NBC to air heads-up poker tournament

reviewjournal.com writes:

NBC Sports plans to announce today that it will produce its own Las Vegas-based poker tournament -- a move that could be a prelude toward landing the World Series of Poker on network television.

NBC will film the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, a showdown between 64 players at the Golden Nugget in early March, just the latest in a series of new television programs aimed at capitalizing on poker's growing popularity.

The event, which features a $1.5 million purse and will air on four consecutive Sundays in May from 9 a.m.-10 a.m. (noon to 1 p.m. on the East Coast), prior to the network's telecast of the Arena Football League. The tournament will conclude with a two-hour finale on May 22 from 10 a.m. to noon. (1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time).

Unlike other televised poker events, the format will be head-to-head competition with a single elimination. Players will pay a $20,000 buy-in and play no-limit Texas Hold 'em. The overall winner will receive $500,000....

This is the event that NBC announced during its coverage of the final table of the Poker Superstars Invitational on (INSERT NAME OF BIG PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL GAME HERE) Sunday. I will post some more thoughts on the event later, but to sum it up, NBC may be missing the boat here with it's timeslot. How many poker players you know would consider themselves "Morning People"?

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