A promotion for House of the Dragon during last night’s New York Yankees-Cleveland Guardians playoff baseball game on TBS is continuing to draw online eyerolls the day after the stunt.
With parent company Warner Bros Discovery looking to make use of every pixel of promotional real estate, the notion of plugging the Game of Thrones prequel during a widely viewed live event like the Major League Baseball playoffs isn’t a surprise.
Fox, after all, has pioneered the notion of wedging network pom-pom moments into its fall baseball coverage. But what mostly soured a vocal assortment of viewers and media watchers was the way the plug was executed.
Bob Costas, who was handling play-by-play duties, introduced the 40-second bit with a setup that was deadpan but resonated to some as earnest, especially among Yankee fans living in a city that has been the epicenter of a number of actual emergencies. “You know, big sellout crowd here, but we weren’t 100% sure this game was going to be played tonight,” Costas said coming out of a commercial time-out.
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