Wide World of Sports (US TV series)

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You might also be looking for the Australian television show of the same name.

ABC's Wide World of Sports is a long-running sports anthology show on American television. As the title suggests, it aired on the ABC television network.

The show debuted April 29, 1961 and was the creation of Edgar J. Scherick through his company, Sports Programs, Inc. After selling his company to the American Broadcasting Company, Scherick hired a young Roone Arledge, to produce the show. Arledge would eventually go on to become the executive producer of ABC Sports (as well as president of ABC News). Scherick became Vice President of Network Programming at ABC. Several years later, he became a film and television producer, with over 70 titles to his credit.

Wide World of Sports was intended to be a "fill-in" show for a single summer season, until the start of fall sports seasons, but became unexpectedly popular. The goal of the show, which ran weekend afternoons, was to showcase sports from around the globe, of the type not normally seen on American television, such as hurling, rodeo, curling, jai-alai and badminton. The broadcast was hosted for most of its history by Jim McKay.

The show was introduced by a stirring, brassy fanfare over a montage of sports clips and dramatic accompanying narration by McKay:

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… this is ABC's Wide World of Sports!

The melodramatic introduction became a national catch phrase that is often heard to this day. While "the thrill of victory" had several symbols over the decades, ski jumper Vinko Bogataj, whose dreadful misjump and crash was featured from the late 1970s on under the words "...and the agony of defeat", became a hard-luck hero of sorts, and an affectionate icon for stunning failure. Previously, the footage played with that phrase was of another ski jumper who made a long, almost successful jump, but whose skis lost vertical alignment shortly before landing, leading to a crash.

During the 1970s and 1980s, a Canadian version was aired by the CTV Television Network. Licensed by ABC, the CTV broadcast included a mix of content from the American show, and segments produced by CTV and its affiliates.

In later years, with the rise of cable television offering more outlets for sports programming, Wide World of Sports would lose much of its appeal. Most recently, the Wide World of Sports name has been used as an umbrella title for ABC's weekend sports programming.

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