August 17, 2015

Author: Dan Lajoie

Potential Show Title: The Great Debate

Genre: Debate Show

Logline: In this half hour show, two popular sports personalities will vie for Americas vote
as they debate sports most hotly contested questions in front of a live audience.
Synopsis: In 1960, relative unknown Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy was trailing
Richard Nixon on the eve of the first nationally televised presidential debate. 74 million
people, one-third of the US population at that time, tuned in for the debate. Nixon looked
sickly and sweaty at the debate, while Kennedy looked cool and confident. Many say that
Kennedy won the election that night, and without the debate he never would have become
president. This debate was a seminal moment in American history, where a single night
changed history.

The power of debate is well documented, and can be traced back as far as Ancient Greece.
Debate discusses controversial topics and offers resolutions, and through ethos, pathos,
and logos, one side is more persuasive, prevailing over the other side. It is used by
governments, parliaments, and is carried out for educational or recreational purposes.
While debate is nothing new to the sports television industry, The Great Debate will take
it to a whole new stratosphere.

Should Pete Rose be allowed in the Baseball Hall of Fame? Who was the best player to
never win a championship? Should high school basketball players be allowed to skip
college for the pros? Should players that took steroids be allowed in the MLB Hall of Fame?
Should Division 1 athletes get paid? All of sports most pressing and controversial questions
will finally and definitively be answered.

Debate drives sports commentary and The Great Debate will provide an educated view
into the most hotly debated sports questions. Facilitated by a moderator, The Great
Debate will feature two passionate sports media members, brought on to express
arguments and seek validation for their opinions. The winner will be determined by a
viewer vote, who will place their vote online after being informed of all sides of the topic by
the candidates.
Instead of debating the day-to-day comings and goings of the sports world, the show will
focus on the big picture issues that plague sports. What is the state of the league? What
rules or regulations need to be changed or added?

Instead of focusing on the personalities of the debaters, the topic at hand is the star of the
show. The show will constantly rotate debaters based on their expertise on the subject,
ensuring that the debate is the ultimate priority. The Great Debate moderator will keep

the debaters on a tight leash, holding them to their allotted time limits and keeping them
from straying off topic of the question at hand.

First and foremost, television is about providing great drama and big spectacles. Live
televised debates offer something that no other medium can, which is a head to head
comparison that allows for back and forth. While debating a pressing sports topic doesnt
compare to a presidential debate in terms of importance and popularity, it does appeal to a
smaller audience that regularly discusses sports issues in the workplace, classroom, or at
home. The Great Debate is a game changer, something that will up the ante in the sports
television industry in a way nothing has before.

Format: The Great Debate will be a town hall debate and air on live television. Live
television adds another element to the debate, forcing the two debaters to prepare even
further, realizing that they will have to own up to every word they say during the debate.

The show will begin with a short video clip discussing the topic at hand. The moderator will
then introduce the show, the debaters, and the format of the show (which is as follows.)
Opening Affirmative Statement: 2 minutes
Opening Negative Statement: 2 minutes
Commercial 1

Moderator Question:
Affirmative Statement: 2 minutes
Negative Rebuttal: 2 minutes
Audience Question:
Negative Statement: 2 minutes
Affirmative Rebuttal: 2 minutes
Commercial 2

Twitter Question:
Affirmative Statement: 2 minutes
Negative Rebuttal: 2 minutes
Closing Statements

Affirmative Statement: 2 minutes

Negative Statement: 2 minutes

Commercial 3

Wrap Up
The moderator will announce the results of the Live Twitter Vote and reveal the
winner of The Great Debate. They will also preview the next debate, the debaters, and
introduce the controversy surrounding the topic.

Social Media: The integration of social media will be paramount to determining the success
of The Great Debate.
Throughout the airing of the show, the bottom part of the screen will be utilized as a social
media presence. There will be a live feed of tweets for fans that use the hashtag
#thegreatdebate or through other social media outlets (Facebook, Instagram, etc). This
gives fans a chance to interact with the show and for their tweets to be onscreen seen in
front of a national audience.

In addition to being able to interact during the show, viewers will also be able to have an
impact on the debate itself. One debate question in each episode of The Great Debate will
be a question chosen through Twitter. In the days leading up to the show, the show will
send out a tweet previewing the debate and will ask fans to send in any questions they may
have. Based on all the responses, one will be chosen to represent the fan perspective during
the debate.
Fans will not only have an impact with what questions will be asked during the debate,
they will also play a role in deciding what the debate will be. Through the shows Twitter
handle @thegreatdebate, viewers will tweet their ideas for future episodes of the show.
Once every month, the show will have a Think Tank Thursday, where viewers can tweet
the show to say what they believe should be debated. If they have a great debate topic, the
show may end up using their idea for a future show.
Most importantly, the winner of The Great Debate will be decided solely through social
media. Throughout the show, viewers will be able to vote on Twitter on who won the
debate. For example, if the debate was between Bill Simmons and Jalen Rose on how long
you need to stay in college to declare for the NBA Draft, viewers would vote either
#SimmonsGreatDebate or #RoseGreatDebate to choose who won the debate. Throughout
the show, voting results will be visible on the bottom of the screen, similar to that of an
election night coverage. The viewers will know at any time where the debate stands and
may feel pressed to vote if the person they prefer to win is losing.

Conclusion: Instead of wearing out its welcome and being a daily show, The Great Debate
will be a weekly or monthly event, appointment television that viewers will tune into.
Instead of focusing on daily events, like the day priors games, The Great Debate will
tackle big picture issues. Should there be a salary cap in the MLB? How rampant is
homophobia in sport? What more should the NFL be doing with concussions and research?
With such parity between conferences, should the NBA eliminate conference affiliation for
the playoffs?

The Great Debate will be different from all the sports debate shows before it. Instead of
other shows that embrace debate and manufacture inflammatory comments just to
provoke and be edgy, The Great Debate takes debate back to its roots. Who can persuade
the voting public best? Two contestants, two podiums, who will win? Find out in The Great
Debate.