KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

Not sure if this is the best place to put it, but ESPN is having a huge round of layoffs today.

In the college basketball world, Dana O'Neil's contract will not be renewed and ESPNU anchor Brendan Fitzgerald is also out.

Other people cut so far are NFL reporter Ed Werder, NHL columnists Scott Burnside and Pierre Lebrun, hockey writer Joe McDonald, and soccer writer Mike Goodman.

Additionally, The Hollywood Reporter reports that Karl Ravech, Ryen Russillo, and Hannah Storm will see their roles at the network “significantly reduced.”

This Deadspin article says they're going to keep updating the list throughout the day: http://deadspin.com/a-running-list-of-e ... 1794664091

Sucks about Dana. She followed non p5 conferences with confidence and knowledge. Hopefully she lands someplace that allows her to continue to follow the game.

This should come as no surprise, but based on the names so far it seems like they're cutting informative voices and keeping the shrill hot takes voices. They just don't understand that sports fans want real, informative sports coverage. Baseball Tonight was usually good, and it's peak with Ravech and Gammons in the early 2000's was outstanding. College Gameday is usually very good. Outside of that and their live games, their programming is terrible.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:This should come as no surprise, but based on the names so far it seems like they're cutting informative voices and keeping the shrill hot takes voices. They just don't understand that sports fans want real, informative sports coverage. Baseball Tonight was usually good, and it's peak with Ravech and Gammons in the early 2000's was outstanding. College Gameday is usually very good. Outside of that and their live games, their programming is terrible.

This was my exact thought when I saw that they were reducing the roles of Ravech, Rusillo and Hannah Storm. The shift toward HOT TAKE CENTRAL is basically complete. I grew up on ESPN during its heyday when it was actually cool, and increasingly over the last decade or so the only thing I will watch on ESPN other than the broadcast of a live game is the SVP midnight sportscenter (if for some reason I ever end up being awake with nothing to do at that time - not a common occurrence).

ESPN has totally squandered all of their brand equity in a race to the bottom of the content game, chasing the lowest common denominator to get every last eyeball and chasing away the viewers that they built their empire on in the process. The mismanagement of the company over the last decade will be a legendary case study for MBA students for the next century.

Exactly my thoughts, TP. I haven't watched it except for the occasional game in decades.

Hannah Storm still thinks Deflategate was the taping of the Rams walk through.

You can now add Eamonn Brennan to the list of layoffs. Their college basketball coverage won't be as good next year, though it's not getting the gutting yet that hockey is getting. I wonder if Lunardi makes it through. My first thought would be yes, but who knows at this point.

I BELIEVE ESPN NEEDS TO UPGRADE SUNDAY NITE BB.THE PLAY BY PLAY SUCKS SINCE KRUK AND SHILLING LEFT

TOTALLY AGREE!!

So, who's left to cover the NHL? Barry Melrose and John Buccigross.
Guess that means more boring soccer highlights.
The NHL is a good product, with some exciting young players
coming into the league, as well as a long tradition.
Karl Ravich is a very well informed baseball source.
ESPN playing up the bad comedy show,"The Six", like it was
something special.
Maybe they should just call it The LeBron and Westbrook Nertwork?

There have been reports that Buccigross could potentially be on his way out as well.

Billyboy78 wrote:Hannah Storm still thinks Deflategate was the taping of the Rams walk through.

Hannah Storm is definitely not perfect and I've never been a huge fan of hers personally, but it is still obvious that she was from a different school in terms of being a serious person and a journalist than the "hot takers" that mostly fill ESPN airwaves now. You can be a serious person and a journalist and still get things wrong, but it's still preferable compared to the hysterical human noise machines doing IRL trolling on "debate" shows.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:You can now add Eamonn Brennan to the list of layoffs. Their college basketball coverage won't be as good next year, though it's not getting the gutting yet that hockey is getting. I wonder if Lunardi makes it through. My first thought would be yes, but who knows at this point.

Hockey? ESPN doesn't know the NHL exists!

Shaolin Swat wrote:There have been reports that Buccigross could potentially be on his way out as well.

His contract is up this summer, I believe July 1st.

How much money could they save by going back to two-person booths and eliminating the utterly useless sideline reporters?

College basketball reporter C.L. Brown

https://twitter.com/intent/follow?scree ... lbrownespn

I think ratings are down because ESPN tried expanding their news to pop entertainment and political news and they became way to liberal and politically correct. There are still some great shows/reporters on there though. I especially like Pardon the Interruption and 30 for 30.

Rhodymob05 wrote:I think ratings are down because ESPN tried expanding their news to pop entertainment and political news and they became way to liberal and politically correct. There are still some great shows/reporters on there though. I especially like Pardon the Interruption and 30 for 30.

Ratings are mainly down due to a loss of subscribers. People now have options outside of basic cable where ESPN is not mandated as part of the package.

RF1 wrote:

Rhodymob05 wrote:I think ratings are down because ESPN tried expanding their news to pop entertainment and political news and they became way to liberal and politically correct. There are still some great shows/reporters on there though. I especially like Pardon the Interruption and 30 for 30.

Ratings are mainly down due to a loss of subscribers. People now have options outside of basic cable where ESPN is not mandated as part of the package.

Still think its a factor, but for people pulling the plug on cable, I know some who still use the ESPN "app". So it can't be a total loss.

Rhodymob05 wrote:

RF1 wrote:

Rhodymob05 wrote:I think ratings are down because ESPN tried expanding their news to pop entertainment and political news and they became way to liberal and politically correct. There are still some great shows/reporters on there though. I especially like Pardon the Interruption and 30 for 30.

Ratings are mainly down due to a loss of subscribers. People now have options outside of basic cable where ESPN is not mandated as part of the package.

Still think its a factor, but for people pulling the plug on cable, I know some who still use the ESPN "app". So it can't be a total loss.

ESPN's issues are almost entirely attributed to lost subscribers. In 2013, ESPN had over 99 million subscribers. Today, it has just under 89 million. Over the last three years the network has lost a couple hundred thousand subscribers each month. It lost 621,000 alone in October 2016.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:This should come as no surprise, but based on the names so far it seems like they're cutting informative voices and keeping the shrill hot takes voices. They just don't understand that sports fans want real, informative sports coverage. Baseball Tonight was usually good, and it's peak with Ravech and Gammons in the early 2000's was outstanding. College Gameday is usually very good. Outside of that and their live games, their programming is terrible.

yup, blatant move towards being TMZ Sports. Keep the uninformed loudmouths who make hot takes and abandon anything remotely resembling real journalism.

agree on Baseball Tonight....early 2000s with Ravech, Gammons, Reynolds was incredible.

reality TV is a cancer that is slowly killing networks.

Discovery Channel is now just different flavors of rednecks
TLC is now different flavors of fat people
History Channel jumped on the redneck train
MTV is just a bunch of teenage hookers popping out kids
Bravo has gone from Inside the Actors Studio to gold digging whores across the country

Jayson Stark out now! That's a shocker to me.

Many of ESPN's layoffs are of on air TV and radio reporters. They are not letting any play-by-play or talkshow host go.
ESPN has two problems colliding - the significant drop in subscriptions (12 million over the last 5 years) and significant increases in their live game broadcadting contracts (NBA, NFL, college football and MLB). They have signicantly overpaid for a few of these. The lost subscription revenue is 12 million x $7.95/month which is $1.15 billion per year.

Da_Process_Survivor wrote:

RhowdyRam02 wrote:This should come as no surprise, but based on the names so far it seems like they're cutting informative voices and keeping the shrill hot takes voices. They just don't understand that sports fans want real, informative sports coverage. Baseball Tonight was usually good, and it's peak with Ravech and Gammons in the early 2000's was outstanding. College Gameday is usually very good. Outside of that and their live games, their programming is terrible.

yup, blatant move towards being TMZ Sports. Keep the uninformed loudmouths who make hot takes and abandon anything remotely resembling real journalism.

agree on Baseball Tonight....early 2000s with Ravech, Gammons, Reynolds was incredible.

reality TV is a cancer that is slowly killing networks.

Discovery Channel is now just different flavors of rednecks
TLC is now different flavors of fat people
History Channel jumped on the redneck train
MTV is just a bunch of teenage hookers popping out kids
Bravo has gone from Inside the Actors Studio to gold digging whores across the country

Is there a "little person" network now? Not to mention the "housewife" network. Lord help us.

College basketball analyst Len Elmore

To echo what others have said, this tweet kinda sums it up for me:

I always liked Elmore. Saw him play hoops in high school. Kind of dates me.

[T]he truly tragic thing about today’s layoffs [is] that those who lost their jobs were essentially symbolic sacrifices. ESPN may have bought itself a little more slack from investors today, but its future remains just as uncertain as it was yesterday. Meanwhile, good writers and reporters like Doug Padilla, Mike Goodman, Ethan Sherwood Strauss, and many others—people who were not on million-dollar contracts but nevertheless did quality work on important beats, providing the depth and texture that make the network something more than just a lot of branded content and screaming dullards—are jobless. A lot of good people lost their jobs today, and ESPN got a lot worse, and all of it was probably for no good reason.

http://deadspin.com/espns-latest-layoff ... 1794678629

I'm a little too close to this situation to comment on it a ton here, but that Deadspin article linked above sums it all up pretty nicely. And it has absolutely zero to do with politics I can promise you that.

ESPN is and has been squeezed for money from shareholders. Like all companies they cut ppl and hire younger for cheaper. It was happening before the advent of ppl going away from bundled tv.

Sucks. Maybe CBS and the big networks fill the void as ESPN dilutes itself and makes itself vulnerable in certain sports. Dickie V and Jay Williams are the only college bball guys I like @ ESPN. Really just enthusiasm is what works in college bb. Be excited about the game and get into it no matter who is playing. Bilas tries to maintain perspective too much for me. If its Valpo versus SLU and the game is close, be excited because I am. Too much pointing out the big picture.

There are so many sports networks now that everything is getting diluted.

ESPN is guilty of that themselves with ESPN2, ESPN3....etc. etc. etc.

The pie isn't getting any bigger, but it's getting cut into smaller and smaller pieces.....

Sort of like the casino business......

The individual entities are all getting less and less...viewership is declining across the board....and these huge league contracts are becoming albatrosses.

Some kind of contraction will become inevitable at some point.

As an example...wait until Fox's BE TV contract is renewed...I'll bet it will be for less, a LOT less, than the original deal. Their ratings stink...are the networks getting a bang for their buck? Not anymore.

Bucci made the cut he isn't going anywhere

It's kind of sobering to see these reporters and journalist who have been fired, then speak their minds on twitter.

Seems odd to let Werder go the day before the draft......

College Hoops related ESPN departures
Dana O'Neil
Len Elmore
Eamonn Brennan
Andy Katz
C.L. Brown

Andy Katz wow

Wow!

Kind of what I was getting at. If ESPN drops its college bb teams. They can just do their thing on another network. Maybe one that is more friendly to our league.

Doug Glanville among those fired on the baseball side, which is really too bad. I hope MLB Network picks him up



Speaking of MLB Network, there's a rumor that ESPN, as part of their slashing of the Baseball Tonight show, will be picking up MLB Network content to replace it.

I'm still looking for Joe Lunardi (joking)

So, Mortenson still has a job? Guess a few puppets are needed.

Unfortunate to see Katz, Dana O'Neill and Eamonn Brennan get canned by "The Worldwide Leader", URI and the A10 will probably never get mentioned or written about again.

ESPN made it clear yesterday they want hot takes and actual sports insight is very much secondary.

Side note, how does that stooge like Randy Scott keep his job? He is the most insufferable anchor ever!

SC6 is awful, SC AM is terrible too. All I want in the morning is highlights!!!!! Instead they give me Mark Schlereth talking about some bullshit or kick it to Will Reeve for another terrible segment on why we love sports.

I was happy to see Trent Dilfer go, holy hell did he suck. He talked about football like it was brain surgery. Total blowhard.

One more thing, would have rather seen Jay Williams, Seth Greenberg and Dickie V all get canned over Katz/Brennan/O'Neill.

Billyboy78 wrote:So, Mortenson still has a job? Guess a few puppets are needed.

He should have been fired two years ago.

I think mort has a serious cancer issue

ramfan85 wrote:

Billyboy78 wrote:So, Mortenson still has a job? Guess a few puppets are needed.

He should have been fired two years ago.

He just reported what the liars in the NFL office told him to report.

Billyboy78 wrote:

ramfan85 wrote:

Billyboy78 wrote:So, Mortenson still has a job? Guess a few puppets are needed.

He should have been fired two years ago.

He just reported what the liars in the NFL office told him to report.

That's not just what he did. He also stuck with his story when it was proven false.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:

Billyboy78 wrote:

ramfan85 wrote:
He should have been fired two years ago.

He just reported what the liars in the NFL office told him to report.

That's not just what he did. He also stuck with his story when it was proven false.

He actually just never changed it, which I guess is the same thing. I wonder if that story/tweet about the balls being 2 lbs. under is still up somewhere.

BOZICH | College basketball hit hardest in ESPN.com cuts
Posted: Apr 27, 2017 12:16 PM EST
Updated: Apr 27, 2017 3:51 PM EST
By Rick Bozich

http://www.wdrb.com/story/35266442/bozi ... -drop-dead

Wow I just saw this. Knew it was coming but I never expected some of these guys.

Jayson Stark was the biggest surprise for me.

Not sure why you would keep the Steve A Smiths of the world and cut guys like Katz and Stark but OK.