Say Goodbye to those ESPN Personalities Ya'll Love So Much: Official ESPN Layoffs Thread

[Billy Preston]

Max already tried the move to Fox Sports for this own show before. It was called I,Max. That's how he ending up in LA. He not doing that again.
All these guys know the money has dried up and if you are not SAS or Skip, its better to stay at the place where all the sports are.
Bomani mentioned this somewhere after he and Pablo reupped the last time after their show was canceled. They both realized this was probably the last time they could cash in so they took the money.
Max getting the morning radio gig, that's really at TV show simulcast for radio, is a pretty good parachute. Zubin hasn't been there since March. Keshan is the only one thats there everyday. I don't even think Jay has been back since he got COVID back during the Finals.

So, if Zubin and Jay aren’t there every day then who’s doing the show with Keyshawn?

i have no idea what the mornings shows ratings are but I can’t imagine they’re great. I TOLERATED Keyshawn when he was part of 3 person local morning show for ESPNLA, but there was zero chance I was gonna listen to him on a national stage.

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

I think people are overestimating First Take .

PTI apparently has more people watching which makes sense because of the time-slot.If you’re working a normal 9-5 no way you can watch FT or Undisputed..but PTI at 5:30 is easy viewing

First take and undisputed may get more people checking out clips of what they missed

A better way and more factual way to phrase it is that First Take has become the morning flagship show that Get Up was created to be and SAS has eclipsed who ESPN wanted Greeny to become.

 

[Optimus Prime]

So, if Zubin and Jay aren’t there every day then who’s doing the show with Keyshawn?

i have no idea what the mornings shows ratings are but I can’t imagine they’re great. I TOLERATED Keyshawn when he was part of 3 person local morning show for ESPNLA, but there was zero chance I was gonna listen to him on a national stage.

Zubin apparently is having health problems so Alan Hahn has been hosting it with Keshawn since March
Jay's spot has been a rotation of folks, sometimes it just Keyshawn and Hahn

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

Zubin apparently is having health problems so Alan Hahn has been hosting it with Keshawn since March
Jay's spot has been a rotation of folks, sometimes it just Keyshawn and Hahn

So whose been filling in for Hahn on his radio show with Bart Scott? Sucks for Zubin since he’s likely going to be losing his radio spot to Kellerman.

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

It's amazing how many of these ESPN talking heads were from Boston

Boston Globe was one of the biggest papers in America and many came from there. That's surprising to you?

 

[Optimus Prime]

Even then though, The Mouse is making ESPN force talents to take even more of a paycut on top of the 2-3 they’ve already had to take because of the pandemic. I don’t care what industry you work in, there’s only so many pay cuts you’re going to take and even then that’s still not going to save a lot of them from layoffs during the next round of cuts.

There’s no excuse for Max, Bo or other talent out here not being able to get their own show when Michael Smith of all people has one on Peacock.

Nobody is watching that Mike Smith show. Nothing ever trends and he not making anything for that.
Bo and Pablo could have left after High Noon got canceled but no one was offering them what ESPN was offering them even with the salary cut. That's why they they took it. Bo said he and Pablo decided to comeback because they were NOT going to get that anywhere else.
A Peacock show will potentially always be there but not at the salary ESPN was offering.

Bomani said all this in his Washington Post article last year:
“ESPN is still the number one place in the game to be if what you want to do is talk about sports,” Jones said, according to The Washington Post.

 

[Optimus Prime]

So whose been filling in for Hahn on his radio show with Bart Scott? Sucks for Zubin since he’s likely going to be losing his radio spot to Kellerman.

I think he's been pulling double duty, since thats NYC local radio

*EDIT* Actually just looked at their podcast feed. Chris Carlin has been filling in pretty regularly.

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

Nobody is watching that Mike Smith show. Nothing ever trends and he not making anything for that.
Bo and Pablo could have left after High Noon got canceled but no one was offering them what ESPN was offering them even with the salary cut. That's why they they took it. Bo said he and Pablo decided to comeback because they were NOT going to get that anywhere else.
A Peacock show will potentially always be there but not at the salary ESPN was offering.

Bomani said all this in his Washington Post article last year:
“ESPN is still the number one place in the game to be if what you want to do is talk about sports,” Jones said, according to The Washington Post.

I'm actually surprised that ESPN is going to let Bo work and show up on that HBO show with Bob Costas. They don't usually let talent branch out outside of the Disney/ESPN umbrella like that. I know Le Batard and Skipper want him over there at Meadowlark Media, but not sure if they would be able to convince him to leave since they're essentially still a start up company at this point.

Sucks for him though since current ESPN seems more higher on Pablo than him right now.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

ESPN has fully lost me as a viewer outside of games - which their NBA coverage sucks - HQ (mainly b/c it was friends of Lebatard, the show was best with Dan & Papi) and J&J were the last two shows I'd mess with across all 5 versions of its networks

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

ESPN has fully lost me as a viewer outside of games - which their NBA coverage sucks - HQ (mainly b/c it was friends of Lebatard, the show was best with Dan & Papi) and J&J were the last two shows I'd mess with across all 5 versions of its networks

It's not surprising in the slightest really considering the fact that the show only existed at this point to give talent something to do. One of those shows were going to get the axe and it obviously wasn't going to be Jalen & Jacoby.

That Max Kellerman show has flop written all over it if we're being honest. The social media themed show sounds stupid as well and screams "We have no on-air roles for those talents on TV, so let's scrap up something for them to do."

 

[Robert California]

I knew something was up.

Bomani didn't put out a new podcast and stopped tweeting for like a week.

I hope he's on the way out of there.

 

[Carolina Slim]

I knew something was up.

Bomani didn't put out a new podcast and stopped tweeting for like a week.

I hope he's on the way out of there.

His podcast dropped a new episode yesterday; he said he was on vacation, but it did seem unplanned. He usually says when he's going to be away for whatever reason, usually his birthday or something. I'm interested to see what happens if he becomes a free agent.

 

[aceboon]

I wonder what they do with Bomani and Pablo, that was their life raft after they canceled their show. Only so many times you can get a show canceled. Suprised Max got his own show since his boxing show does shyt ratings, I know that's a singular sport but I figured they would just give him the radio spot.

 

[Sohh_lifted]

Bo and Pablo getting shows cancelled left and right....

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

I wonder what they do with Bomani and Pablo, that was their life raft after they canceled their show. Only so many times you can get a show canceled. Suprised Max got his own show since his boxing show does shyt ratings, I know that's a singular sport but I figured they would just give him the radio spot.

i wouldn't blame that on them, one, outside of bo, katie is probably the main voice on there. two, it really wasn't going to thrive, nor be an ESPN priority, without Dan. i think it only hung around as long as it did because there was nothing else to put in its place.

i hope they all join the lark/LBS (although the main show is crowded as-is unless they get a formal rotation going). but there doesn't seem like much out there for them re: sports networks, and everyone has a podcast, including (ex-)athletes themselves, so i'm not sure that would pay the bills given the saturation.