Flailing ESPN Reaches Into Its Past, Set to Revive Beloved '80s Show: Report
What’s one of the most common responses imaginable to ongoing personal struggles?
A yearning for the halcyon days of yore … and “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” appears to be going through this exact phenomena.
Days after some purported cost-cutting moves (firings), a new report has emerged that ESPN is planning on reviving a dormant show — albeit in an unfamiliar form.
John Ourand of Puck News reported Monday that ESPN was bringing back “The Sports Reporters,” a roundtable discussion forum-type show that first aired in 1988 before ending in 2017 after multiple format and host changes.
*New tweet*
ESPN will resuscitate The Sports Reporters, prepping an episode hosted by Jeremy Schaap with NFL play-by-players, like Joe Buck and Al Michaels. It’ll be produced for ESPN’s YouTube channel with segments available via linear, digital, social.https://t.co/IW1p20xd2T— John Ourand (@Ourand_Puck) August 20, 2024
The format of the show, originally at least, was a less adversarial version of the many sports debate shows inundating ESPN and Fox Sports.
The show would involve a rotating cast of sports reporters, who would then discuss and dissect the various happenings across sports leagues.
This new iteration, according to Ourand, “won’t have a regular daily or weekly time slot.”
It will, however, be “produced under The Sports Reporters banner for linear TV” (traditional cable), with plans being to make “various segments made available via digital and social.”
“ESPN had hoped to have an episode ready within the next few weeks, hosted by Jeremy Schaap and featuring NFL play-by-play announcers, like Joe Buck and Al Michaels,” Ourand added.
The Puck News reporter did stress that these are “rumblings” for now and that there is “a lot that’s still in the air with this.”
“Nothing has been confirmed,” Ourand noted.
The timing of his report, however, makes a ton of sense.
ESPN is currently in a sticky situation where, apart from the aforementioned budget-related layoffs, the company has found itself increasingly wading into various, politicized culture wars.
And it’s well established at this juncture that politicized culture war topics are anathema for advertisers and viewers alike.
Bringing back a show that was generally beloved for its straightforwardness certainly seems like a good idea.
Whether or not ESPN circa 2024, warts and all, will be able to pull that off, is another matter entirely.
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