The Sporting Paratext,Reception,and the Male Domain in CBS’s “One Shining Moment”

Abstract

Since 1987 CBS has ended its television coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament with “One Shining Moment,” a sentimental highlight package that reflects on and celebrates the event. In 2010, CBS commissioned the popular vocalist Jennifer Hudson to sing “One Shining Moment’s” featured song, which had previously only been performed by men—most notably the R&B crooner Luther Vandross. Hudson’s performance elicited a flood of derision from critics and fans. In response, CBS reinstated Vandross’ version the following year. Building on Jonathan Gray’s theorization of media “paratexts”—the ancillary content that surrounds primary media texts—this essay considers how responses to Hudson’s 2010 performance and CBS's reaction to them secure the NCAA tournament as a male preserve while shoring up gendered anxieties about its commercialization. This instance of paratextual production, reception, and revision constructs “One Shining Moment” as a media ritual that can only be authentically conveyed and understood by men. It demonstrates sporting paratexts’ potential to reinforce and reconfigure sport’s cultural meanings and illuminates the impact that exchanges between audiences and industries can have on this contested process.

Keywords

sport media television paratexts media audiences media industries

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