"The clickbait stuff needs to end" - Bob Cicherillo slams Olympia TV for distasteful post labelling athletes as 'failures'
Bob Cicherillo is a well-known personality among fans and followers of the sport of bodybuilding. He also serves as a commentator for two of the best bodybuilding shows in the world, namely Mr. Olympia and Arnold Classic.
Cicherillo is the IFBB Pro League Athletes Representative. He is often part of discussions regarding current events in the sport of bodybuilding. Cicherillo is also very vocal about his opinions, especially regarding bodybuilding.
There was a difference of opinion among the followers of bodybuilding when Samson Dauda won the 2023 Arnold Classic. But Bob Cicherillo explained the judging process and also insisted that Samson was crowned the Arnold Classic champion because he had better conditioning and presentation.
In a recent post on Instagram, the Prime Time Muscle teased their latest video. But fans felt the thumbnail and description were disrespectful because words such as 'bust' and 'failure' were used. After the fan backlash, the Instagram post was deleted by the OlympiaLLC Instagram page.
Prime Time Muscle is a bodybuilding podcast that is represented by Olympia TV. In addition to the deletion of the Instagram post, the Prime Time Muscle episode was also deleted. In a recent video posted on the Voice of Bodybuilding YouTube channel, Bob Cicherillo addressed the issue.
"The title of it was 'Olympia Threat or Bust?' Now that was probably where the problem started and ended because it wasn't really worded proper in my opinion. I think that's where a lot of this outrage had occurred. In the tag it said Olympia failures or promises. This is inherently where the problem came about, because you can't judge a book by its cover. The clickbait stuff needs to end."
The IFBB Pro League Athletes Representative termed these actions as 'disingenuous'.
"Listen, we’re all in the same biz. We’re all trying to catch someone’s attention, but blatantly putting something out just to catch somebody’s attention is not really being, it’s being rather disingenuous. We catch on quick. We’ve all seen podcasts that are no longer on YouTube that have literally made their following by this action, and again, it gets old quickly."
The Mr. Olympia commentator claimed that a clickbait is not needed if you have good content. Bob Cicherillo felt the choice of words was unintentional and it was the wrong use of words.
He also stated that Olympia is an entity and doesn't make statements unless it's something related to Olympia.
"Much like the IFBB Pro League, the IFBB Pro League does not have an opinion when it comes to things of this nature or how good a bodybuilder is. Iain Valliere, great bodybuilder, but a top 10 Olympian a few times. They're not referencing him as some sort of failure or bust to the Olympia or this isn’t a guy whose lived up to his expectations, they're giving critique.
"There's a few others. We're not going to play them all. Iain, James Hollingshead, Steve Kuclo, they’re just referencing some bodybuilders and giving some critique to literally get to the next level."
The IFBB Pro League Athletes Representative said the content in the video wasn't as offensive as the post made on Instagram.
Terrick El Guindy responds to the fans' backlash regarding the Instagram post
Responding to the controversy caused by the Instagram post, Terrick El Guindy, the IFBB Pro League judge and promoter, apologized for the issue. He also explained that it was a terrible choice of words. In his latest Instagram post, he wrote:
"Words are powerful. I learned this over the weekend when I wrote a post to promote the latest episode of Prime Time Muscle. My intention was to analyze whether a few athletes didn’t live up to expectations at the 2022 Olympia. Unfortunately, I used the word 'failure' when I wrote the post (implying failure to live up to expectations).
"A terrible choice of words on my part. Olympia athletes are the best in the world!!!! I have reached out to Iain and James to apologize for the poor choice of words. They were both very gracious about it. Bodybuilding fans are passionate. And I wouldn’t want it any other way."
Though this Instagram post issue has rocked fans and followers of bodybuilding, as El Guindy has stated, he has reached out to Iain Valliere and James Hollingshead to apologize. But this would have definitely left a bad impression among the bodybuilding community, which might take some time to subside.