ESPN's New Boss is Getting Rid of the Politics John Skipper Ruined the Network With

Source – When football fans tune in to see the Los Angeles Rams play the Oakland Raiders on ESPN today, they will be greeted by a brand new “Monday Night Football” crew. After Jon Gruden left to return to coaching, ESPN executives opted for a radical makeover, selecting Joe Tessitore and Jason Witten as the lead announcers.

This is just one of the many high-visibility changes to take place at ESPN since Jimmy Pitaro was named the company’s president in March. Along with “resetting” (his word) the network’s relationship with the N.F.L., Pitaro has overseen a rebuilding of ESPN’s daytime lineup and the return of “SportsCenter” to its past prominence. …

His ESPN is a network in lock step with the N.F.L., still the most popular sports league in the country. It is one that is swiftly retreating from offering commentary on political and social issues, and re-establishing the prominence of bread-and-butter highlights. It is a vision that raises questions about the company’s commitment to hard-hitting investigative journalism, and whether it is even possible to be a down-the-middle sports network anymore. …

[ESPN personnel interviewed] spoke carefully. Fulsome praise for Pitaro could be seen as criticism of his predecessor, John Skipper; outlining, or praising, the major changes he has undertaken by definition means admitting major changes were necessary. … 

Jemele Hill, who was suspended by ESPN for suggesting fans boycott sponsors of the Cowboys last fall, is leaving the company. Michelle Beadle, an outspoken critic of how the N.F.L. handles domestic violence cases, was removed as one of the three hosts of the uneven morning show “Get Up.” The change came one day after Beadle said she doesn’t watch football as part of a segment about Urban Meyer.

And as part of a shake-up of daytime programming, “SportsNation” — which was co-hosted by one of ESPN’s most outspoken on-air personalities on social issues, LZ Granderson — was canceled and “High Noon,” a new show hosted by Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre, who delight in discussing issues of race and politics, was reduced from 60 minutes to 30 and had its time slot changed.

All told, that is five of ESPN’s strongest voices on the vexing intersection of sports, politics, race — a conversation that Skipper had encouraged — who won’t be seen speaking about these topics as much, or at all, this football season.

That was a nice job by John Skipper, huh? Way to leave the company in such good shape that his successor doesn’t have much to worry about besides completely overhauling every single thing about it. Repairing the damage done to it’s major revenue stream, football. Revamping the entire lineup virtually around the clock. Winning back their target audience. And hoping that he can pull it off soon enough to make people who have practically stopped watching altogether change their viewing habits back to the Worldwide Leader. Me, for one.

As I read through those shows mentioned, it hit me that I haven’t watched any of them. And I’m not even implying the word “regularly.” I mean it as in “not at all.” Not even occasionally. And I work from home writing for a sports-based humor site. And virtually any time I do tune into ESPN’s weekday lineup, I’m wasting my time. I’m not doing my job, which is to find entertaining shit and talk about it. From “Get Up” to Bomani Jones rambling on about something to whatever was bugging Jemele Hill on a given day, none of it has been relevant to what was John Skipper’s core demo from the time he took over until now. It might have been fascinating and compelling inside the studios at Bristol, but nowhere beyond the perimeter fence. The shows Skipper lined up have been burping the alphabet to one another inside an echo chamber for years. And now it’s this poor bastard’s job to make us want to tune in again. He’s being asked to do the impossible.

Here’s an idea. It might be trite and unserious and make me sound like I’m nowhere near as woke as I should be. But what if … bear with me now … what if ESPN’s main goal, their Jerry Maguire-like Mission Statement if you will, would be … to entertain people? You know, like they used to. To have enough respect for their base to acknowledge people work hard all day (not me, necessarily, but other people) for long hours and not enough pay and they want to enjoy what little time they have flaking out in front of the TV to see some highlights and have a few laughs and enjoy themselves. As opposed to being lectured about politics or whatever. It sounds crazy, but maybe it’s just crazy enough to work!

I get it. Social issues are important. No one’s looking to tune out the world and live in Fantasyland where everything is super swell and there’s no need to know any of it. But we have the Internet for that. News channels. The Facebook feed of at least half the people I’m on there with who spend all day every day linking articles that piss them off, I guess on the notion that I’d never be able to find them without them being shoehorned onto my own page between people’s vacation photos and their kid’s school pictures. The point being that we get all the politics and social debates we could ever possibly want. And it’s not a sin to say you’d like to have one refuge that is all about baseball highlights, football talk and anchors with a sense of humor. Besides Barstool, that is.

I’ll end with this. In the 90s, there was a comedy club in Harvard Square that specifically insisted that all comics do sets about progressive issues, or however they put it. Literally they said when you went to audition there that if you went for laughs – even if you talked directly to the audience – you were “pandering.” Playing to the lowest common denominator. I had comic buddies who liked it there. I did a few sets and I was neutral enough that I did OK there. But I told these guys “Look, when the world finally gets saved, no one is going to say ‘We have those comics in Cambridge and their enlightened standup to thank for it. They’re the ones who lifted the veil from our eyes.'” I said “People just work all day and come to a club, slap down their 10 bucks and have a few laughs. There’s no sin in that.” But it fell on deaf ears.  And no surprise, went out of business because paying customers preferred to go to the fun clubs, which are still open 20 years later. The same thing has been happening in Bristol since John Skipper’s cocaine-addled mind took over. Hopefully this Jimmy Pitaro can Make ESPN Great Again.

P.S. Having said all this, I don’t feel good about them “resetting” their relationship with the NFL. As a New England guy, that has always spelled trouble for us. It feels a little like Russia and China opening trade talks. But I’ll keep an open mind, so long as it makes the WWL like it was 15 years ago.