According to Bill Simmons, overcrowding plagues NFL pregame shows. His explanation for why the trend keeps getting worse:

nfl todayThey don’t like firing people or eating contracts, but they loooooooove hiring people. Nothing makes a network exec happier than announcing, “We’re bringing in so-and-so!” And the sheer power of numbers makes shows feel like a bigger event than they actually are, so instead of choosing between Emmitt and Keyshawn, or Marino and Boomer, or Tiki and Bettis, they just keep both under the “bigger is better!” premise. Even if it inadvertently clogs up their shows and flies against the face of everything that has ever worked well on a Sunday pregame show.

Unfortunately, cable news networks seem to be picking up this fumble and running the wrong way with it. Here’s MSNBC’s wall of experts covering the Wall Street crisis. Jon Stewart labelled it “the decabox.”

decabox

Not to be outdone, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 featured 14 (14!?) people onscreen at the same time analyzing last night’s debate.

AC360

If CNN ran a restaurant, the kitchen would probably look like this:

cooks