The announcement of Pat McAfee joining forces with ESPN raised a lot of questions as to whether McAfee’s daily brand of sports talk can sustain itself for the long-term on cable.

But ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro has no doubts that Pat can be wildly successful for years to come. He spoke with The Big Lead recently and said bringing McAfee’s show to the daily lineup allows the network to tap into a different audience.

“When we talk about our priorities at ESPN, one of the things we always mention is audience expansion,” Pitaro said. “That means a lot of things, but it especially means attracting a younger audience. We feel like Pat really helps us in that regard.”

“I have a son and a daughter, both of whom not just know who Pat is but they like him, and I have a father who also happens to really like Pat,” he added. “That’ll tell you a lot about his appeal.”

Also expanding the relationship between The Worldwide Leader and McAfee made sense in Pitaro’s eyes. The two sides already have a history.

“We’ve been in business with Pat for some time by now,” he said. “He’s done a fantastic job for us on College GameDay, he’s done some alternate broadcasts that have really resonated with our audience, so we feel like his show is a natural extension of what we’re already doing.”

Stephen A. Smith continues to be one of sports media’s most entertaining and busy personalities in the media. In addition to his work on ESPN and his podcast, he wrote a best-selling book and occasionally appears on General Hospital as an actor. Smith, however, is not satisfied with his accomplishments thus far, and has lofty goals in mind.

“I want to end my career being recognized as arguably the greatest television talent in history,” Smith said on the Tamron Hall Show. “That’s what I want to do. That’s what I want to accomplish.”

Smith recently started his own production company – Mr. SAS Productions – and it has a hand in producing the ESPN alternate telecast titled NBA in Stephen A’s World. His visions, however, penetrate beyond sports, looking for ways to further augment his versatility and fulfill his goals. Smith had previously mentioned running for the U.S. presidency and floated a political future, all while being the featured commentator on his top-rated morning show.

“I’m going to pursue acting,” Smith revealed. “I finally made a decision to do that. That’s something that I want to do because I like portraying other characters and finding myself marrying that character. The challenge of it – because I think it makes me better on television.”

He outlined his journey to working at ESPN and becoming one of the most popular sports media personalities in his book, and has spoken about it on many occasions. During his interview with Tamron Hall, she quotes something he told Vanity Fair about his formative years and how he cultivated the knowledge to work in sports media.

“I couldn’t rap. I wasn’t a good enough basketball player. I wasn’t a good enough athlete, or an artist where thousands of people are packing in an arena to watch me,” Smith said in the previous interview. “But I learned to read and write and comprehend, and I scratched, not clawed, and I worked my ass off.”

Amazon continues to make its claim in live sports rights, but it’s also gotten into original sports storytelling as well.

The streaming giant has found success with documentary-style shows like Good Rivals, which chronicles the rivalry between the U.S. and Mexico in soccer, as well as Coach Prime, which has been following hall of famer Deion Sanders on his collegiate coaching journey. Both of which have garnered Sports Emmy nominations.

Matt Newman, Amazon’s Head of Original Sports Content, said at the sports and entertainment event 4se in New York City that it’s amazing to be able to make compelling content outside of the big five leagues.

“Naturally the majority of our volume will be in the bigger, major sports, but we’d love the opportunity to kind of tell these stories you may not have heard of,” he said. Newman was promoting an upcoming series on the Professional Bull Riders called The Ride. “And these new stories, these characters will give us access and give us a chance to tell a story in a way that hasn’t been done before.”

Amazon is trying to compete with the likes of Netflix, which have created similarly successful programs like Formula 1 Drive to Survive and Full Swing with the PGA Tour.

But Newman reiterated that live sports will always be the main focus in terms of content.

“We are investing in our live rights. We have a great deal with Thursday Night Football, we just announced a renewal of WNBA live rights,” he said. “When fans are already on our service, we can use that to create culture and content in a way we couldn’t otherwise. It’s a great microphone to have as a service.”