Is anyone else watching this? I caught the first two installments and... is it just me, or is this pretentious and staged (the roundtable discussions are SO fake)?

No, it's not just you. The editor's meetings are worthless. I'm an old fart, and prefer the no frills journalism of Bob Ley's Outside the Lines.

It's pretty bad. Since this is ESPN's answer to Real Sports, I'm sure that the idea evolved like this....

Exec 1
"You know how lame and staged Bryant Gumbel's conversation is after each piece on Real Sports? You know.. when he's fake scribbling something on a piece of paper, tries to look thoughtful and then asks the report a very rehearsed "off the cuff" question.
Well we can't do that on E:60. It will look to fake and cheesy. What should we do??

Exec 2
"How bout we stage a scene where we get our reporters and producers to sit around a table and make believe its a pitch meeting?"

Exec 1
"Sounds awesome. We should treat the video in black and white. Make it feel real gritty, and definitely not staged. Like we're getting an inside look at our innovative show."

Exec 2
"Yeah we can even have us, the show producers, ask rehearsed questions while looking very serious. Very Not Gumbel"

Exec 1
Perfect. This won't look fake or pretentious at all. We are so groundbreaking at ESPN"

You know what, Gusto? I'll bet you are not too far off. They think they are edgier than Real Sports with their incredibly fake opening montage and incredibly fake production meeting. But really, they just look full of themselves and self important. The stories actually aren't that bad. Too bad by the time I get to them, I am already so disgusted with the preening and the posing that I don't want to stick around.