The best way to sum up Sportsnation: It’s a PTI/First Take/Around the Horn hybrid, but with reader interaction (mostly) via the internet. It moves at a pace that may cause motion sickness. One minute they’re fielding fake phone calls; the next, they’re drafting the biggest hot dog in sports. There’s far too much twitter. Plenty of lists. Our first thought, while watching an exasperated Colin Cowherd labor through an hour: Why would he do this?

At one hour, the show’s too long. It drags, as almost any hour-long sports show would. There is simply no way this Sportsnation can survive for an hour five days a week (or even three). It sort of reminds us of our reaction to ESPN Hollywood – they really think they can do 30 minutes on sports and celebrities … daily?

Deep down, we got the feeling that, based on all the user interaction on Sportsnation, the show’s trying to be a blog. (And that might work!) Just as readers email links/videos/stories to blogs, this show is heavily-reliant upon emails/calls/tweets from fans of the show. (The best part: A few random, non-sports videos stuffed into the midde of the show.) If the entire hour had consisted of line-crossing, occasionally-ribald blog humor, then it might have had a chance. It made us wonder if perhaps the suits in Bristol grew skittish about the nature of the show, which had long been hailed as ‘cutting edge.’

We’re not too familiar with Michelle Beadle’s work. She’s the bubbly host full of opinions, and sort of looks like a younger, but equally-effervescent Cameron Diaz. In addition to being full of energy, she enjoyed the part in the hot dog contest when men shoved wet hot dogs in their mouths. This was replayed later in the show in a segment that surely won’t last the month (”yup, I said it” or something to that effect).

Cowherd? Putting our history aside, we just don’t see how this is a good thing for his “brand.” Mike Greenberg took a bit of a hit when he hosted that disaster known as ‘Duel.’ But Greenberg’s never been a highly-opinionated guy who created a controversy. He’s a company guy – nothing wrong with that. Easy to slide from one gig to another with his low-profile. Might not be as easy for Cowherd.

Then again … what other options did he have to expland his reach? He’s got his website, he’s got his radio show, he’s not crowbarring his way onto the Gameday set … might as well try his hand at live TV, right?

Or, perhaps we’re just being far too cynical about it all – because by 4 pm, most of the stories they’ve discussed have been kicked the blogosphere, and everyone’s all talked out. Of course, sports fans who frequent blogs probably make up less than 10 percent (? a number yanked out of the air) of ESPN’s viewing audience, so perhaps they haven’t been gorged all day on Federer, OchoCinco, etc, etc.