‘Domino Day’ Knocks ‘Em Down

First it was synchronized swimming. Then ballroom dancing. Now domino tumbling is a sport, at least according to the folks behind “Domino Day 2001” (ABC, 9 p.m.).

“Welcome to Domino Day, where sport and high-tech marry and their children are pressure, pain and triumph,” says the host, ESPN’s Rich Eisen. “Tonight’s event is a marvel of design and a triumph of ingenuity but, mostly, it’s a test of endurance and desire.”

Indeed, this taped special may test the patience of viewers, but if you can’t get enough of dominoes, here’s your chance to see 3.8 million of the “stones” painstakingly set up and later knocked down in a bid for a world record. Domino building has been a TV hit in Europe and Asia since 1986, and recently a team of five American novices joined 85 Europeans for two months near Amsterdam to try to make history--and of course, hype the “sport.”

Their setups, which re-create famous paintings and other scenes when the dominoes are tumbled, and the whimsical devices that keep the chain moving from one tableau to the next are impressive.

Though the show feels like a long “Saturday Night Live” skit, in that spirit it can be a gas, as when coach-guru Robin Weijers tells his team, “Be one with the domino” or when Eisen offers play-by-play on the big day: “Look at them go! And we get to enjoy another beautiful painting. It’s ‘The Street’ by the Dutch master Vermeer.”

What passes for an early cliffhanger comes during domino training when Baron, the 24-year-old newlywed nail-biter from Detroit, is told to improve his lines and curves or be sent home. Will he be voted off the continent?

Domino fans may get the last laugh, however. “I would like to see this in the Olympics,” Weijers says.