Board 8 > The last episode of Around the Horn is today

(+) Yeah! (+)

I haven't watched it regularly in years but I've been dropping in this week to catch the last few shows. This was such a big part of my teenage and early adulthood years, so it's sad to see it go even if I'm not a regular viewer anymore.

What will play before PTI now? Have they said?

to my knowledge they have not found a replacement program. idk what they will show in that timeslot.

It's a shame this is going away, it still had more left in the tank.

LiquidOshawott posted...

What will play before PTI now? Have they said?

Reali was on with Le Batard yesterday, and apparently they wanted to make PTI a full hour but also not pay Tony and Mike more money so we'll see how that goes

Leonhart4 posted...

Reali was on with Le Batard yesterday, and apparently they wanted to make PTI a full hour but also not pay Tony and Mike more money so we'll see how that goes

Well of course they want to cut costs and not pay for content.

Never watched it but I remember it as the companion show for PTI which I did watch when I had cable, like, 20 years ago. Visiting my folks now and saw PTI was on and Wilbon and Kornheiser still going at it after all these years, I wonder how much longer they'll go. Certainly end of an era with AtH ending.

Leonhart4 posted...

they wanted to make PTI a full hour but also not pay Tony and Mike more money so we'll see how that goes

I mean it's a pretty good gig to just chat sports with your friend and get paid for it but like... they gotta bump their money somewhat if they do that, lol...

late 90s/early 2000s ESPN was great, ATH was one of the last additions to ESPN that I liked. Most new shows since around 2007 or so have been horrible. But ill admit I havent regularly watched it in probably almost 15 years.

ATH/PTI never changed their format much, and maybe ratings were dropping because of it? Idk but the times in recent memory that I did tune in ill admit i enjoyed the rush of feeling like 2002/2003 again. I also liked how ATH had a great diverse amount of topics each episode, and covered NHL and MLB in that Tebow/Lebron talk only era that every other ESPN show did.

From what Reali said, the ratings were still good. Nobody seems to know why exactly the show is being canceled.

Im reading they were considering giving Sharpe a slot around that time before his stuff went down? But im not seeing really anything conclusive on why ATH got cancelled

Oh right, need to remember to record it, thanks. I've been trying to catch the episodes this week but I think I only saw the entirety of the episode with Bomani (Tuesday, I think?)

Don't know if they announced the lineup for today but I assume it's as much as the OG/longrunner guest as possible. Paige, Cowlishaw, etc.

Leonhart4 posted...

From what Reali said, the ratings were still good. Nobody seems to know why exactly the show is being canceled.

Yeah, IIRC I saw an article talking about the cancellation that said it was still beating Get Up and First Take in the ratings (timeslot helps I'm sure, but still) and while it trailed PTI it wasn't exactly a "ratings bad" situation.

It's just such a bizarre move because I can't imagine it's a show that costs that much to produce. I'm almost inclined to believe Sarah Spain (i think)'s take that it's some batshit reactionary move to axe a show that probably was the most diverse on ESPN with its guests out of fear of "woke" or something.

But maybe it's just some executive suite cost cutting BS. Out of nowhere I happened to see by tuning to its last broadcast in that they also cancelled SportsCenter in LA which ???????? why??? Outside SVP, and ATH/PTI, that was like their best remaining programming. This all-in shove on stuff like First Take and McAfee seems so braindead and I don't want to believe that's what people actually want but is instead what some execs think people want. (Also sure feels more costly for them seeing some of the contract sizes involved there - can't imagine ATH, etc. are anywhere close to that)

I think Reali said the lineup is Woody/Bob Ryan/Cowlishaw/Adande, but I think a few of the other longstanding panelists will make cameos, like Jackie and Blackistone.

Almost time

I no longer have ESPN but I wish I did so I could watch.

Those 6 making an appearance would be the ones I want. Sadly if Bob Ryan is on it he will get the W but they all I'm assuming will get facetime

Metal_DK posted...

Those 6 making an appearance would be the ones I want. Sadly if Bob Ryan is on it he will get the W but they all I'm assuming will get facetime

Yeah, they've been giving all the panelists face time this week

I was going to make something if something wasn't up

PTI is now the only show remaining on this network worth watching

LiquidOshawott posted...

What will play before PTI now? Have they said?

The only thing I heard was for now it's just more Sportscenter

Actually, looks like the fourth panelist is Plaschke instead of Cowlishaw

I wonder if he's busy covering the Stars

Also speaking of First Take and McAffe I can't tell which one wins the mantle of hottest garbage in sports media, but it's surely one of them.

And yeah I've heard the "woke" arguments before, but to be frank, you really see the ESPN shows are now pretty much all the same except for PTI, and completely ignore sports in general in favor of rehashing the same 4 or 5 topics every single day for 20-30 minutes each. Even baseball is almost entirely ignored by the network at large now.

PTI at this point is on an island. It's the only show left that won't spend an hour of every single day talking about the Lakers, Cowboys, and Aaron Rodgers.

It's hard to imagine why people consistently watch programming that's so predictable and lifeless that you can watch one episode a week and get 90% of it's content for that week.

First take started it way back in the late 00s/early 10s. If I recall it was cold pizza until 09 I think, which was more pop culture stuff with sports. Kinda funny but nothing special. Tebow/LeBron no ring crap was the beginning of the end.

I should love McAfee because he's a greater Pittsburgh guy so they cover Pittsburgh area sports more than most big shows ever have, but his sycophant crew annoy the hell out of me. Aj hawk offers nothing to the show especially

Yeah, Cold Pizza eventually became First Take

Metal_DK posted...

First take started it way back in the late 00s/early 10s. If I recall it was cold pizza until 09 I think, which was more pop culture stuff with sports. Kinda funny but nothing special. Tebow/LeBron no ring crap was the beginning of the end.

I should love McAfee because he's a greater Pittsburgh guy so they cover Pittsburgh area sports more than most big shows ever have, but his sycophant crew annoy the hell out of me. Aj hawk offers nothing to the show especially

One of the worst things Rodgers did was making that imbecile popular.

Oh hey new panelists

Everybody should listen to the Dan Patrick Show because he's retiring at the end of 2027 and that will be the end of a true legend

Also they switched panelists for the second segment

Now it's Cowlishaw/Blackistone/Isola/Jackie

Just remember though, ESPN++ is coming (not the official name) and is charging about 3 times as much as the current ESPN+ with no clear distinction of what it's going to have that's so special or what they'll pull from basic ESPN+ to put beyond another paywall.

Cancelling stuff and making an insane poorly defined cash grab at the same time. It's an interesting combination. Maybe Manfred was onto something.

Farewell, Around the Horn

It was a good run

Meow1000 posted...

Just remember though, ESPN++ is coming (not the official name) and is charging about 3 times as much as the current ESPN+ with no clear distinction of what it's going to have that's so special or what they'll pull from basic ESPN+ to put beyond another paywall.

Cancelling stuff and making an insane poorly defined cash grab at the same time. It's an interesting combination. Maybe Manfred was onto something.

basically its going to be all their cable stuff (ESPN1+2+3+SECN+ACCN+maybe others) because you already dont get that from ESPN+

how much crying was there

Not much, really

Reali apparently had a 2 hour stream on youtube right after, might try to skim through it later but meh

Found out it's on Disney+ so im watching the last episode now.

Love that they are just making it a celebration

Reali seems like a class act and I respect that