Welcome to the 41th media mailbag for The Athletic. Thanks for sending in your questions via the website and app. There were close to 100 questions, so this is the second of two parts. Here was Part I.
Note: Submitted questions have been edited for clarity and length.
How should programming for “College GameDay” change after Lee Corso retires? Does that open the door for something or someone new? — Justin F.
Let’s say Rece Davis did leave “GameDay” for (Fox’s) “Big Noon Kickoff.” Who replaces him? Does his replacement also do basketball’s “GameDay”? — Karl T.
ESPN may have already given itself a preview of a post-Lee Corso “College GameDay” with how few segments Lee did during the last several seasons. Do you believe they ultimately stick with the same group for 2025 and beyond? — Orange Dot
Understandably, there were a lot of questions on “College GameDay.” I don’t see any replacement for Lee Corso because ESPN has already replaced him. Nick Saban has firmly established himself in the “former coach” role. Also, keep this in mind: Replacing Corso with someone from the outside is a seven-figure add. Is there a college football person out there worth the money that would change viewership numbers? No.
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If Davis did leave, I think ESPN management would look to people at ESPN/ABC who currently host college football studio shows, so think Laura Rutledge, Kevin Negandhi and Dari Nowkhah. “GameDay” is a big chemistry show, given the travel, so you would look to see who has worked together before.
I asked for the last mailbag, and it got many likes but went unanswered: Why do networks do in-game interviews? The questions are hurried and leading; the answers are understandably vapid. It works for fake sports entertainment like pro wrestling, but it is cheap and distracting in real sports. Who thinks this is good TV? — Thomas J.
Apologies for missing it, though I have answered this one many times before. Leagues and media rights partners want to take you as close to the action as possible. They want you to have an immersive experience — that includes things like player mics, enhanced audio and in-game interviews. I understand the frustration from viewers who see the questions and answers as banal, but this always depends on both the subject and the interviewer. I think it’s still worth doing if you get one great answer out of 20. There are plenty of terrific in-game interview reporters, such as Cassidy Hubbarth and Holly Rowe.
Richard, thanks for taking questions. Love the pod by the way. Has there ever been a worse unforced error than the one ESPN made in getting rid of Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson? During the season I kept thinking how much more enjoyable the games would be with those two. It’s not like they didn’t have the money. — Jay B.
I wrote a column on how brutal a decision it was by ESPN management to get rid of Van Gundy, and my opinion has not changed in two years.
It feels like UFC is going to have multiple broadcast partners for its next TV deal, and Top Rank’s contract with ESPN runs out this summer and doesn’t look like it’ll be renewed. Do you think ESPN is going to get out of combat sports (boxing, MMA, wrestling, etc.) completely? — Rs4463
There is significant value for both ESPN and UFC to remain partners in some manner. ESPN desires and needs a young male demographic for long-term success; the TKO Group gets the value of Disney’s distribution and cultural relevance. Puck’s John Ourand reported that ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro and TKO Group president Mark Shapiro met recently to discuss potential future packages. As long as they find a dollar figure that works for both, I think that relationship continues.
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Clearly, UFC is going to have multiple deals, and Amazon and Netflix would be major candidates. I honestly don’t have a feel for Top Rank. In terms of pro wrestling, WWE has long catered to ESPN when it comes to placing talent there. There’s also a massive built-in relationship with Pat McAfee. You will definitely see WWE content on ESPN platforms.
It seems like Nielsen tweaks their out-of-home measurement every year, and multiple sporting events have subsequently had their highest ratings in the past five to 25 years. How much have these tweaks altered ratings, and should people be skeptical of reports of record viewership? — Dan. K.
Nielsen has much better out-of-home viewership these days, so that’s a positive. But comparing viewership from 2025 to the 1980s or 1990s is like comparing a Bugatti to a Chevrolet Celebrity. We’ve gone from a small channel universe to a multiverse of choices, including streaming. Remember, all of these are sampling. It’s a projection. The real number of people who watch a major sporting event is almost certainly higher than the reported numbers. But the reported Nielsen number set a benchmark for how ads are sold.
We are in a day and age of clumsy sports broadcaster handoffs. First, Mike Tirico was NBC’s play-by-play-in-waiting for years and even then, Al Michaels wasn’t ready to leave. Then Fox signs a broadcasting novice in Tom Brady while the guy they’re demoting, Greg Olsen, stays on the top team for an extra year while arguably becoming football’s top analyst. Now, Charles Davis is to replace Gary Danielson, but not until next year, while J.J. Watt is to join Ian Eagle this year. What’s to become of 2025 Charles Davis and do networks care how awkward these transitions look to the public? — Adam V.
Davis will work on NFL games this year before heading to college football to work CBS’s lead Big Ten games. It’s not easy to have clean transitions because human beings are involved. Ego, money etc. … but I have found viewers move on and adjust pretty quickly.
What do you see as the future of sports docs? Feels as if the “30 for 30” model has petered out, and that genre is being replaced by the multi-part inside look at teams and events? —Neil J.
I see it a little differently. We’re probably in a moment with the most sports documentaries in history, thanks to the streamers. What made HBO and ESPN stand out was that they were first to market in churning out quality docs regularly. Now, they are everywhere, including the team or league embeds (where the quality is all over the place). FWIW: Netflix’s “Court of Gold,” about the 2024 Olympic men’s basketball tournament, is the best sports doc I have seen this year.
The NBA’s TV deals are reported at $76 billion over 11 years. But from what I’ve read, the NFL’s TV deal isn’t *that* much bigger, at about $11 billion a year. Given that the NFL’s ratings dwarf the NBA (along with everything else on TV), it feels like the discrepancy should be far greater. Did the NFL sign a bad deal? Did the NBA just absolutely crush it in negotiations? Pure timing of the NBA’s deal? — Joeseph S.
Well, it’s still a difference of multiple billions we are talking here. The NBA’s timing was very good and adding NBCU as a bidder was game-changing as far as the total dollar figure. The NFL is going to opt out of its current deal in 2029 for certain — as would any decent business— and it will exceed its previous deals. Let’s not shed any tears for Roger Goodell and the billionaire NFL owners.
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Why are there not more women play-by-play announcers in men’s sports? I can understand the analyst position (Doris Burke being an exception in the NBA). But why not more women on national or local broadcasts doing play by play? — Mitch E.
First, the good news. The NBA has been a leader here, given Kate Scott (Sixers) and Lisa Byington (Bucks) are full-time game-callers in the NBA. We’ve also seen both pro and college men’s basketball have women serving in the color analyst role. Last year, Jenny Cavnar became the first woman to serve as an MLB team’s primary television play-by-play announcer. But the pipeline is still woefully low in the major sports. I don’t think it is a lack of interest but rather opportunity. If you can’t see that it exists, you choose a different path in broadcasting. Baseball and football are way behind here.
The current agreement between NBC and the Olympics ends in 2030. Do you foresee another network, such as ESPN, outbidding NBC? Alternately, do you see Amazon or Netflix bidding for a portion of the package? — Pete G.
The IOC and Comcast NBC Universal just extended their Olympic media rights agreement until 2036. That $3 billion extension included the 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City and the 2036 Summer Games at a host city to be determined. India, which has never hosted the Olympics, could be a player for 2036.
Who do you think ESPN views as a potential successor (if any are under their umbrella) for the Mike Greenberg role? He is getting a tad older, and while his responsibilities as a jack of all trades seem to grow by the season, his pace will be impossible to keep up. — Anonymous U
Greenberg is 57 years old, which is becoming increasing young in sports television thanks to Hubie Brown, Dick Vitale and others. I don’t think he’s departing anytime soon. Ultimately, I think his roles would be split among multiple people. But if you want a longtime ESPN-er who is supremely competent hosting remote and studio shows and would never give ESPN PR any issues? Laura Rutledge.
(Top photo: Mike Stobe / Getty Images)
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