Has Poker Lost Its Appeal?

I was downstairs eating lunch, leaving my comfortable spot stretched out on the couch here, and turned on ESPN to see what was up. I usually eat lunch while surfing between ESPN, CSpan, and reruns of Jeopardy. (I have won millions on jeopardy; they just won't send me the money even though I tell them I had the answer first. Between the Mrs. and I, we may having winnings into the tens of millions.)

However, today, at 1:00 p.m. was one of the most gripping ESPN programs ever: 2007 National School Scrabble Championship. (I am not making this up. You can check me out here.)

And they actually have commentators for it. How do you get that gig? Is there a dictionary test? A random-letters-into-words exam? Do you have to do research on historical scrabble matches? Do you have to read up on the participants and the dictionaries they studied? And how much do you get paid to do color commentary on a scrabble match.

Here's the worst part: I actually watched it for a while. Now that's embarrassing. (If you are interested, Taylor Community was beating Ridgefield if I remember correctly).