ESPN gives Kenny Mayne the pink slip... his Buffalo visit was memorable

[Gugny]

6 hours ago, BruceVilanch said:

Oh yeah, I still watch Rich, I just meant every person from ESPN. Is Linda Cohn still around?

 

I haven't watched SportsCenter in years, but I googled and she is still with ESPN.

 

That Scott Van Pelt guy gives me the willies.  Not sure what it is about him, but I can't stand to look at/listen to him.

 

Kind of like when Sean Salisbury used to stare into my soul through the television.  I'm still scarred from that.

[RiotAct]

Kenny, mayne!!!

[BillsShredder83]

9 hours ago, BruceVilanch said:

Man, I'm in 36 and now every anchor I grew up watching is gone. 

Yeah I thought "my childhood is fully dead" over there

[oldmanfan]

ESPN figured out what they were doing right, then fixed it.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

16 minutes ago, oldmanfan said:

ESPN figured out what they were doing right, then fixed it.

Looking at some of my previous employers, I just found my new favourite saying! 😁

[dollars 2 donuts]

9 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

And yet, the girl who went to my high school that I used to be friends with was promoted to the 6:00 pm show.

A non-name drop, name drop.

 

Nice!

 

Classy, because it’s like my friend Bruce Willis used to tell me, “Never name drop.”

Edited May 11, 2021 by dollars 2 donuts

[ALLEN1QB]

Hopefully Keyshawn Johnson will be next. He comes across as extremely arrogant refuse to listen. Bring back Mike Golic please!

Edited May 11, 2021 by ALLEN1QB

[CSBill]

4 minutes ago, ALLEN1QB said:

Hopefully Keyshawn Johnson will be next. He comes across as extremely arrogant refuse to listen. Bring back Mike Golic please!

 

No judgment on him as a person, but I cannot listen to him on the radio. It is just awful. I purposely listen to something else on my morning commute.

 

In the words of Elvis Costello: "I've tried and I've tried and I'm still mystified, I can't do it anymore and I'm not satisfied!"

[Gordio]

10 hours ago, Augie said:

 

I like that they are making it a clean sweep getting rid of everyone who was any good whatsoever. A few more to go. Mike & Mike was the best thing they had left. 

 

Hoping they hold onto Booger since he so convincingly described how the clean Cody Ford block was clearly a penalty in the Houston playoff game. 

 

 

.

 

 

Totally agree, ESPN is good for one thing & one thing only and that is they still offer an abundant of live college football and college basketball games.  I guess you could throw the NBA in there to but I havent watched an NBA game in years so that is irrelevant to me.   There opinion talk shows suck.  Not sure why anyone would care to listen to Stephon A Smith and Max Kellerman.  I do like Jay Greenburgh.

[zonabb]

People watch ESPN? I can barely stomach 5 minutes of sports talk radio, be it WGR or ESPN. The constant need to scream takes makes it a cartoon profession. And ESPN basically turned into a giant ad for the NBA, primarily, and NFL secondarily. They minimized baseball and hockey and that cost them audience. They're biggest problem is, they de-professionalized what they do. They perpetually aim for 18-24 year old males and pop/hip hop culture, which excludes many people. So by trying too over tune for a specific young demographic, they turn off many sports fans who don't need or want to be shouted at by Stephen A. Smith of any of the other idiots on those shows. When screaming and talking over each other became the focus of their shows, it was over for me. Stuart Scott, rest his soul, and Berman, started the cartoonish nature of sports and ruined it for me. I watch more English Premier League stuff than NFL stuff by a mile. Guess I'm the bad guy for wanting intelligent, reasoned, analytical, detailed takes by people who know the game inside and out between the lines. Premier League pregame shows, halftime shows, and broadcasts put any show and league broadcast in this country to shame. 

 

Old media is old media... it's dying and I'm here for it.

 

[Gordio]

8 hours ago, The Dean said:

 

 

I thought his "humor" was wanting. I felt like he was insulting my intelligence just about every time he opened his mouth. I know some others who feel similarly. But apparently some found him humorous. 

 

 

Agreed, didn't think he was funny at all.  He was fine on the earlier sportscenters but his role there now was downright miserable to watch.

[Gordio]

7 minutes ago, zonabb said:

People watch ESPN? I can barely stomach 5 minutes of sports talk radio, be it WGR or ESPN. The constant need to scream takes makes it a cartoon profession. And ESPN basically turned into a giant ad for the NBA, primarily, and NFL secondarily. They minimized baseball and hockey and that cost them audience. They're biggest problem is, they de-professionalized what they do. They perpetually aim for 18-24 year old males and pop/hip hop culture, which excludes many people. So by trying too over tune for a specific young demographic, they turn off many sports fans who don't need or want to be shouted at by Stephen A. Smith of any of the other idiots on those shows. When screaming and talking over each other became the focus of their shows, it was over for me. Stuart Scott, rest his soul, and Berman, started the cartoonish nature of sports and ruined it for me. I watch more English Premier League stuff than NFL stuff by a mile. Guess I'm the bad guy for wanting intelligent, reasoned, analytical, detailed takes by people who know the game inside and out between the lines. Premier League pregame shows, halftime shows, and broadcasts put any show and league broadcast in this country to shame. 

 

Old media is old media... it's dying and I'm here for it.

 

 

 

Totally agree, sportcenter used to be much watch TV for me but I very rarely watch it anymore.  Their College Gamedays are terrific both for football and basketball.  I enjoy still watching them.  If live college sports was to abandon ESPN, I probably would not watch it at all.  I do watch PTI if I catch it when I flip thru the channels.  Wilbon & TK are still two of the best in the business.

[dpberr]

Kenny Mayne was the bizarre uncle of those early ESPN hosts.  When I hear his name anywhere, all I hear is his famous meats and cheeses line which always made me laugh.

 

 

[Steve O]

11 hours ago, Gugny said:

 

The brown bear is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is known as the Kodiak bear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjroTXtMtIA

Couldn't resist linking this scene from strange wilderness...tells you all you need to know about bears

[stevewin]

8 hours ago, The Dean said:

 

 

I thought his "humor" was wanting. I felt like he was insulting my intelligence just about every time he his mouth. I know some others who feel similarly. But apparently some found him humorous. 

I liked Mayne and the other classic hosts "back in the day" - back then the format was more relaxed and focused on sports.  In the golden era SC the hosts injected humor and personality into the broadcast subtly, it seemed natural and not forced.  The opposite of the unwatchable trash that exists today. 

 

Nothing is worse to me than the insipid bantering between the male-female hosts on Sportscenter now.  I rarely watch anymore, and don't even know their names, but it seems every time I do turn it on to just catch some highlights I'm assaulted  by endless forced cringeworthy Good Morning America style 'energy"/"dialogue".  I almost always end up turning it off.  

 

 

[BobbyC81]

9 hours ago, Augie said:

 

Mike & Mike was part of my daily routine. I enjoyed the combo and the contrast. Greenie took a long sabbatical when they separated. That’s been a while, and I doubt I’ve seen/heard one hour of him since. ESPN misplayed this in every way possible. 

 

Greeny hosted the NFL Draft coverage.

[Royale with Cheese]

1 hour ago, dollars 2 donuts said:

A non-name drop, name drop.

 

Nice!

 

Classy, because it’s like my friend Bruce Willis used to tell me, “Never name drop.”

 

I'll give you a hint.  She's a minority.

[May Day 10]

11 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

It was a number of things. Kinda "Perfect Storm"ish.

 

1. Cord cutters hit them with a major blow.

2. And maybe even bigger, the NFL deciding to launch it's own network, and jack up the cost of licensing highlights pretty much took ESPN out at the knees. They had to cut NFL Primetime, and lots of other NFL content. And lets face it, NFL rules the sports news world.

3. Losing the NHL contract to NBC. Although I'm not sure how much they lost it as opposed to just let it go.

4. All those hits forced them to make major cost cutting moves, which meant all the good (high priced) on-air talent got axed. Which drove down program quality.

 

The only thing ESPN has going for it is College Football.

 

 

 

 

I dont have the numbers but I'd bet that Golic made far more money over his time at ESPN than he did as an NFL player. So can't really say Greeny hosed him. Plus, it feels like he's been ready to retire for a long time now but was hanging out because he had nothing else to do, the check was decent, and he was helping his kid get a foot in the door to easy money.

 

 

Its crazy to think about how much the sports broadcasting landscape has changed.  Honestly, Im not sure what ESPN could have done differently to be in a better place they are in now.

 

When I was a kid/high school student and even college from like the mid 80s to about 2000... ESPN was the one stop shop.  If I wanted to see the hockey highlights or baseball highlights, I would need to watch Sportcenter... and I would watch it multiple times on the loop (and still recall certain bits vividly).  NFL Game Day and NFL Prime Time were THE hubs for NFL coverage.  It was the only game in town other than the pregame shows on Network.  What they said about your team really mattered.  The had other shows like NHL 2 Nite and such which were unprecedented NHL access and coverage.

 

Regional sports networks started popping up in the mid-late 90s but really didnt hold a ton of original programming clout yet.  Then we got the sports packages that were very accessible.  Then we got competitors like OLN/Versus/NBC, Fox Sports, CBS Sports.... then the sports got their own networks!  Not to mention the miniaturizing of everything and the ability to have a supercomputer in your pocket that tethers you to any sports related content with a press of a touchscreen.  You have behemoths like Amazon getting into the rights game now.  

 

ESPN still does live sports better than anybody IMO.  Their College football coverage is great.  They do a great job with hoops and always did well with MLB.  Excited to see NHL hockey on there again.

[YoloinOhio]

36 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

I'll give you a hint.  She's a minority.

Elle Duncan?

[John from Riverside]

I can’t remember the last time I watch ESPN