ESPN put out a press release yesterday boasting that ratings for the 6 p.m. Eastern time edition of the flagship SportsCenter anchored by Sage Steele and Kevin Negandhi are up 19 percent year over year.
In mid May, after a series of fill-ins, Steele and Negandhi officially replaced outspoken Trump foe Jemele Hill and Michael Smith who co-hosted what was then called The Six or SC6, or by its detractors, WokeCenter, for about one year.
With the former duo, the show never gained any traction with sports fans. Hill subsequently left the anchor desk in January to move over to ESPN’s long-form journalism site The Undefeated and has also appeared on various other of the network’s chat shows. Smith departed in February for another assignment but apparently has not been seen on the air since.
“This loud ratings celebration is quite a kick to the face of Jemele Hill and Michael Smith, the two fired hosts who seemed more worried about social justice issues than sports,” Brietbart News observed in the context of the ESPN press release about the current performance of the more traditional SportsCenter as opposed to its WokeCenter incarnation.
SportsCenter at 6 p.m. ET viewership is up!
More: https://t.co/RzRQYOwNYE pic.twitter.com/H2N02YPNYp
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) June 20, 2018
ESPN, which is paying the three co-hosts of the tanking Get Up morning show about $15 million, reportedly is on the hook to Hill and Smith for $10 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Internal discord over the 6 p.m. SportsCenter experiment co-hosted by Jemele Hill and Michael Smith — and yanked after less than a year despite four-year deals worth $10 million each — still lingers.”
ESPN has had several rounds of layoffs, the most recent in November 2017, and has lost millions of subscribers in the past several years for reasons that include pushing a politically correct agenda that turns off viewers who just want to watch games and game highlights.
A source told THR that despite its reputation as a “pinko lefty operation,” many ESPN executives are supposedly conservative. ESPN biographer James Andrew Miller, like many in the sports industry, insisted to THR that there is no causal connection between politics and the disappearing ESPN viewer.
Former ESPN employee Jason Whitlock, the host of Speak for Yourself on FS1, registered disagreement on Twitter, however.
This article completely mischaracterizes ESPN's political problem. No one disputes ESPN has conservative execs. Problem is they have been bullied into silence and uselessness. That's why ESPN's coverage of NFL is so one-sided and unfair. Plus, Jim Miller is an ESPN lobbyist. https://t.co/0sMERKXpP4
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) June 20, 2018
A lot of these execs and on-air talent don't have my thick skin or lifestyle (no wife and kids). They justifiably don't want to put up with the harassment associated with blue-collar, football, faith values. Easier to play "woke" than tell the truth. https://t.co/V8Tn0E7uzq
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) June 20, 2018
Rather than rely on ESPN Information Minister Jim Miller, ask someone with an honest opinion about ESPN. ESPN, like most mainstream media outlets, is obsessed with Twitter. An obsession with Twitter approval causes an outlet to veer left. It's obvious. https://t.co/qyfQn0PlOx
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) June 20, 2018
Nothing is wrong with Jim Miller. He's way too close to ESPN execs, particularly Skipper, and spews company propaganda. He's part of the echo chamber that keeps ESPN blind to obvious problems. https://t.co/I2v4hMlAZa
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) June 20, 2018
