• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

ESPN begins purging talent today

Status
Not open for further replies.
J

JJDubz

Member
This is a real good chance for the big streaming services to grab up established talent. Amazon,Netflix, and even Twitter have a ton of possibilities with sports, so I'm hoping they grab some talent. HBO could as well, although I'm not sure if they would devote more airtime to sports than they already do. Just imagining actual sports coverage that isn't dependent on advertisements, product placements, or (hopefully) made-up drama would be a blast from the past.
 
D

DeathoftheEndless

Crashing this plane... with no survivors!
MisterR said:
This post is wrong in so many ways. NHL not being on ESPN has marginalized the sport so much in this country. Most people in the US don't remember hockey even exists at this point.
Click to expand...

Hockey being on ESPN wouldn't have helped the sport much regardless. European guys playing ice soccer has a limited audience. And to actually play it is much more difficult and costly than every other major sport.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
JJDubz said:
This is a real good chance for the big streaming services to grab up established talent. Amazon,Netflix, and even Twitter have a ton of possibilities with sports, so I'm hoping they grab some talent. HBO could as well, although I'm not sure if they would devote more airtime to sports than they already do. Just imagining actual sports coverage that isn't dependent on advertisements, product placements, or (hopefully) made-up drama would be a blast from the past.
Click to expand...

I wonder if topical, timely programming like that is something they are even interested in since it's not really something you can re-sell or throw into your content vault. There's definitely an opportunity there for sometime like Netflix to snatch up some talent and do, say, a weekly sports news show of some kind, but I'm not sure if it fits their talent.
 
T

TangoAlphaLima

Member
jbug617 said:
ESPN adding MLBN Intentional Talk to their afternoon lineup
https://twitter.com/globechadfinn/status/857609175517548545
Click to expand...

Somebody check Baseball Tonight's pulse, I think it's gonna flatline...

Undefined said:
i enjoy listening to stephen a smith.

I liked watching skip and stephen a smith everyday.
Click to expand...

giphy.gif
 
J

Jacce

Banned
DeathoftheEndless said:
Hockey being on ESPN wouldn't have helped the sport much regardless. European guys playing ice soccer has a limited audience. And to actually play it is much more difficult and costly than every other major sport.
Click to expand...

Hockey has limited appeal, but being ESPN would have helped some. Currently outside of major hockey towns the NHL might as well not even exist. It has no national presence or pop culture awareness now unlike the other major sports. Anything is better than the near non-existence it currently has in the national media landscape.

A lot of NHL fans seem in denial about its lack of popularity. Sports TV Ratings on twitter a week or so back posted about how the NBA Playoff tv ratings blow the NHL ones out of the water and it caused a bit of a stir.
 
T

TangoAlphaLima

Member
Tom Nook said:
:(

ESPN firing still ongoing?
Click to expand...

There is speculation that some employees may have been told their contracts are not being renewed, but ESPN is allowing them to finish them out at this time. Or in the case of McHenry, working one last assignment before officially getting canned. So there will probably be others yet to announce their termination.
 
B

Beach

Member
Into the Light said:
Its the worst show I have ever heard, next to Marcelus, jesus when Max Kellerman left LA, our radio has gone to shit. Shit morning show, shit drive home show. Anytime Wiley opens his fkn mouth I want to throw up.

With his Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh. Stopped listening a long time ago. Terrible shit. How does Keyshawn and Marcelus still have a job, and survived this purge is beyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyond me.
Click to expand...
Just listen to Petros and Money. How anyone can honestly listen to Marcelus and his show now, especially without Max is crazy.
 
K

knicks

Member
Although I don't completely agree with this whole idea that they're trying to get rid of everyone that isn't liberal, there is certainly some truth to it.

They were never going to get rid of Sal Paolantonio or Linda Cohn, regardless of them getting paid significantly more than their counterparts. Mind you, I am talking exclusively bigger names/bigger salaries here. There were of course smaller names who got laid off yesterday that coincide with modern day and progressive philosophies, but you can't be shocked that it was Trent Dilfer, Ed Werder and Danny Kanell who got the axe.

I understand this doesn't matter to most of us. Just saying that I think there is some truth to it.
 
R

Red Devil

Member
Sulik2 said:
It will go more and more towards leagues broadcasting their own stuff. NFL Network, NBA Network, Big 10 Network, etc... With their own websites and apps.
Click to expand...

As a non-american this would be an interesting development to see and eventually be exported. However can leagues sustain themselves with only some kind of subscription service and without any broadcast deal be with ESPN or whoever?
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
ESPN talent are eating cheesesteaks live on air and telling you when to tune in for their next bite.

This is your fault millennials!
 
mckmas8808

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
knicks said:
Although I don't completely agree with this whole idea that they're trying to get rid of everyone that isn't liberal, there is certainly some truth to it.

They were never going to get rid of Sal Paolantonio or Linda Cohn, regardless of them getting paid significantly more than their counterparts. Mind you, I am talking exclusively bigger names/bigger salaries here. There were of course smaller names who got laid off yesterday that coincide with modern day and progressive philosophies, but you can't be shocked that it was Trent Dilfer, Ed Werder and Danny Kanell who got the axe.

I understand this doesn't matter to most of us. Just saying that I think there is some truth to it.
Click to expand...

So Ed Werder is considered a big conservative now? And is Jay Crawford and Doug Glanville not liberals?
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
The idea that his purging has anything to do with some liberal agenda is straight up pizza-gate/bowling green massacre level paranoia bullshit. These cuts have been coming for months if not years.
 
Turbo Killer

Turbo Killer

Member
I can't remember the last time I watched ESPN. I watch soccer on bien, FS1 & 2 and nbcsn, Football on local channels, hockey on nbcsn and csn, baseball on local networks, don't care about basketball. What else is left, stupid analysts yelling at each other and news.
 
K

knicks

Member
mckmas8808 said:
So Ed Werder is considered a big conservative now? And is Jay Crawford and Doug Glanville not liberals?
Click to expand...

I'm not going to argue over something as silly as this. By no means were these firings exclusively due to political views, however, it's possible that it may have had a factor on certain personalities.

As someone mentioned, they were going to happen regardless. I brought it up not as a new idea, but because it's been floating around heavily on the internet.
 
F

Fail State

Banned
Ninja Scooter said:
The idea that his purging has anything to do with some liberal agenda is straight up pizza-gate/bowling green massacre level paranoia bullshit. These cuts have been coming for months if not years.
Click to expand...

The people saying that are morons. This guy sums up why the firings happened pretty well.

So, then, what was the point? The memo released this morning by ESPN president John Skipper is instructive. It was hollow and buzzword-laden in the precise way that is meant to speak to Disney investors who want to be assured that ESPN is still capable of “navigating changes in technology and fan behavior in order to continue to deliver quality, breakthrough content.” That’s what today appears to have been really about—assuring Disney stakeholders that ESPN is taking things very seriously and is prepared to keep itself lean and competitive. Don’t think too much about how we’re going to continue to pay rights fees with sustained subscriber loss! We’re making cuts! We have a handle on things!
Click to expand...
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
knicks said:
I'm not going to argue over something as silly as this. By no means were these firings exclusively due to political views, however, it's possible that it may have had a factor on certain personalities. As someone mentioned, they were going to happen regardless. I brought it up not as a new idea, but because it's been floating around heavily on the internet.
Click to expand...

You should know by now that you can't trust something just because it's been "floating around on the internet" in the age of fake Facebook news bullshit. And anything can be defended or asserted if your standard is "I have no proof but it's possible that it may have been a factor". By that metric I could argue that these people were let go because they like pineapple on pizza.
 
F

Fatalah

Member
The weirdest thing about ESPN is that their website has worsened in the last year.

I used to love visiting ESPN New York -- it was my homepage for all things New York sports. But ever since the recent redesign, reading content is impossible. I just want my key headlines for the day and breaking news, goshdarnit!

ESPN should buy Yahoo Sports, let them run the website.
 
C

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
Fatalah said:
The weirdest thing about ESPN is that their website has worsened in the last year.

I used to love visiting ESPN New York -- it was my homepage for all things New York sports. But ever since the recent redesign, reading content is impossible. I just want my key headlines for the day and breaking news, goshdarnit!

ESPN should buy Yahoo Sports, let them run the website.
Click to expand...

If an article isn't on the front page I can never find it without the help of google.


The One and Done™;234916192 said:
Not ever excited about people losing jobs but I'm very happy I don't have to suffer through another Trent Dilfer speech. Fuck that guy.
Click to expand...

Hated how he was basically a mouthpiece for the Trent Baalke and all the 49ers crap.
 
Squirrel Killer

Squirrel Killer

Member
Turbo Killer said:
I can't remember the last time I watched ESPN. I watch soccer on bien, FS1 & 2 and nbcsn, Football on local channels, hockey on nbcsn and csn, baseball on local networks, don't care about basketball. What else is left, stupid analysts yelling at each other and news.
Click to expand...
I can remember the last time I watched ESPN, it's just not very often. I work from home and will often have a TV muted on just to have something other than spreadsheets in my peripheral vision and it's almost never on ESPN (or FS1 for that matter.) The endless talking head shows are unbearable. It's on beIN, BTN, Comcast, MSG, FS2, one of the Fox regionals... hell, I'm more likely to have Cyclone.tv or the SEC channel on than ESPN (which is hard to swallow as a diehard Iowa/B1G guy.) Heck, as I alluded to earlier in the thread, I'm even more likely to be watching a YouTube video of my old lacrosse team or some random Ultimate game.
 
J

Jacce

Banned
Turbo Killer said:
I can't remember the last time I watched ESPN. I watch soccer on bien, FS1 & 2 and nbcsn, Football on local channels, hockey on nbcsn and csn, baseball on local networks, don't care about basketball. What else is left, stupid analysts yelling at each other and news.
Click to expand...

To be fair, your sports interest are outside the mainstream in the US. Interest goes 1. Football 2. Basketball 3. Baseball and then it falls off a cliff and at the bottom is 4. Hockey 5. Soccer.

Soccer will probably surpass Hockey here at some point, and it won't surprise me if in the next 30 years Basketball surpasses Football with the rising ratings and interest in the NBA.
 
mckmas8808

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Fatalah said:
The weirdest thing about ESPN is that their website has worsened in the last year.

I used to love visiting ESPN New York -- it was my homepage for all things New York sports. But ever since the recent redesign, reading content is impossible. I just want my key headlines for the day and breaking news, goshdarnit!

ESPN should buy Yahoo Sports, let them run the website.
Click to expand...

I've heard alot of people say this too! I don't visit the website ever, but a couple a guys at my job HATE the new redesign.
 
A

Ambient80

Member
Looks like Kanell is out, too, according to Russillo and Kanell's twitters. I'll be honest, I never found him particularly interesting, but a shame he's being let go. Maybe SVP will come back home and reunite with Russillo. They did such a good job on the show together.
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
knicks said:
I'm not going to argue over something as silly as this. By no means were these firings exclusively due to political views, however, it's possible that it may have had a factor on certain personalities.

As someone mentioned, they were going to happen regardless. I brought it up not as a new idea, but because it's been floating around heavily on the internet.
Click to expand...

There is a lot of dumb shit floated around the internet. That has zero baring on if it's true or not.
 
T

terencecah

Member
The One and Done™;234916192 said:
Not ever excited about people losing jobs but I'm very happy I don't have to suffer through another Trent Dilfer speech. Fuck that guy.
Click to expand...


Same

That guy acted that kaepernick was gonna take the 9ers back to the super bowl
 
L

LionPride

Banned
knicks said:
I'm not going to argue over something as silly as this. By no means were these firings exclusively due to political views, however, it's possible that it may have had a factor on certain personalities.

As someone mentioned, they were going to happen regardless. I brought it up not as a new idea, but because it's been floating around heavily on the internet.
Click to expand...

Stop
 
K

knicks

Member
Vanillalite said:
There is a lot of dumb shit floated around the internet. That has zero baring on if it's true or not.
Click to expand...

Of Course. You have to be pretty stupid to think these firings had a direct correlation to someone's political views. It happened because it simply had to. There has been a lot of discussion in general about the importance of 'personality' to ESPN. Deadspin put out an article today that I thought was relative to this subject, which digs into how they're shifting towards a direction to let their on-air talent be more expressive.

Look who ESPN is turning the network over to. If you take Van Pelt, Smith, Hill, Greenberg, Beadle, Dan LeBatard, and Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre (who likely have a forthcoming show) as, broadly, representing the network's new core cast, ESPN is looking less white and less male every day, a trend that will certainly continue. And, broadly speaking, these people are liberal.

This last is a point a lot of the network's dumbest critics have pointed to as a reason for ESPN's decline, and even levied as a charge of sorts. It's true, of course, if not necessarily for the reasons those that are making it think it is. Former New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent once titled a column ”Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?," and answered the question in the first line: ”Of course it is." He would later regret his flippancy, but the basic argument was sound: The Times' viewpoint was (and is) urban, northeast, and educated, and members of those groups generally skew liberal.

The same is broadly true of the most prominent and talented ESPNers, and if the network is going to build shows around their personalities, that has to be at least acknowledged, if not embraced. If ESPN wants Bomani Jones, a genuine superstar talent, to be Bomani Jones, they have to be comfortable with him unleashing his takes on TV and on Twitter. Disney isn't ordering up lefty takes—they'd be delighted if Jones could connect to audiences the same way while offering up conservative ones—but he wouldn't be Bomani Jones if he did that. Allowing their best talents to be themselves is a strategy that makes sense for ESPN. It's also tempered by the conservatism inherent in being, still, not just the most powerful media operation in its sphere (if not outright) on the planet, but part of a still vaster corporation that works according to the dictates of a capitalist industry.
Click to expand...
 
M

Man God

Non-Canon Member
DeathoftheEndless said:
Hockey being on ESPN wouldn't have helped the sport much regardless. European guys playing ice soccer has a limited audience. And to actually play it is much more difficult and costly than every other major sport.
Click to expand...
ESPN wasn't covering Hockey when it was making money.
 
T

TangoAlphaLima

Member
Man God said:
ESPN wasn't covering Hockey when it was making money.
Click to expand...

Before the 2004 lockout? They absolutely were. NHL 2Night, multiple games broadcast every week, playoff broadcasts, features on Sportcenter, etc.

The NHL had pretty good status at ESPN, due more so to the Northeastern-raised ESPN execs' affinity for the sport than to the NHL's ability to generate revenue for ESPN. But after the lockout that all changed. And it's no surprise that the NBA has seen a meteoric rise since then, while the NHL has maintained as a relatively-niche sport. ESPN's influence was pretty big, and the NHL suffered from losing it.

I'm not suggesting that the NHL would be anywhere near the NBA's current position if there hadn't been a lockout and ESPN had kept them, but I'm certain they'd be in a better position than they are now. It'll always be a niche sport that mainly appeals to the northern states and Canada, but ESPN's continued promotion would have increased its status.
 
I

Incognito

Troll
i dont care who gets the boot as long as lebatard and national treasure stugotz aren't touched. which it looks like they aren't. their podcast numbers are insane.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

  • Locked
ESPN driving up the cost of cable, now averaging $4.69 per household per month
2 3 4
194
12K
alstein replied
  • Locked
Official SXSW blowout thread.
10
3K
StrikerObi replied
Top Bottom