Sports TV News

Skip Bayless Says Upbringing Made Him Unafraid To Address Race

“Wednesday morning, Bayless discussed his background, which might not fit the pretense of a 68-year old white man from Oklahoma City with a mild southern drawl.”

Published

3 years ago

June 11, 2020

Brandon Contes

Skip Bayless has never shied away from racial dialogue, whether it was during his time as a columnist, alongside Stephen A. Smith on First Take, or now with Shannon Sharpe on their FS1 show Undisputed.

The dialogue is productive, but some of Bayless’ comments have also been viewed as race-baiting. In 2012, Bayless was notably angry at the Washington Redskins for drafting quarterback Kirk Cousins a few rounds behind Robert Griffin III. Bayless noted “the majority of Redskins fans are white and it’s just human nature if you’re white to root for the white guy. It just happens in sports. Just like the black community will root for the black quarterback.”

Race has been an important topic on Undisputed and other sports shows nationwide in recent weeks. Wednesday morning, Bayless discussed his background, which might not fit the pretense of a 68-year old white man from Oklahoma City with a mild southern drawl.

Bayless previously discussed his difficult upbringing, describing his father as an abusive alcoholic and a self-absorbed mother who also battled alcoholism. A majority of Bayless’ childhood was spent at his grandmother’s home, who employed a black woman named Katie Bell Henderson.

According to Bayless, it was Ms. Henderson who essentially raised him. Henderson, whose grandparents were slaves, was raised in Alabama and later attended high school on the South Side of Chicago.

“She was tough and she was smart and she became my mother,” Bayless told Sharpe. “Everything I learned about right and wrong, black and white, I learned from Katie Bell.”

Bayless said his grandmother traveled for work, so Henderson was hired to run her household in Oklahoma City, an area which was still segregated.

.@RealSkipBayless recalls his experience being raised by a black woman while growing up in Oklahoma City:

"Everything I learned about right and wrong, black and white, I learned from Katie Bell." pic.twitter.com/bnx2oxzXm9
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) June 10, 2020

“Katie Bell would even go so far as to take me occasionally to her AME church, where I was the only white face in an all-Black congregation. And they treated me with nothing but love.”

“My hellish existence in my house turned into a silver lining because this was rare, what white kid could get that kind of education?” Bayless added. “I’m not just with Katie Bell, she’s my authority figure…I’m going to do nothing but respect her because she proved right away she knew way more than my mother did.”

“It was natural to me, it was second nature to me,” Bayless said about his tendency to discuss race in person, print, radio and television. “I grew up that way, I was taught it from a woman who lived it.”

Brandon Contes

Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at [email protected].

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Final SEC on CBS Broadcast Scores Highest-Rated Conference Championship Game

The broadcast of Alabama/Georgia marked the final game in a partnership that began in 1996.

Published

13 hours ago

December 6, 2023

Jordan Bondurant

The final SEC broadcast on CBS turned out to be the most-watched game of the weekend.

The SEC Championship broadcast on CBS averaged 17.519 million viewers, making it the most-watched conference championship game on any network in five years.

Viewership of the telecast peaked at 22.35 million. The game was the second-most-watched college football game of the season so far behind Ohio State/Michigan.

The game also was the most-streamed college football game ever on Paramount+ across households, minutes, and average minute audience.

Jordan Bondurant

Jordan Bondurant is a features reporter for Barrett Sports Media. He’s a multimedia journalist and communicator who works at the Virginia State Corporation Commission in Richmond. Jordan also contributes occasional coverage of the Washington Capitals for the blog NoVa Caps. His prior media experiences include working for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Danville Register & Bee, Virginia Lawyers Weekly, WRIC-TV 8News and Audacy Richmond. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @J__Bondurant.

Sports TV News

NBCUniversal CEO Mark Lazarus: People Have Said Sports TV Rights Bubble Would Burst for 30 Years

“For 30 years everyone said, the sports [rights] bubble is gonna burst, it’s gonna burst. You’re starting to see rights fees growth moderate.”

Published

13 hours ago

December 6, 2023

Jordan Bondurant

Courtesy: NBCUniversal, Inc.

Value is power when it comes to sports rights, and NBCUniversal CEO Mark Lazarus understands that. It’s why newly completed media rights deals across sports, and college sports in particular, command billions of dollars from networks each year now.

Next TV reported that Lazarus, in a conversational interview with TODAY host Hoda Kotb on Tuesday, said while the price for rights to properties like the NFL, NASCAR, Notre Dame, and the Big Ten are astronomical, the cost is starting to level off in some ways.

“For 30 years everyone said, the sports [rights] bubble is gonna burst, it’s gonna burst,” Lazarus told Kotb. “You’re starting to see rights fees growth moderate.”

Lazarus mentioned that there are no individual content budgets for sports, news, and entertainment at NBCUniversal. Those three divisions have a single budget executives work from. Executives are responsible for finding content audiences will consume and a platform to house it on.

“What’s the best content and where can it be successful in our portfolio?” Mark Lazarus said. “It’s a combination of art and commerce.”

“We reach massive amounts of people, we have reach and scale,” he later added, pointing out the company reaches 65-70 million homes on pay TV and another 30 million on Peacock.

“That’s great for our distribution partners and that’s great for our advertising partners and it’s really important for our audience.”

Mark touted Sunday Night Football, which is a ratings juggernaut and averages 22 million viewers. The NFL streaming on Peacock has also seen strong numbers this season, with this past week’s Chiefs/Packers game having an average minute audience of 1.86 million viewers. That’s between Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL Digital platforms. It marked the second-largest streaming audience ever for a regular-season Sunday NFL game for NBC Sports.

Jordan Bondurant

Sports TV News

CBS Sports Shares Details of Spongebob-Themed NFL Broadcasts

Noah Eagle and Nate Burleson return to the booth for both games alongside Dylan Schefter and Young Dylan.

Published

19 hours ago

December 5, 2023

Jeff Kotuby

Get ready for some Turtles on Christmas and some SpongeBob on Super Bowl Sunday. CBS Sports and Nickelodeon are teaming up to deliver two alternate NFL broadcasts this year — one for the Monday night “Nickmas” game between the Las Vegas Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs, and then a second, SpongeBob Squarepants-themed broadcast for Super Bowl LVIII.

Noah Eagle and Nate Burleson return to the booth for both games alongside Dylan Schefter and Young Dylan. The live-action hosts will be joined by two groups of Nicktoons depending on the game.

SpongeBob and Patrick (voiced by Tom Kenny and Bill Fagerbakke, respectively) will join Eagle and Burleson in the booth for Super Bowl LVIII, while Sandy and Larry the Lobster will provide some additional flair from the sidelines. The Bikini Bottom crew will be joined by Dora the Explorer and Boots the Monkey, who will explain penalties to the younger viewers. During the “Nickmas” Game on Dec. 25, the crew will be joined by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’s Raphael in the booth, while Donatello will join Schefter on the sidelines.

The Christmas Day game will be Nickelodeon’s first regular-season game, as previous Nick alternate broadcasts were all during Wild Card Weekend. Last year, Nick aired an alternate broadcast of Cowboys/49ers, which drew an audience of 41 million viewers. The games have also become a social media phenomenon from adult viewers watching tongue-in-cheek.

The Nickelodeon Super Bowl telecast and Nickelodeon NFL Nickmas Game are produced by CBS Sports in association with Nickelodeon Productions.

Jeff Kotuby

Jeff Kotuby is a nationally-published journalist with bylines on many popular broadcasting and pop culture sites, including The Streamable, eBaum’s World, Twin Galaxies, and more. Jeff grew up in the shadows of New York City and cultivated his love for sports media with the classic broadcasting voices of the area, like Mike & The Mad Dog, Mike “Doc” Emerick, and Michael Kay. You can reach Jeff on Twitter @JeffKotu3y.