Following the recent mass shootings that took place in the USA, in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, it looks like sports broadcaster ESPN has decided to delay airing the EXP Invitational APEX Legends at XGames on TV, which was scheduled for this coming Sunday.
A tweet posted by esports consultant and insider Rod “Slasher” Breslau (via Dexerto) yesterday says that, according to “an ABC Affiliate TV station source”, ESPN and ABC have made the decision “in response to the recent mass shootings.”
A screenshot of what appears to be a message notifying the source about the schedule change says “out of respect for the victims and all those impacted by the recent shootings, ABC will no longer air ‘EXP Invitational APEX Legends at X Games’ on Sunday, August 11, 2019 in the 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET / 3:00 – 4:00 PM PT time period,” adding that different programme would be shown in that slot instead.
The announcement, dated August 6 in the message, follows shortly after the two shootings which took place at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on August 3 and Dayton, Ohio under 24 hours later on August 4, which together saw more than 30 people killed and many others injured.
ESPN and ABC has made the decision not to air the TV broadcast of the XGames Apex Legends EXP Invitational that was scheduled for this weekend, in response to the recent mass shootings, according to an ABC Affiliate TV station source pic.twitter.com/6BMwdbk93t
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) August 8, 2019
The programme that was scheduled to be shown on ESPN2 this weekend was a re-run broadcast of the Apex Legends EXP Invitational tournament from earlier this month (August 2 to 3), and according to Dexerto, was going to be a recap show, covering the competition’s highlights.
According to a follow-up tweet from Breslau, the programme can still be viewed on ESPN3, and the broadcast will “still be shown on TV at a later date, according to an event source.” ESPN2 will instead reschedule the tournament, and show it on three different dates in October (6, 15, and 27).