaxing from a hard days graft and sitting with loved ones.
Now bearing in mind that more men would watch poker shows then women (I’m just speculating) they need something to entertain couples, so for the poker player you have in depth analysis of the hands played and for the non poker player you have someone that is entertaining and keeps you interested in the show, plus having a 30 minute format would work better based on the hour it’s aired.
So in my opinion for the future success of poker shows they will need the following:
A. Mixture of top pros and average poker players
B. VT on the players to get the viewers invested (We need someone to route for)
C. Commentators that are Charismatic, Funny and intelligent
D. The Dream (A Prize that is substantial enough to change ones life)
E. 30 Minute formats.
Now moving onto Epic Poker / Federated Gaming
The concept is good for the upper echelons of the poker community; they have a basis for bragging rights and quantify their success against their piers in a much more collective way. But this does not differ from something like DTD having a closed tournament for its regulars and the winner holds bragging rights until the next one.
The problem that they have based on the limited amount of information that I have read is, no short term business plan, they directed a lot of traffic to a their website, held and filmed a few tournaments but did not create a sustainable revenue source.. In other words “they were pissing in the wind”
For any business to succeed it needs to concentrate both on short term targets to achieve long term goals, just like when I was in the early stages of setting up my tech company in 2005, I would work 6 days a week and then on Sundays I would do the markets to bring in some short term cash. The importance of this cash was that it kept food on my families table and also at the same time it allowed me to reinvest all my funds from the business in growing the business.
What Epic seemed to have done is created this long term dream, without thinking they needed short term revenue streams to make the dream into reality or a plan B if the funds dried up, the question is did their initial backers pull out because of the overlays in accounting? Which looks to be the case. Whatever the case this venture seems to be poorly managed from the outset, which is a shame for their employees..
In short I think Epic/Federated Gaming have been very naïve and bearing in mind the shear scale of their operation, this will again cast a negative light on the poker community as a whole, which is not great for building a case to get the online poker legalized in the U.S
Adios
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... I'll have my two horses (who are yet to cash) in this tournie too.. 
with 
and says "You want to chop"... 
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