Sports Debate Show Battles Heat Up
Issue #132 — ESPN's First Take and FS1's Undisputed are retooling as the football season begins. The investments in these shows signify their importance to their respective networks.
Sports Debate Show Battles Heat Up
Sports talk radio has taken over morning sports TV, and nowhere is this more evident than at ESPN, which has abandoned its famed highlight show in favor of shows driven by analysis and debate.
It elevated First Take featuring Stephen A. Smith from ESPN 2 to ESPN, and created a new morning show, Get Up, which was light on the highlights but heavy on the debate and analysis. The Smith-led debate show has become the sports network's signature morning show, eclipsing SportsCenter and Get Up.
Smith used to be partnered with Skip Bayless on First Take, but Byaless bolted to FS1 to be the big draw on his own debate show Undisputed, where he was paired with former NFL player Shannon Sharpe.
Undisputed didn’t do the ratings numbers of First Take, but the morning show did manage to make headlines, and it had segments go viral as Sharpe’s animated counterpoints to Bayless’ takes would make for entertaining viewing.
But all that changed over the summer as Sharpe announced his departure from Undisputed after his and Bayless’ relationship became contentious. First Take, which had a revolving set of opponents for Smith since Max Kellerman’s departure, was facing a football season without a major combatant due to Michael Irvin’s banishment.
Taking a cue from ESPN, Undisputed is now pairing Bayless with not just one person on the other side of the table but a rotating group of big-name opponents, including Lil Wayne, Richard Sherman, Keyshawn Johnson, Rachel Nichols, and, surprise, surprise, Michael Irvin.
This new version of Undisputed premieres on Monday, August 28 at 9:30 pm ET, and according to Bayless, the show will “intro” with a new song by Lil Wayne.
Not looking to be outdone, ESPN announced its big-name hire in the form of Sharpe, who will join Smith on Mondays and Tuesdays during the football season. Sharpe will make his debut on Monday, September 4.
“I’m excited to announce this fall, I’ll take my on-air talents to ESPN’s First Take and debate my friend Stephen A. Smith. We’re both graduates of HBCUs, very opinionated and animated. GET YOUR POPCORN READY,” Sharpe said of his move to ESPN.
It will be interesting to see what happens with this Smith/Sharpe partnership. Should it succeed, First Take’s hold as the destination for morning sports TV debate gets even stronger, possibly leading to Sharpe being on the show even after the football season and included in other ESPN programming.
As for Unisdputed, Bayless now has a new cast of debaters. Is this group of people strong enough to attract new viewers to the show? With FS1 now being in more pay-TV homes than ESPN, it needs to solidify its status as the place for better morning sports TV banter.
In the absence of live sports in the morning, these debate shows will continue to take on significantly more importance as they are not only cheaper to produce but can bring in a lot of money courtesy of ad time.
(The Root, New York Post, Skip Bayless/X, ESPN Press Room)
RECAP
CNN’s Streaming Service CNN Max To Debut In September
Warner Bros. Discovery and CNN executives have been pretty tight-lipped about CNN’s streaming plans after quickly pulling the plug on the short-lived CNN Plus in 2022. With no streaming service option, CNN has fallen behind its rivals in establishing a digital presence, but all that is about to change as WBD announced that a 24/7 news streaming offering, dubbed CNN Max, will launch on September 27. CNN Max will live within the Max streaming platform, consisting of new and existing programming from CNN and CNN International. CNN Max will be included in all Max packages at no additional cost. WBD says that CNN Max will also be an open beta for news that will enable experimentation with product features, content offerings, and original storytelling, all with input and feedback from the Max community. (CNN Press Room)
ESPN Discussing Streaming Deal With Amazon
The rapid rate of cost-cutting is forcing cable TV executives to move quickly with their plans to move their networks onto streaming, and nowhere is that more visible than at ESPN. Disney is in early talks with Amazon, which could see them working together to make it possible to offer a streaming version of ESPN. In July, Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, had talked about finding a strategic partner for ESPN to help it with its streaming transition, and it may have found that with Amazon, which could also be taking a minority stake in the sports network. ESPN already has an existing streaming service with ESPN Plus, which doesn’t carry any of the marquee sporting events and would lose relevancy with ESPN’s move to the streaming world. However, ESPN Plus’ price point may make it a more attractive streaming option over ESPN, which could be priced between $20-$35. (The Information, Reuters)
IBM Sells Digital Assets Of The Weather Company
Did you know that The Weather Channel consisted of two separate entities? There is The Weather Channel, the cable channel owned by Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios. Then there is The Weather Channel website, Weather.com, The Weather Channel app, Weather Underground, and Storm Radar, which IBM owns. These entities used to be one but were broken up in 2015 by their previous owners, the Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. Now, IBM is looking to offload its weather digital assets, known as The Weather Company, to a tech-focused private equity firm, Francisco Partners. Under this deal, expected to close in 2024, The Weather Company will become a stand-alone company with a consumer-facing unit that will introduce new tools for users related to health and well-being. It would be interesting to know why the digital assets were not sold back to the linear channel. (CNBC, TVNewser)
QUICK RECAP
Arit John joins CNN as a national politics reporter. (CNN Press Room)
Scott Van Pelt named host of ESPN's Monday Night Countdown. (ESPN Press Room)
Former NFL player Julian Edelman joins Fox Sports’ Fox NFL Kickoff pregame show. (Fox Sports PressPass)
ESPN extends Chris Fowler to multi-year deal and announces Monday Night Football broadcast crews. (ESPN Press Room)
Longtime ESPN SVP production exec Lee Fitting suddenly departs the company. (Sports Business Journal)
Awards: CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to receive Lifetime Achievement Honor at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards. (The Emmys)
Rankings: BBC and CNN are the top three websites for the month of July. (PressGazette)
Amazon TNF: Prime Video to add features to its Thursday Night Football telecast. (Awful Announcing)
Amazon TNF: Nielsen to incorporate Amazon’s data regarding the streamer’s Thursday night game. (The Wall Street Journal)
Amazon TNF: Amazon Prime Video's football game is winning advertisers. (Business Insider)
Ratings: MSNBC rules again in Donald Trump arrest coverage. (TVMoJoe/X)
Ratings: 12.8 million viewers watched the first Republican Primary Debate on Fox News. (The Wrap)
Profile: Zinhle Essamuah is NBC News’ youngest anchor and is getting started. (Teen Vogue)
Profile: WBD's David Zaslav is the villain du jour in Hollywood. (New Yorker)
Profile: MSNBC's Chris Hayes on the road tour of his highly popular podcast. (People)
Profile: TNT's Charles Barkley on his TV future. (Sports Illustrated)
Profile: NBC News’ Jenna Bush Hagar on her popular book club. (People)
NBC Sports and Fox Sports debut new score bugs for their college football games. (Awful Announcing, Brandon Costa/X)
Analysis: CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins is “actually really good. (Mediaite)
Here’s how cable news covered the Donald Trump mugshot release. (TVNewser)
Another Snap executive bolts for Netflix. (Business Insider)
NBC News’ Kristen Walker is ready to Meet the Press. (Variety)
NFL on Fox week one assignments announced. (Fox Sports PressPass)
College Football on Fox pregame show, week 0 and week one assignments announced. (Fox Sports PressPass)
CNN and other news organizations block OpenAI's GPTBot web crawlers from accessing their sites. (The Guardian)
Vice Media to move out of its Brooklyn headquarters. (Bloomberg)
NBC Sports to have traveling studio set for its B1G College Countdown pregame show. (NBC Sports Group Press Box)
Summertime NASCAR races face media rights competition from WBD, Amazon, and a mystery competitor. (The Streamable)
Former New York Times executive Mark Thompson is being considered for the top CNN job. (Semafor)
Former BBC News executive James Harding is in consideration for the top CNN job. (Semafor)
Sinclair and Diamond Sports Group are funding over its RSN's bankruptcy. (Awful Announcing)
ESPN's Chris Fowler to skip tennis’ US Open women’s final for college football. (The Athletic)
NASCAR hopes to strike interest in its sport the same way F1 succeeded with new Netflix docuseries. (Front Office Sports)
Fox Weather signs access deal with Samsung and Cox Cable. (The Streamable)
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A MarkHenry Media LLC publication - Issue #132 - 2023