Without Sports, ESPN Turns To Emergency Solution: The Ocho

One can only imagine how difficult it is to find programming to air in the time of Coronavirus when you have a monopoly on sports broadcasting and there are no sports to broadcast.

ESPN and its various subsidiary channels, which includes ESPN 2, ESPN U, and ESPN News, have pulled the emergency switch now that all sporting events have been postponed or canceled as a public safety precaution and gone to airing ESPN 8: The Ocho.

The Ocho, if you're too young to remember the great Dodgeball: An Underdog Story craze of 2004, was a gag channel in the film which would bring "the Finest in Seldom Seen Sports.” Helmed by Cotton McKnight and Pepper Brooks (Gary Cole and Jason Bateman), the channel covered the dodgeball tournament that served as the climax of the film. The gag has resonated throughout the following two decades; it is the source of the Bold Move Cotton meme and ESPN made an annual habit of paying homage to the gag by airing seldom-seen sports like Ping Pong and dart-throwing every August 8th since 2017.

With literally no sports happening, ESPN had to move the annual ESPN 8 day up a few months, and on Sunday, ESPN 2 held an "Ocho" day, airing cornhole, arm wrestling, robot fighting, Jelle's Marble Runs, and other oddities in the sporting world.

Today ESPN2 is turning into #TheOcho again. For your #StayHome viewing pleasure… pic.twitter.com/FlVTATuUDW

— Phil Ciallela (@PhilCiallela) March 22, 2020

C L U T C H#TheOcho pic.twitter.com/0JxB9M48qw

— ESPN (@espn) March 22, 2020

This is ELECTRIC 🔌💡 #TheOcho pic.twitter.com/0WfxtmUWMz

— ESPN (@espn) March 22, 2020

FIVE pizza boxes folded in under 30 seconds.UNBELIEVABLE 🍕#TheOcho pic.twitter.com/yYISJh3GYj

— ESPN (@espn) March 22, 2020

Naturally, the sports-deprived of the world absolutely loved it.

#TheOcho makes me realize that trying to play pro sports was just a dumb idea. Mini golf and cornhole I could of been doing this to become pro my whole life.

— Todd Dayton (@TheToddDayton) March 22, 2020

I would like to thank Dodgeball for bringing us @espn #TheOcho. Without real sports to watch, this day is awesome. The electricians world championships was electrifying. Now watching the Sasquatch Festival. Gonna be a great day of sport.

— Wayne White (@NMBchiefsSports) March 22, 2020

Just discovered #TheOcho is back on @espn 2! 😂😂😂😂😂 I'm ready for the brat eating championships at 1pm.🌭🌭🌭🌭 And Dodgeball tonight! #TogetherAtHome #thingstododuringquarantine pic.twitter.com/2LjBZqicn3

— KJ (@KJonair) March 22, 2020

Hopefully, ESPN runs the Ocho until this is all over, because if there's one thing the world needs now, its seldom-seen sports.