Pickleball goes prime time.
Stephen Colbert, avowed fan of the booming game, is internet hosting CBS’s celeb match Thursday (9 EST/PST) – however don’t search for the “Late Present” host to swimsuit up.
“I’m the Bob Costas right here,” he says of his tongue-firmly-in-cheek anchoring duties, likening himself to the longtime sports activities announcer.
In case you nonetheless haven’t heard of the pandemic-fueled sport, a gumbo of tennis, pingpong and badminton, CBS goals to rectify that with “Pickled,” a two-hour particular that guarantees dedicated play for the celeb groups.
However Colbert’s presence ensures the laughs, from its Claussen pickles sponsorship to a State of the Pickle halftime report referred to as “Darkish Aspect of the Pickle.”
“We’ll discover how pickleball was accountable for one thing like 19,000 accidents final yr, principally from tripping,” Colbert says along with his trademark deadpan. “So sure, People, pickleball is asking you to do the one exercise you’re not prepared for – motion.”
What’s pickleball?:A brief history of the sport and how to play.
Battling it out on the Southern California courts for the Comedian Aid charity is a variety of celebs, who paired up, in line with pickleball’s overwhelmingly doubles-focused ethos.
The groups include singer and actress Kelly Rowland and “The White Lotus” Emmy winner Murray Bartlett; ex-boxer Sugar Ray Leonard and actress Emma Watson; nation star Dierks Bentley and “The Superb Race” host Phil Keoghan; actors Luis Guzman and Daniel Dae Kim; actors Jaime Camil (“Jane the Virgin”) and Aisha Tyler; actors June Diane Raphael and Paul Scheer; “American Idol” alum Jimmie Allen and actor Max Greenfield; and comic Tig Notaro and an unannounced “thriller participant.”
Consider it as ‘Battle of the Community Stars,’ 2022 fashion
Colbert and the present’s producers, Humorous or Die, envisioned “Pickled” as a latter-day “Battle of the Community Stars,” a staple of Nineteen Seventies TV that featured celebrities in an oddball Olympiad that included occasions reminiscent of out of doors bowling and three-on-three soccer.
Simply as with “Battle,” the 16 celebrities in “Pickled” took the match “extremely severely,” says Humorous or Die chief artistic officer Joe Farrell: “We wished them to have enjoyable, however not goof off throughout the recreation. And to an individual, they mentioned, ‘Oh don’t fear, we’re right here to win.’”
Provides Colbert: “You don’t get large in Hollywood with no aggressive streak, and that reveals.”
The host is mum on who triumphs on the pickle courts, however he does provide Costas-meets-Colbert insights.
“The pure liquid grace of an Emma Watson goes to open a whole lot of eyes. She may go professional; she’s younger sufficient,” he says, stifling amusing. “And I’ll say this, nation music stars are higher at this than they’ve been given credit score for. That story hasn’t been written.”
Colbert, 58, says his spouse and producing companion, Evie, gave him an at-home pickleball set final Christmas, consisting of paddles, the waist-high internet and chalk to mark the traces of a regulation court docket, which is a few quarter the dimensions of a tennis court docket.
He’s performed a dozen or so occasions since and is raring for extra, appreciative of the game’s many lures: “It doesn’t take some huge cash to play it, it’s egalitarian, not tremendous punishing in your physique and it looks like a pleasant sport.”
Others agree. Pickleball has boomed since its Sixties origins close to Seattle, the place bored youngsters have been challenged by their dad and mom to make up a sport. The place there have been possibly 100,000 gamers a dozen years in the past, some 4.8 million People now play, in line with the Sports activities and Health Trade Affiliation.
“At this level, you will discover pickleball courts virtually anyplace,” says Wayne Dollard, a tennis participant turned mixed-doubles champion alongside his spouse, Lisa. The couple publish Pickleball journal and run LevelUp pickleball camps across the nation.
What’s pickleball?:Here’s the history of the sport and how to play
“The attraction is, you can begin taking part in no matter your sports activities or social background, and have enjoyable your very first day on the market,” he says, including that nation singer Maren Morris, who not too long ago graced Pickleball’s cowl, units up courts for herself and her crew whereas on tour. “It’s only a actually welcoming form of sport.”
Pickleball and tennis are sometimes a bitter mixture
Pickleball’s skilled ranks have grown as properly, with a wide range of associations representing competing tournaments which have given rise to professional groups backed by the likes of LeBron James, Mark Cuban and Tom Brady.
Cable networks such because the Tennis Channel now air tournaments, though Colbert guarantees that “Pickle” will beat all of them, visually.
“I’m joyful to say we’ve shot this six methods from Sunday, every little thing however the zipline digital camera shot from the Tremendous Bowl,” he says, his voice rising. “You’ve by no means seen pickleball shot with this stage of pleasure and fervor. It’s such as you’re in the ball.”
Talking of fervor, with its meteoric rise, the game has experienced some growing pains. Disputes embrace neighborhood associations griping that the distinctive “pop” of a pickleball paddle smacking the whiffle ball is annoying, and disgruntled tennis gamers complaining that their courts are being usurped.
Colbert permits that even in his particular, “passions run excessive.” And he urges (mock) warning.
“I’ve heard of fights breaking out, and never the cool jazz dancing sort from ‘West Aspect Story,’” he says. As for pickleballers taking over tennis gamers, he presents two phrases: stand down.
“It could be harmful for a pickleball individual to get right into a struggle with a tennis individual, as a result of their racquets are longer,” he says. “It’s the story of the tape, and also you’re going to lose.”
