By JONAS MILLER
Co-Executive Editor
Late last week, the Entertainment Sports Programming Network (ESPN) announced it would be laying off 100 of its on air and behind the scenes employees. The news came as a shock to everyone at the station, as well as fans of those who were let go, including myself.
To those who exist separate from the sporting world, this may seem like a minute issue, and the names certainly won’t ring a bell, but for people like me, who have watched ESPN everyday for the last 15 years, it was a sad day.
Some of the biggest names making an exit from the ESPN stage include Ed Werder, Jayson Stark, Trent Dilfer and Jay Crawford. Werder and Stark served the football and baseball communities respectively for almost two decades. Dilfer was known best for his on air personality as a part of shows like “NFL Live” and “Sportscenter.” Crawford was a senior member of the Sportscenter crew who spent 14 years behind the desk as an anchor, and often traveled to report on special events like the NBA finals and the College Football Playoff.
These four individuals make up a fraction of those who are no longer employed by the Disney-owned company, but they epitomize the wrong-doing being carried out by ESPN.
In recent years, ESPN has struggled a bit. They have tried everything to gain more viewers, and as someone who has always been faithful, it’s become increasingly clear that these kind of cuts were a long time coming.
It started a few years ago, when “Sportscenter,” the flagship program of ESPN, expanded. For years their main, and only, campus sat in Bristol Connecticut. In 2009, it was announced that a new campus was being opened in Los Angeles. I assume this made it easier to bring in guests and cover sports on both coasts, rather than flying everyone east. I also assume it made it easier for them to make money: two studios = double the coverage = double the advertisements.
About a year and a half ago, they added a midnight edition of “Sportscenter” hosted by one of the more colorful on-air talents, Scott Van Pelt. Because of the ungodly time slot, Van Pelt has looser reins compared to some of the daytime hosts. He speaks his mind, recaps the day’s events, and provides fresh perspectives for those who stay up late enough to watch him. While I enjoy Van Pelt’s show, I would argue that it only worsened the situation for ESPN, whether they knew it or not.
Most recently, ESPN added a new show to their afternoon/evening lineup. It’s called “The Six,” and it’s hosted by Michael Smith and Jemele Hill, both of whom previously hosted a show titled “Numbers Never Lie.”
I didn’t like their first show, and I absolutely hate their new one. It runs from 6 p.m. to 7. The show presents nothing new, as it follows four straight half-hour shows that all touch on the day’s biggest sports news. The only noticeable change between “The Six” and the normal one-hour edition of “Sportscenter” that it replaced, is that it’s much more…how to say it….diverse.
Keep in mind that in no way am I trying to put down the celebration of different cultures, but the show is quite clearly a ploy to draw in a larger Black audience.
Since their first show aired, they have brought on almost exclusively Black guests, and the only music, movies, and pop culture items that they discuss are those that feature the work of Black artists, actors, and athletes.
Again, this is not a criticism, it’s an observation.
The show runs too long for its own good, and I can only compare it to programs like “Ellen” or “Dr. Phil,” with less gift giving and fewer emotional breakdowns.
It’s a talk show – which is what Sportscenter is – but without the highlights and music. It is unbearable, and it only further perpetuates the issue that caused ESPN to fire 100 people.
ESPN exists in many different forms, but for the purpose of my argument, I will only be examining the schedule of the main station. Other branches include ESPN 2, ESPN3 (entirely online), ESPN Deportes, ESPN News (Just Sportscenter), ESPN Classic (Throwback games and events), and ESPN U (College Sports).
The main station begins its day at 6 a.m. with the first edition of “Sportscenter.” In the past, it’s been the first live edition of the day, more recently, it’s a rerun of the previous night’s most recent show. It serves working individuals who can put it on while they eat their breakfast and get ready for the day while also catching up on the previous night’s news they may have missed.
At 7 a.m., another live edition of “Sportscenter,” hosted by the same people, saying the same things, unless there’s breaking news, which their rarely ever is that early in the morning. At 8 a.m., yep, another live edition of “Sportscenter,” saying, yep, the same things.
Finally at 9 a.m. we see a change as Cari Champion and David Lloyd host “Sportscenter Coast to Coast.” Champion hosts from LA while Lloyd hosts from Connecticut. The two joke and chat about popular topics from around the sporting world, and at the end of every show, compar “top 5 lists” relating to different aspects of sports. Some days it might be, “Top 5 press conference one liners,” while other days might feature something simple like “Top 5 dunks.” Most of the time the lists are far off from what fans or analysts might say, but it’s arguable to other part of the show worth watching.
At 10 a.m., “First Take,” a debate show featuring Stephen A. Smith, an outspoken, loud-mouthed commentator, and Max Kellerman, who can be described the same way I suppose. The show is moderated by a woman named Molly, who basically sits in between the two hosts and poses questions that will allow them to yell at each other for 10 to 15 minutes before she steps in and says they have to take a commercial break.
Despite being one of my least favorite shows, it has an entertainment factor that draws fans in during a time of the day when most are at work. Smith seems to somehow relate everything back to race, while Kellerman fools you by backing up his arguments with statistics that, in the end, you realize are entirely arbitrary and add nothing to the point he’s trying to make.
“First Take” runs until noon, and is followed by, YEP, another edition of Sportscenter. Now, we’re only halfway through the day, but you can see the enormous amount of time and money being wasted on the station’s flagship show.
At 1 p.m., “Outside the Lines” comes on. It’s a show that used to run an hour long later in the day that focuses on investigative sports journalism. They touch on real world issues and provide actual information, rather than just running the same highlight over and over again. It’s a shame they have one of the worst time slots, but it just goes to show where the priorities of the company lie.
After OTL comes an hour of “NFL Insiders,” followed by an hour of “NFL Live.” Yes, they are the same show, and yes they’re on every single day, even in the offseason.
Following the terrible twins comes a relatively new show, “NBA: The Jump.” From 3:30 to 4:00, former sideline reporter Rachel Nichols sits down with retired NBA greats and talks basketball. She does what every other NBA analyst does by spreading the idea that Lebron needs to play fewer minutes, and that Michael Jordan is the greatest to ever play regardless of what Lebron does. It’s sad really, that people still don’t see how good LBJ actually is, but that’s a discussion for another day.
Beginning at 4:30, three back to back to back shows run in the same format, discussing the same things, in the same order.
First, Dan Le Batard hosts “Highly Questionable,” a show pre-recorded earlier in the day where he sits down with a man named Bomani Jones and Papi (Le Batard’s father) to make fun of basically everything. Following that, “Around the Horn,” where imaginary points are awarded to sports writers from across the country by a man with nothing but a good haircut.
And finally, preceding “The Six” is “Pardon the Interruption” – a shorter, more civil version of “First Take,” where men named Michael and Tony poke fun at the absurdities of the sports world while also discussing the more serious topics concerning athletes and teams.
Following “The Six,” normally some actual sports are shown. Depending on the day, it’s baseball or basketball, and then, more “Sportscenter.”
While I realize that was an incredibly lengthy explanation of the daily schedule for ESPN, it was necessary for me to illustrate my point.
Real reporters, writers, analysts, and behind the scenes people were fired so that ESPN can afford to run 24/7 programming. That’s not how it’s supposed to work. They’re putting their ratings before their employees, as if the faces on the TV are merely voices spewing whatever the network wants them to say until their time in front of the camera is up and they shove they next pretty face out on stage.
This is not the ESPN I grew up watching, and if this trend continues, I will cease to rely on the network for my sporting needs. There are plenty of other options, including the quickly growing Fox Sports 1 Network that features several former ESPN employees, including the brilliant Colin Cowherd and the idiotic Skip Bayless. Whether I like them or not, the hosts on other stations left because they realized the network didn’t have their best interests at heart, and my advice to those of you who watch ESPN on a daily basis would be to do the same.
