ESPN scrutinized for giving new hires millions after laying off 250 people
ESPN may have laid of roughly 250 employees in 2017, but that didn’t stop the sports media giant from reportedly spending $14.5 million on three on-air talents who will host a new morning show, “Get Up!”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mike Greenberg will make $6.5 million, Michelle Beadle will get $5 million and former NBA player Jalen Rose will pull in $3 million. But the high salaries are drawing lots of criticism from sports media watchdogs in light of ESPN’s recent layoffs.
Adding to the controversy are concerns that the show will delve too much into liberal politics. Indeed, in its glowing piece on ESPN’s move, THR played up this angle, noting in the headline that “ESPN Plans to Wake Up Woke With New Morning Show.”
The outlet pointed out out that Beadle is an outspoken feminist, while the executive producer for the new show, Bill Wolff, previously served as a producer for the likes of liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and the left-leaning ABC show “The View.”
ESPN insists that they’re attempting to pivot “away from a broader cultural focus,” as THR put it, and instead focus solely on sports.
Wolff, however, referring to the national anthem protests, said that “when players take a knee, then it deserves coverage and conversation.”
“If something political makes itself part of our world, we are dishonest and inauthentic if we don’t discuss it,” he added.
The new show has already been heavily criticized, particularly regarding the hosts’ high salaries.
For example, talk-radio host Clay Travis of “Outkick the Show” exploded at ESPN for what he saw as blatant hypocrisy. “These are some of the craziest salaries I’ve ever seen,” Travis said.
MSESPN plans new WokeCenter AM, is paying Michelle Beadle $5 million a year!, Trump vs Biden, Sweet 16 gambling pic… https://t.co/Y05zDO8gc3
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 22, 2018
Travis continued, on the one hand acknowledging that the goal of any worker is to make the most money as possible, but also singling out Beadle in particular, who didn’t appear to have a big market for herself after previously leaving ESPN and washing out as a host on NBC Sports.
“This is an intriguing financial decision. … I am all in favor of guys, and girls, making as much money in our industry as they possible can,” Travis said. “I’m not sure there has ever been a more over-paid member of the sports media in the history of sports on television than Michelle Beadle.”
Travis pointed out that Beadle’s salary simply doesn’t square with supply and demand, and ESPN appeared to be bidding against themselves.
The talk-radio host then took ESPN to task for paying these exorbitant sums of money so soon after laying off hundreds of people.
“Before they pay anybody else, before they pay for all of the facility. Before they pay for anything, they have to get to $14.6 million in advertising revenue just to justify being able to make $100,000 on this show,” Travis said. “There are going to be a lot of ESPN employees that watch this show and they’re going to sit around and say: ‘Wait a minute. They fired hundreds of people at this company. How many of them could they have kept and let Michelle Beadle go?’”
Awful Announcing echoed some of Travis’ sentiments, pointing out that in the sports industry, $14.5 million can go a long way.
Greenberg by himself will be making more money than NBA players Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins or Ben Simmons. Combined, the hosts will earn nearly the same amount as Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell and more than the highest-paid player in the NHL — the Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid, who makes $12.5 million per year.
And of course, that’s also before the cost of the new 21,000-square-foot studio for the show enters the equation.
ESPN is making an eight-figure bet on an unproven morning show, while their corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company, has seen its stock price drop more than 10 percent in the last year.
We’ll see if the risky move pays off.
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