Fox To Put Virtual Fans In The Stands For TV Broadcasts

The lack of sports over this pandemic has probably been one of the most difficult pills to swallow. Going from many options to none, to a few restarting has started to mess with my head. But I am happy that we are starting to make progress.

Now I find out that Major League Baseball season is going to start welcoming fans into the stands but just not living fans, but instead virtual fans, and crowds sound effects.

According to a report from the New York Post, Fox Sports will start adding CGI, virtual fans in its live baseball broadcasts for the 2020 season.

Even though it is a shortened season Fox Sports will air many baseball games this year, and instead of seeing empty seats, a silent stands, you'll now experience CGI fans and sound effects for the crowd noise. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's like half real, and half fake, but the most important part is real so I guess I'm not overly upset at being deceived. In a way it's actually kinda cool. I mean we have be exposed to laugh tracks in TV shows for decades without any harm.

Fox Sports executive vice president Brad Zager says:

“It is not like we are trying to make people feel like there is a crowd there, we are trying to make them feel that in the normal pitch-by-pitch, shot-by-shot baseball it is what they are used to. We aren’t trying to fool anyone.”