Connect with us
Jim Cutler Demos

Sports TV News

Rachel Nichols Is Returning To ESPN

Jason Barrett

Published

on

Rachel Nichols, a prominent sports journalist who joined Time Warner in early 2013 to work for both Turner Sports and CNN, is leaving the company to rejoin ESPN, where she held forth on programs like “Sports Center,” “NFL Countdown” and “E:60,” according to a person familiar with the situation.

ESPN executives declined to comment and a CNN spokesperson could not be reached for immediate comment. James Andrew Miller, an author of an oral history of the Walt Disney-controlled sports-cable juggernaut, tweeted about Nichols’ new job Monday. Details about her new role at ESPN could not be learned at present.

CNN launched a program featuring Nichols Friday nights starting in October of 2013, marking the first time the Time Warner-owned cable-news outlet had a sports-themed program on its air (A previous sports program, “Sports Tonight,” aired on CNN/SI, a cable network that incorporated both CNN and then-sister outlet Sports Illustrated).

“This isn’t an Xs-and-Os sort of show,” Nichols told Variety in October of 2013. Instead, she expressed a desire to do long-form interviews and host panels that mixed guests from the entertainment world as well as sports figures. The show was often pre-empted and was eventually canceled – about a year later.

During her time at CNN, Nichols drew attention for throwing hard questions at NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and boxer Floyd Mayweather. She also has experience in the print world, having worked for the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and The Washington Post.

Credit to Variety who originally published this article

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Sports TV News

Pat McAfee Pledges to Return to College GameDay in 2024

“I don’t love that my life is just going to continue to have people telling me to run into oncoming traffic, swallow a barrel.”

Jordan Bondurant

Published

on

Pat McAfee
(Photo: ESPN Images)

It’s no secret how a select group of college football fans feel about Pat McAfee being a featured analyst on College GameDay the last two seasons. But despite the constant negativity thrown his way, McAfee believes he will be back on GameDay in 2024.

Pat McAfee was joined by Kirk Herbstreit on the GameDay set in Foxborough on Friday, and while McAfee was talking to Herbstreit about the blowback he received after Florida State didn’t make the College Football Playoff semifinals, eventually his future on GameDay came up.

McAfee first said college fans are not afraid to tear right into him in a very visceral way.

“For me sports are fun. I grew up in an NFL town, and it’s like, ‘Hey we talk shit,'” he said. “That is competition. And college football – I don’t want to say it’s the softest group of fans – but it is a fan base that gets very offended and gets very mean. They get very mean. Like they feel as if I’ve walked into their living rooms and smacked them right in the mouth. And it’s like, ‘Yo I’m just talking – we’re just talking sports here.'”

The negative feedback from fans has certainly weighed on McAfee throughout the season. He said even though it’s clear his presence on the show hasn’t hindered ratings success, the threats and criticism don’t make it worth losing half his weekend.

“I don’t want the negativity in my life. I don’t want the death threats every week,” McAfee said.

Herbstreit kept trying to get McAfee to focus on the positive side of things, calling the very vocal naysayers a “lunatic fringe” of college football fans. But Kirk also praised McAfee for being a fresh voice and presence that’s taken College GameDay to a new level.

“I’m not kissing your ass. I’m just telling you this, and I’ve told you this a lot, that you changed my experience,” Herbstreit said. “I work really hard with these three projects (College GameDay, Thursday Night Football on Amazon, and the weekly primetime college game on ESPN) and you’ve really changed the approach, the energy not just on the set but the week. I’m having a blast.”

Kirk shocked everyone on the show going as far as to say that if Pat even considered leaving College GameDay, he would follow suit.

Pat McAfee said he’s always come into it with a team-first mindset and a desire to have fun. He just kind of figured the negativity would’ve been dialed back by now.

“I pride myself on being a good locker room guy, good vibes guy, good energy guy, which is why it is becoming something where it’s like, every single Saturday, do I want to read — because I’m on the internet a lot. We’re an internet show. So I’m like on there,” McAfee said. “People are like, ‘Don’t read your mentions.’ It’s like, ‘I have to.’ It’s part of our job. Like it’s part of my job to read the internet.

“It’s like, these college fans are awesome, they’re phenomenal, they’re incredibly passionate,” he added. “But man, that negativity — normally when I get dropped into a new show like the WWE, that negativity is like three months. They hate my life, they hate my — they hate everything about me. And then they’re like, ‘You know what? This guy, not that bad.’”

Herbstreit continued to reiterate that the loud voices are a true minority in the grander space of college football fandom, and he illustrated his point by noting that Pat has always received very warm welcome by the fans in attendance at the show.

Pat McAfee admitted he’s fallen in love with the atmosphere the fans provide, eventually saying he’s going to be back on set next year.

“How about this? I’m back. I’ll come back. Let’s do it,” he said. “I don’t love it. I don’t love that my life is just going to continue to have people telling me to run into oncoming traffic, swallow a barrel.”

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading

Sports TV News

John Skipper ‘Expects’ NBA To Have More Than 2 Partners in New TV Deal

“They’re gonna end up with more partners than they have now…with somewhere between two or three times the money they have now.”

Avatar photo

Published

on

Former ESPN President and current Meadowlark Media CEO John Skipper thinks the NBA will go the NFL route and have more than two broadcast partners for their upcoming media rights deal.

During an episode of the Sporting Class podcast, John Skipper and cohorts David Samson and Pablo Torre discussed the upcoming NBA media rights deal, under the guise of Dallas Mavericks governor Mark Cuban selling the team, and how it could play out for teams moving forward. When it came to the total valuation of the NBA’s upcoming rights deal, Skipper was bullish on the NBA’s future.

“They’re gonna end up with more partners than they have now,” Skipper said, “they’re gonna end up with, in my opinion, with somewhere between two or three times the money they have now,” before host Pablo Torre added some additional color, stating “Because of broadcast partners in television and also the tech companies.”

The NBA has famously featured one or two broadcast partners for most of its lifespan. CBS held NBA broadcasting rights from the mid-70s until the 1989-90 season, then lost the rights to NBC from 1990 until 2002, with interspersing of cable broadcast holders like USA Network, ESPN, and Turner between there.

In 2002, the NBA shifted to a more rigid version of its two-partner system, where ABC and ESPN would split games with Turner Broadcasting. The league extended its agreement with both networks multiple times, which will finally come to a head in 2024.

For the first time, the NBA could look to expand across multiple channels, similar to how the NFL handles business, where multiple broadcast partners will air games on either certain days of the week or certain holidays. While Turner could be planning for life without the NBA, both Amazon and NBC are planning an aggressive pursuit of NBA rights during the next media rights negotiation.

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading

Sports TV News

Kirk Herbstreit: Pat McAfee Has ‘Changed My Experience’ on College GameDay

“You’ve changed the approach, the energy, not just on this set, but like the week. I’m having a blast.”

Avatar photo

Published

on

Kirk Herbstreit and Pat McAfee

While many detractors say otherwise, Kirk Herbstreit is crediting Pat McAfee for positive changes in the way he and the team approach College GameDay.

During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, McAfee jokingly discussed leaving College GameDay due to “mean” college football fans ruining his fun and positive life. “I don’t want the negativity in my life, I don’t want the death threats,” McAfee said. Herbstreit, however, had no time for McAfee and threw the gauntlet down. “If you dare even think about leaving College GameDay,” Herbstreit said, “I’m leaving with you.” McAfee then responded with the famous line from Talladega Nights — “don’t you put that on me!”

Within the jest, however, Herbstreit lets us peek back behind the curtain to how he and the rest of the College GameDay team feel about McAfee. “You’ve changed my experience,” Herbstreit said. “You’ve changed the approach, the energy, not just on this set, but like the week. I’m having a blast…It’s like being on a team where you have a great energy. If you dare leave…” Fortunately, by the end of the segment, McAfee was back on board and admitted this would be his life for the foreseeable future.

Some pundits have felt that McAfee’s appearance on GameDay hasn’t helped grow the program, despite them confirming Herbstreit’s remarks on McAfee’s personality. Former ESPNer Dan Le Batard said on his show, “He is effusive, he is such a positive person. He is effusive in his praise for the people on that set. But now the numbers are coming back, and this is something that McAfee couldn’t have expected.”

While the ratings numbers for GameDay are higher than they’ve ever been (something Herbstreit and McAfee made sure to mention in their discussion,) they’re still under attack from FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff, who have scored some major ratings wins over this past season. According to FOX, before the Nov. 25 game between Ohio State and Michigan, Big Noon Kickoff averaged 2.34 million viewers and hit a record 4.36 million viewers from 11 a.m. ET until kickoff. This made Big Noon Kickoff the most-watched college football pregame show on television for the weekend. The recent losses have some feeling like College GameDay has lost its way.

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Advertisement

Upcoming Events

Barrett Media Writers

Copyright © 2023 Barrett Media.