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Bill Simmons going to HBO

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diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
I know Barnwell and Mays are still writing for Grantland, but they're probably done right? Either they decided they didn't want to do the pod anymore, or their bosses did, and neither bodes well for their ESPN future.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Looks like ESPN had a bunch of layoffs, including Gus Ramsey. Simmons might have made a really good decision here. Maybe if it takes off he can help out some of his old friends there too.
 
8

80s Bad Guy

Banned
AstroLad said:
Looks like ESPN had a bunch of layoffs, including Gus Ramsey. Simmons might have made a really good decision here. Maybe if it takes off he can help out some of his old friends there too.
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Decision should be in quotes. But yes, he was fired at an opportune time.
 
B

bodyofanamerican

Member
80's Bad Guy said:
Decision should be in quotes. But yes, he was fired at an opportune time.
Click to expand...

Definitely in quotes. ESPN is under ENORMOUS pressure to cut costs with all the live sports they have to bid on, and in addition to folks like Gus losing their job, talent like Simmons and Olbermann (and hell, even Whitlock) were the first place they looked. Simmons Goodell comments just made it easier for them.

Keep in mind too, ESPN is like, the only Disney company to not post a profit/show growth in the last quarter or year. The spotlight on them to produce is huge right now.
 
D

Draxal

Member
bodyofanamerican said:
Definitely in quotes. ESPN is under ENORMOUS pressure to cut costs with all the live sports they have to bid on, and in addition to folks like Gus losing their job, talent like Simmons and Olbermann (and hell, even Whitlock) were the first place they looked. Simmons Goodell comments just made it easier for them.

Keep in mind too, ESPN is like, the only Disney company to not post a profit/show growth in the last quarter or year. The spotlight on them to produce is huge right now.
Click to expand...

Ayup, basically their strategy is two fold 1. They think their talent is replaceable. 2. The opposing networks would scoop somebody like Cowherd up .... depriving them of money to spend on live sports. What will be interesting is how much the Big 10 deal will be when it's up for bid next year, if it expected the expected value of the deal, or if it doesn't.
 
8

80s Bad Guy

Banned
New podcast can't some soon enough. We probably need a Simmons OT.

The Bill Simmons Show OT - Mike and Sometimes Mike, but Never Mike & Mike

And I know this is not the place, but ESPN's whole SVP push feels really forced.
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
Draxal said:
Ayup, basically their strategy is two fold 1. They think their talent is replaceable. 2. The opposing networks would scoop somebody like Cowherd up .... depriving them of money to spend on live sports. What will be interesting is how much the Big 10 deal will be when it's up for bid next year, if it expected the expected value of the deal, or if it doesn't.
Click to expand...

I think their talent is replaceable, though. Bill Simmons was a net negative on TV and Grantland wasn't a big money producer. He should bolster HBO (unless his show is terrible, which based on prior evidence it very much could be) but I'm not totally convinced he was bolstering ESPN.

I think ESPN used to be more personality driven but it's changed a lot. There's more focus on airing sports than reporting on them and as such it's meant that they don't need big, popular people the way they used to. Grantland made a lot more sense for the ESPN of 10-15 years ago than today.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
diffusionx said:
I think their talent is replaceable, though. Bill Simmons was a net negative on TV and Grantland wasn't a big money producer. He should bolster HBO (unless his show is terrible, which based on prior evidence it very much could be) but I'm not totally convinced he was bolstering ESPN.

I think ESPN used to be more personality driven but it's changed a lot. There's more focus on airing sports than reporting on them and as such it's meant that they don't need big, popular people the way they used to. Grantland made a lot more sense for the ESPN of 10-15 years ago than today.
Click to expand...

It's been pretty well documented that ESPN made near zero effort to promote Grantland though (e.g., not even being listed on the mobile site), and yet they still developed an incredibly strong brand for quality journalism. And to be clear when I said "decision," I meant the decision to just say "screw it" and take off the filter by the end and take whatever may come. The situation was super dicey for some time, largely because Simmons knew the site was getting no support from Bristol.

Whatever "the ESPN of today" is, it doesn't seem to be working out so great for them. I'm kind of glad I get to pay even less attention to them now. I'll watch PTI in the background on DVR while reading email, but that's about it. SportsCenter is pretty unbearable and has been so for a while.

I agree that Simmons is not a great TV personality, though he does seem to be quite adept behind the scenes, as evidenced by his role in 30 for 30. Hopefully the HBO gig is more that angle.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
80's Bad Guy said:
New podcast can't some soon enough. We probably need a Simmons OT.

The Bill Simmons Show OT - Mike and Sometimes Mike, but Never Mike & Mike

And I know this is not the place, but ESPN's whole SVP push feels really forced.
Click to expand...
I don't mind SVP, but from what I saw that first week his show is just an altered version of Sportscenter.

The only thing that still interests me on ESPN is PTI. I find Tony Kornheiser endlessly entertaining. More so on his radio show, but PTI ain't bad either.
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
AstroLad said:
It's been pretty well documented that ESPN made near zero effort to promote Grantland though (e.g., not even being listed on the mobile site), and yet they still developed an incredibly strong brand for quality journalism.
Click to expand...

Yes but this only matters if ESPN actually cares about quality journalism. With every year I find less and less evidence that they do. I mean, it's not like quality journalism is some crazy in demand thing these days, at least compared to how it used to be.

I like Bill Simmons, I've been reading him for over a decade. But he has a thin skin and always has a chip on his shoulder. He said that ESPN never supported Grantland, and I don't doubt that he believes this, but all that talent doesn't really come cheap, and the desktop site gets plenty of hits.

AstroLad said:
Whatever "the ESPN of today" is, it doesn't seem to be working out so great for them. I'm kind of glad I get to pay even less attention to them now. I'll watch PTI in the background on DVR while reading email, but that's about it. SportsCenter is pretty unbearable and has been so for a while.
Click to expand...

I think it's working out fine - it's a lot bigger than it ever was in the 1990s and early 2000s when it was all about Stuart Scott and SportsCenter and Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick and Page 2 on the website, after all. They are more focused on airing big time sports than covering it, I think. They chose to spend their money on NFL and NBA rights than on Colin Cowherd, basically.

I don't watch SportsCenter much anymore, but I do watch MNF and other sports and I do read stuff on ESPN...

AstroLad said:
I agree that Simmons is not a great TV personality, though he does seem to be quite adept behind the scenes, as evidenced by his role in 30 for 30. Hopefully the HBO gig is more that angle.
Click to expand...

He's hosting a show. So we'll see!
 
G

Griegite

still a junior
Fjordson said:
I don't mind SVP, but from what I saw that first week his show is just an altered version of Sportscenter.
Click to expand...

I enjoyed SVP much more on his radio show than the limited time I've seen him on the *new* sportscenter. It's too bad he gave up that gig for just doing SC, but maybe it was better for him.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
Griegite said:
I enjoyed SVP much more on his radio show than the limited time I've seen him on the *new* sportscenter. It's too bad he gave up that gig for just doing SC, but maybe it was better for him.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I agree. The radio show was actually pretty good.
 
D

Draxal

Member
AstroLad said:
It's been pretty well documented that ESPN made near zero effort to promote Grantland though (e.g., not even being listed on the mobile site), and yet they still developed an incredibly strong brand for quality journalism. And to be clear when I said "decision," I meant the decision to just say "screw it" and take off the filter by the end and take whatever may come. The situation was super dicey for some time, largely because Simmons knew the site was getting no support from Bristol.

Whatever "the ESPN of today" is, it doesn't seem to be working out so great for them. I'm kind of glad I get to pay even less attention to them now. I'll watch PTI in the background on DVR while reading email, but that's about it. SportsCenter is pretty unbearable and has been so for a while.

I agree that Simmons is not a great TV personality, though he does seem to be quite adept behind the scenes, as evidenced by his role in 30 for 30. Hopefully the HBO gig is more that angle.
Click to expand...

Simmons also made the point that they didn't profit of the podcasts as much as they should have, ESPN and him were a bad fit at the end, as ESPN wanted a loyal soldier, and Simmons was frustrated with ESPN's mismanagement.

ESPN's in a bad place because of Disney, and the other networks being more aggressive in stealing live sports. Live Sports is the real money maker as people can read their sports news, but while some people dvr live sports to watch later ... the results get spoiled instantly.
 
I

Into

Member
I like Lowe's podcast, i just listened to the recent one, but i find myself droning out after 20ish minutes. Too much of him and you start hearing the same stuff

Bill has a few jokes, but never turns his podcast about comedy to spice it up.

I just wish he did a over/under on NBA teams before the season. I want him to hype up the Celtics and talk about the body language of the Clippers and what a disaster Doc is. Also bring up the Harden trade for OKC, you know, the classic Bill stuff
 
F

Fjordson

Member
Yeah live sports is the one TV thing that hasn't really changed for me. Everything else I can watch on my iPad way after the fact or DVR it on my TV, but sports have to be live for me. Just isn't the same watching them recorded.
 
G

gazele

Banned
Into said:
I like Lowe's podcast, i just listened to the recent one, but i find myself droning out after 20ish minutes. Too much of him and you start hearing the same stuff

Bill has a few jokes, but never turns his podcast about comedy to spice it up.

I just wish he did a over/under on NBA teams before the season. I want him to hype up the Celtics and talk about the body language of the Clippers and what a disaster Doc is. Also bring up the Harden trade for OKC, you know, the classic Bill stuff
Click to expand...

Yeah, Lowe was the best on Simmons' podcast, since he balanced out some of Lowe's more analytical tendencies
 
J

jtb

Banned
Into said:
I like Lowe's podcast, i just listened to the recent one, but i find myself droning out after 20ish minutes. Too much of him and you start hearing the same stuff

Bill has a few jokes, but never turns his podcast about comedy to spice it up.

I just wish he did a over/under on NBA teams before the season. I want him to hype up the Celtics and talk about the body language of the Clippers and what a disaster Doc is. Also bring up the Harden trade for OKC, you know, the classic Bill stuff
Click to expand...

I think Bill mentioned doing an over/under podcast with House before the season, which would basically mean it would have to go up today.
 
beat

beat

Member
diffusionx said:
I think their talent is replaceable, though. Bill Simmons was a net negative on TV and Grantland wasn't a big money producer.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but Simmons was right that ESPN probably could have made more money on Grantland if they tried:
Over the last two years, ESPN management had heard from Simmons many times that he didn't think they were selling Grantland aggressively enough. ESPN sources place annual ad revenue for Grantland at about $6 million a year, including the Web site and a Simmons podcast, but since his departure from ESPN, Simmons has rolled out his own (and his owned) podcast, which, according to an industry expert, is probably worth north of $5 million in yearly revenue alone. Thus Simmons is now making for himself roughly the same as Grantland's entire annual ad-sales revenue.
Click to expand...
 
F

Faddy

Banned
diffusionx said:
I like Bill Simmons, I've been reading him for over a decade. But he has a thin skin and always has a chip on his shoulder. He said that ESPN never supported Grantland, and I don't doubt that he believes this, but all that talent doesn't really come cheap, and the desktop site gets plenty of hits.
Click to expand...

I'm the same, long time reader and he definitely has a thin skin. However I think many people conflate support with the ability to hire talented writers. There is a whole lot more to running a website than that.

I would say lack of social media was a major failure. Either pushing stories on Facebook or ESPN outright not lettting them use Snapchat, Periscope etc as promotional tools. An example Bill has given is they had no way to get photos without going through the department at Bristol. The site relied too much on ESPN backbone.

The site should have had a startup mentality, everyone pitching in, but they were constrained by the monolithic ESPN culture.
 
T

tm24

Member
Simmons did a AMA on r/nba. Confirms that him and Lowe will need to escape to Mexico to do a podcast. Says he will try to get haralbob on soon as he comes to LA though.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
tm24 said:
Simmons did a AMA on r/nba. Confirms that him and Lowe will need to escape to Mexico to do a podcast. Says he will try to get haralbob on soon as he comes to LA though.
Click to expand...

It doesn't sound like Lowe is leaving ESPN anytime soon either.
We are overdue for Bob!!!!!!! I want to get him when he's actually in LA... sadly, my podcast days with Zach or done though. We drove onto different roads after looking at each other sadly at the stoplight like Diesel and Walker. At least for now.
Click to expand...
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Random note: Was kind of painful listening to Apatow defend Sandler 100% without even remote self-awareness. "He just loves to make people laugh!" "He makes good movies!"
 
S

spyder_ur

Member
'Picture me Rollin' had me laughing yesterday. Love that song but a surprising choice.

I will miss Simmons' podcasts with Lowe (and to a lesser extent other ESPN NBA guys like Stein, Bucher, Van Gundy, etc). There's not really a great person for him to talk to about the NBA consistently it doesn't seem. I love House, Sal and JackO but it might get a little tiresome if those are the only people he talks sports with along with the occasional ass-kissing celebrity podcast.
 
J

jbug617

Banned
New podcast with Malcolm Gladwell.
HBO's Bill Simmons talks to best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell about Grantland's abrupt demise, public funded sports arenas/stadiums, new owner syndrome, Tom Brady's never-ending career, the corrupt NCAA, Obama's next job and how America needs a sports czar more than ever.
Click to expand...
Sound Cloud: https://t.co/HMinlmUMvg
 
A

Advocatus Diaboli

Member
Any word on what's happening with Lowe and Goldsberry? I need my Lowe Post. (The only alternative I'll accept is some team picking up Lowe to work in its front office.)
 
J

jbug617

Banned
you guys were asking.
@BillSimmons: Hey Grantland fans -- @ChrisRyan77 and @andygreenwald have their emotional reunion on Thursday's BS Podcast.
Click to expand...

https://twitter.com/BillSimmons/status/662133426212859904

Advocatus Diaboli said:
Any word on what's happening with Lowe and Goldsberry? I need my Lowe Post. (The only alternative I'll accept is some team picking up Lowe to work in its front office.)
Click to expand...
Probably going to work for ESPN because they are under contract most likely.
 
S

spyder_ur

Member
Did I hear Simmons right in the Gladwell podcast when he casually mentioned that he talked to President Obama?

Great podcast though - Gladwell is always interesting and it was good to hear Bill talk a bit more about what went on at Grantland.
 
J

jbug617

Banned
Page Six had a rumor that Bill Simmons first documentary for HBO is going to be on Andre The Giant.
People have been buzzing about what’s next for Bill Simmons now that he’s ensconced at HBO, after 14 years at ESPN. I can reveal one of the first projects the well-regarded sportswriter and on-air commentator is bringing to the premium cable channel — a documentary about Andre the Giant.

Among the squad of talents who followed Simmons out the door from ESPN is Jonathan Hock, whose documentary subjects have included the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” hockey team, college basketball coach Jim Valvano, and Cuban-born Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant.

Hock’s first doc for HBO is said to be on pro wrestler Andre the Giant, the French farm boy who grew up to be 7-foot-4 and 500 pounds.

Andre, who could drink more than 100 beers in a row, was pro wrestling’s biggest international attraction and helped the “sport” become a big business.
Click to expand...

Hock denies the report.
http://pagesix.com/2015/11/05/what-bill-simmons-will-be-doing-at-hbo/

spyder_ur said:
Did I hear Simmons right in the Gladwell podcast when he casually mentioned that he talked to President Obama?
Click to expand...

Simmons and Obama did a podcast. There was video on youtube also but ESPN took it down.

Transcript: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/b-s-report-transcript-barack-obama/
Podcast: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=7631801
 
D

Dr.Acula

Banned
jbug617 said:
Simmons and Obama did a podcast. There was video on youtube also but ESPN took it down.

Transcript: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/b-s-report-transcript-barack-obama/
Podcast: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=7631801
Click to expand...

It's funny reading that transcript and them talking about how great Jeremy Lin is.

20 years from now people are gonna be finding this article, "oh cool, a popular sports writers sat down with the President and talked sports. Who the fuck is Jeremy Lin?"
 
J

jbug617

Banned
It's up
HBO's Bill Simmons reunites with old Grantland buddies Chris Ryan & Andy Greenwald. On the docket--Homeland, The Leftovers, Project Greenlight and current state of binge-watching. Special bonus announcement at the end!
Click to expand...
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-bill-sim...p-culture-podcast-w-chris-ryan-andy-greenwald

Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/hbos-bill-simmons/the-bill-simmons-podcast

Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast...sodeGuid=tag:soundcloud,2010:tracks/231693184
 
I

infiniteloop

Member
Starting Next week (maybe) Chris Ryan & Andy Greenwald will be doing their own pop culture podcast (second separate podcast, not episodes of Bill's one but under the same umbrella)
 
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