When news broke earlier this week that ESPN was rehiring Keith Olbermann for a late night talk show, a couple of thoughts came to mind. First and foremost, how long would this last before someone tries to tell Olbermann what to do, and he walks? Two: will the leather jacket he wore on the failed ESPN2 “Sports Night” program make a return? You know, the show he famously launched with “Welcome to the end of our careers”?
Most importantly, is ESPN finally acknowledging it has a problem?
Don’t get me wrong, I have fond memories of Olbermann and Dan Patrick hosting “SportsCenter.” They nicknamed it “the Big Show,” and they weren’t wrong — those two set the agenda that put ESPN on the pop culture map.
But that was then, when ESPN was something you left on in your dorm 24 hours a day. Now, ESPN is a sports media monolith, covering the globe with 15 channels (21 if you count the minority share they own in the Canadian CTV), all of them featuring two to four people constantly screaming at each other about a handful of players, and not much else. Highlight packages have fallen to the side to make way for fluff pieces on LeBron James, debate segments about Johnny Manziel or ridiculous filler about Who’s Now. Your Tigers highlights? That’ll have to wait, because Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith are going to argue for five minutes about the New York Jets.
The line between the network’s news and editorial sides is getting blurrier by the minute, and it all feels like they’ve given up their heart and soul for access. The network wouldn’t understand how to have fun, lest someone in the Disney HR department blow a gasket.
Needless to say, ESPN has had its head up its own rear for quite a while. Fans are beginning to notice, too: The ratings for the Worldwide Leader in Sports are starting to slip.
With that in mind (and Fox Sports set to launch its own network next month), the hiring of Olbermann feels a little nostalgic. “Hey, remember this guy! We had fun, didn’t we?” Now, Olbermann won’t be sitting at the “SportsCenter” desk; he’s getting his own program weeknights on ESPN2. It’s said to be similar, featuring highlights, sports news and some debate (and absolutely zero on the political front). It could work, too; his appearances on NBC’s Sunday Night Football (which reunited him with Patrick) flowed smoothly, and he certainly has the brains and skill to bring that spark back, providing he keeps his ego in check.
Could it be, though, that ESPN has an ulterior motive? The two sides broke up rather spectacularly back in 1997, and this reunion apparently took 14 months to hammer out. It works for Olbermann: After parting ways with both MSNBC and Current TV, he’s got to find an outlet somewhere.
For ESPN, though, it provides an opportunity to bring back one of the guys who taught the network how to be cool in the first place. Even if the show lasts but a month, the amount of information ESPN could gather from the man could be enough to get “SportsCenter’s” head right.
ESPN has been lucky: NBC Sports Network and CBS Sports Network have deliberately avoided trying to take on the mothership directly, but Fox Sports 1 is aiming dead center. The network has hired Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole from Canada’s TSN to host its highlight show — two anchors who made their names goofing off on the overnight shift, becoming cult heroes in the process. You know, like Keith and Dan.
The bottom line is that ESPN got caught buying into its own hype, and starting considering itself the most important thing in the universe. ESPN set the agenda, it picked which stories mattered and it decided what the nation talked about. And a lot of that is, in fact, true. But after a while, it got so deep into covering the stories behind the stories, the network forgot to tell the original story in the first place.
That’s not going to change anytime soon. Heck, “The Big Show” kind of started that trend, to be honest. At least when Keith and Dan started making the show less about the highlights and more about their reaction to the highlights, it was because they were cool, not because they were high on themselves as a media entity. Not that Olbermann is one to preach the importance of humility, but maybe he can at least teach the people ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn. how to do it in a way that doesn’t feel so cold.
Matt “Shaggy” Culbreath is sports director at 1370 WSPD. Email him at shaggy@wspd.com.
