ESPN "First Take" Producer in talks to take over Today Show

[Jess 1110]

From Deadspin.

 

 

ESPN vice president Jamie Horowitz, the midwife of Bristol's "Embrace Debate" era that made us all a little dumber, has been approached by NBC to take control of the Today show, according to two sources. A deal appears likely, we're told, though Horowitz still has to extract himself from his contract with ESPN. At the moment, one source says, ESPN president John Skipper is trying to coax a sizable ransom out of Comcast, NBC's parent company. The source put the chances of the deal going through at "70-30 or 65-35."

 

It's not clear what Horowitz's new position would be. We're told that Don Nash would stay on as Today's executive producer and that Horowitz would oversee him.

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You know how I said Bristol has been more toxic to the medium of journalism than anything Fox News and MSNBC have ever, ever done?

 

Meet exhibit 1. Jamie Horowitz. A fast-rising producer at ESPN who took over First Take and turned it into a screaming debatefest with Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith. For those not familiar with First Take, it is pretty much the worst sports show ever produced. But people are watching. And it infected the already toxic culture of Bristol so much that the station is pretty much unwatchable.

 

This is a must-read, and a depressing one, but it illustrates how toxic the show is and how it ruined ESPN.

 

 

Why does any of this matter? For one thing, journalism is in the company's DNA. It's no exaggeration to say that the modern ESPN was built on top of its robust news division. When now-executive editor John Walsh—an editor at the Washington Post's Style section in its heyday, an editor at '70s-era Rolling Stone, and a founding editor of the short-lived, much-loved Inside Sports—arrived on Bristol's campus in the late 1980s, he declared that a strong newsroom would give the station the identity it had lacked to that point. As he staffed up, Walsh cared more about reporting chops than TV readiness: Andrea Kremer (hired from NFL Films), Robin Roberts (from local TV and radio in Atlanta), Peter Gammons (from The Boston Globe and Sports Illustrated), Jimmy Roberts (from ABC News), Chris Mortensen (the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The National). Print people? Some inexperience? Didn't matter. Talent did.

 

The story of ESPN's Tebow obsession really begins last year. In September 2011, ESPN2's First Take, having gone through several different lives (a faint imitation of a morning TV show, a debate-cum-variety show), went to an all-debate format starring former newspaper columnist Skip Bayless. This new iteration wasn't all that popular with other producers in Bristol, a source said, but the decision was made after ESPN consulted a focus group.

"We focus-grouped it to people and realized pretty quickly that viewers wanted debate," hot-shot First Take producer Jamie Horowitz told Men's Journal. "In particular, they wanted to see Skip debate."

Producers around the network saw it the same way a lot of us do: as willful crap. Staged disagreement. On the show, Bayless would be pitted against another panelist—often a black counterpart, including Stephen A. Smith, who is now the full-time co-host—and "debate" him or her, Crossfire-style, on the sports topic of the moment. Around the time that Bayless become the country's most visible and outspoken Tebow supporter—which ultimately spawned this abomination and the 4 million clicks that went with it—ratings for the show began to climb.

Jamie Horowitz is successful at ESPN. He is so successful that I go out of my way to avoid ESPN on anything relevant to sports.

 

If he is hired at the Today Show, it is nothing less than a catastrophic blow to American journalism. Expect the show to chase the next Tebow, or any crime story that's not relevant to anything, to the bottom. You think NBC News was worried when MSNBC began to take a left turn? NBC News will be severely hurt by a Jamie Horowitz Today Show.

 

Pray this doesn't happen.

[MorningNews 1293]

Today Show with a First Take feel? Haha.

[24994J 5276]

Do you hear that sound?

 

It's Sherwood, Stephanopoulos, Roberts and company laughing their asses off.

[Jess 1110]

Seriously? I wouldn't joke. First Take isn't the catalyst that drove ESPN into the ground (that would be Mark Shapiro), and it might not be the worst thing ESPN has ever done (that goes to The Decision). But First Take is emblematic of all the worst aspects of ESPN, combined into one show. And its effects on The Mothership have been devastating.

 

Jamie Horowitz should not be producing WORLD NEWS NOW, let alone the Today Show.

[mike91 66]

I guess NBC wants to be third place forever. At least maybe it will allow someone to point ESPN back in the right direction.

[24994J 5276]

 

I guess NBC wants to be third place forever. At least maybe it will allow someone to point ESPN back in the right direction.

 

You have to drop to third place before you can stay in third place.

[TVIntheDesert 183]

The "Today" staff must miss Jeff Zucker, but since's he's busy destroying CNN, they got the next best thing.

[MorningNews 1293]

Seriously this sounds like a horrible decision. ESPN has been hard to watch for the last 2-3 years and Today is already pretty bad so this can only make the show worse. What the heck are they trying to do at Studio 1A?

[Hometown News 11]

Can he take Skip Bayless with him? Then at least First Take might be watchable.

[Glimmer 238]

First Take's race-baiting and ridiculous sensationalism is truly part of why ESPN is The Worldwide Leader in S#!T. The Today Show a la First Take would make Rosie O'Donnell's era on The View look like the Dinah Shore Show.

[24994J 5276]

 

First Take's race-baiting and ridiculous sensationalism is truly part of why ESPN is The Worldwide Leader in S#!T. The Today Show a la First Take would make Rosie O'Donnell's era on The View look like the Dinah Shore Show.

 

"THIS IS TODAY...with Matt Lauer, and Rosie O'Donnell...LIVE from Studio 1A in Rockefeller Plaza."

[justin2kx 229]

 

First Take's race-baiting and ridiculous sensationalism is truly part of why ESPN is The Worldwide Leader in S#!T. The Today Show a la First Take would make Rosie O'Donnell's era on The View look like the Dinah Shore Show.

 

Trust me, overhype on selective sports and (not 'near' but) downright burial of certain other sports (granted it's not 'popular' here but hello, hockey? and i'm not even a hockey fan and i can observe, surprising they still have barry melrose as analyst, but anyway) plus sensationalism on certain teams and athletes, on and off the field, either by debate (first take) or reporting (ETCenter as I refer not "Sports"Center) makes ESPN is The Worldwide Leader in Real S#!T.

[Jess 1110]

Honestly my biggest worry is that whatever Horowitz does with Today, he will succeed. After all, First Take, as horrible as it is, took off when he structured it around Skip Bayless' bullshit. GMA's rise to the top, at least part of it, was that they went really tabloid-y. I mean, Horowitz is good with people with egos, since he's worked with Bayless, Stephen A. Smith, and even Keith Olbermann and lived to tell about it. But I shudder at the strategy he might put in place.

 

As for ESPN...

 

When Dan Patrick talks about "The Mothership" on his radio show, the impression I get is of someone who managed to escape a religious cult. There's a culture there, a sort of entitlement, that they're the king of sports, they can do whatever they want. All you have to do is watch SportsCenter to see this mentality, or check out the website, or stay plugged in to the precious not-ESPN sports sites. They can hire shady characters. They can spend hours and hours on an athlete who simply doesn't deserve it. They can downright ignore certain sports that have followings or even big sporting events that they don't have the rights to. They can plagiarize other reporters or make up stories as long as they use the word "sources".

 

It's the same thing as The Weather Channel. They own the sports category - their competition is so far behind them it's not even fair to call them competition. They're The Worldwide Leader In Sports. They can do whatever the hell they want. There's a sense of entitlement and a lot of rot inside that organization. It's a culture, a toxic culture, that infects everything. I never liked Keith Russell because he was doing Bristol. He was doing SportsCenter and I don't want to see SportsCenter. (Ducis, even though he's also from the mothership, is a lot better. Likely because he has local sports experience in big markets.)

 

Turning ESPN back into a reputable content source will take years - and that's only if they want to. The Weather Channel is facing a moment of reckoning because it lost a battle with DirecTV and currently looks like it's off the service permanently. ESPN won't ever have a moment like that because they're just too big and too popular. Also, NBC/Comcast view The Weather Channel as a "strategic investment", not a core asset. They only own part of it. ESPN makes up half of Disney's revenue.

 

Nothing short of napalming Bristol will turn them around. And no, I'm not advocating that.

[Jess 1110]

Good news, everyone!

 

According to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, ESPN is forcing Horowitz to honor his contract, which reportedly runs for multiple years. Comcast and ESPN were in negotiations for Horowitz to move over to NBC, but those talks broke down this week and Horowitz will remain with the mothership.

Granted, this still means First Take lives, but...

 

[Guest Former Member 207]

 

Do you hear that sound?

 

It's Sherwood, Stephanopoulos, Roberts and company laughing their asses off.

 

Probably Rose and King over at CBS also...

 

Aside from that, the only thing (and I mean THE only thing) I could stomach about First Take is Cari Champion. Even after a few minutes, I'm ready to change the channel; not even a piece of eye candy like her can make me sit through Screamin A. and Skip debating about staged and convoluted topics everyday.

[MorningNews 1293]

I like Cari Champion at the beginning but she just feeds right into Stephen A and Skip's nonsense and hypes it up. She is beautiful though. I am always shocked by the amount of talent First Take s able to attract, they always have good players on daily with some interesting insights.