Yes it did. WWOS was only successful when there were 3 TV channels and people would watch anything. You still see the junk that aired in WWOS from time to time like the Strongest Man Competitions on ESPN. The ratings for that stuff are awful even by cable standards. You can't expect a network that depends 100% on ratings to air that anymore.
Not every show was a hit, but the show that aired from Universal Studios was in the top 20 of the most watched Wide World of Sports Shows ever. And that was during the 1990's. It ranked about 15th if I remember. I know it broke the top 20 and those records went way back . We got the ratings about 2 weeks after the broadcast . It's true that Wide World would never get the ratings from the 1970's today but that could be said of any show today. As a show , it's much better then anything ESPN is putting out. Again, They need to put these back on Networks again, not ESPN .
There's no money in it. Local affilitates would make more money just running infomercials. With all the alternatives for entertainment that exist today nobody's going to sit down on a Sat afternoon and watch cliff diving or arm wrestling. At least ESPN won't go broke airing those events because they get paid as long as you pay your cable bill.
I remember thinking back in the day how cool it would be to have all these channels . Now I have more then enough channels with garbage on most of the time. I know it's about money but ESPN has caused more damage to sports programs than any network I know.
