Espn set to fire 40 on air talent. Thoughts?
I hope it's not any of the College Game day crew. Their Saturday college football pregame is fantastic.
I also hope it isn't any of the E:60 crew. They do just as good a job as Real Sports. Probably better as sometimes, but not often, Real Sports will try to fit a narrative.
I can't think that the talent is the problem. Granted, some of the talking heads aren't very good, and they have an absurd amount of big boobed blondes that I cant even tell you their names. They should really take a look at when ratings started going down, and what the changes were. Without looking, I'd bet the ratings started slipping around when they started embracing debate. Also when SC started chaging formats. They used to force everything from the previous day into 1 hour and rerun it. It worked. Then they started showing you the next 8 topics that were coming up, in the next half hour or so. It still worked, but folks could then see if they are about to talk something they don't care about, and change the channel. Now they show you the next 3 topics on deck for the next almost hour, and it's way too much talk about a few select things. And you still can see if you care about the topics, and change the channel. They'll talk for hours about how on earth will Westbrook and Durrant will coexist in the ASG locker room. They treat LeBrons Twitter feed like breaking news. If you didn't know anything about football you would think the NFC East are the only four teams that exist. The Jets and Pats appear too. So 6 teams.
I think their plan of moving debate shows to the main channel in the morning to manipulate ratings (because some people just put on ESPN without knowing it) isn't working. Jemeille and Micahel have had two shows get shitcanned, but by putting them in the big 6pm slot, by default, their ratings get better. But it probably isn't.
Overall, talent isn't the problem. Its programming.
Of course, maybe this was ineveitable no matter what the programming or who the talent is because each sport has its own dedicated channel now. MLB network blows away every other channel with their combo of highlights, analysis, and likeable talent. NFL network isn't that great. Golf channel is really good, but I can't speak of NBA or NHL networks. I'd imagine fans of those sports are tuning in there more often. ESPN has no clue what hockey is these days.