ESPN is making changes to their daytime lineup as the Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand reports High Noon with Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre is being canceled.
According to Ourand, the final episode of High Noon will air sometime at the end of March, falling short of its two-year anniversary. The show originally launched with its full name High Noon (9am Pacific) as a one-hour daily show in Jun. 2018. But just three months later, ESPN canceled SportsNation and replaced it with High Noon. Since Sept. 2018, High Noon has aired as a half-hour show at 4pm ET on ESPN.
Replacing High Noon on ESPN weekdays from 4 – 4:30pm ET will be Jalen & Jacoby which moves over from ESPN2. A plan for filling the 2pm void left by Jalen & Jacoby on ESPN 2 was not announced.
Last November, The Washington Post reported ESPN was running focus groups on High Noon to help decide its future. It would seem those tests didn’t signal enough interest to keep the show going. “Co-hosts Pablo Torre and Bomani Jones are extremely talented, and they helmed what we believed was a smart and nuanced show. Unfortunately, not enough people agreed with us,” ESPN said in an emailed statement to Ourand.
According to Ourand, ESPN cited poor viewership as the reason the show will be canceled. So for High Noon was averaging 330,000 viewers in the first quarter, which is lower than other ESPN debate shows, but not by much. Dan Le Batard’s Highly Questionable has averaged 404,000 viewers, while Mike Greenberg’s Get Up! Is averaging 380,000.
The High Noon hosts will continue appearing on ESPN for now, with Jones also recording his twice weekly podcast, but questions remain about their futures with the network. The contracts for both Jones and Torre are set to expire next month.
“We look forward to discussing with them how to best utilize their talents across a variety of ESPN platforms,” ESPN added in their emailed statement to Ourand, which at least publicly signals an interest in continuing their relationship with Jones and Torre.
The idea for High Noon with Jones and Torre was created under former ESPN president John Skipper, who now runs DAZN. With Bomani having two master’s degrees in economics and Torre being a Harvard graduate, High Noon looked to set itself apart with intellect. But as Jones and Torre near free agency and High Noon gets cut from ESPN, Skipper’s DAZN is reportedly interested in producing more debate style shows, having been mentioned as a possible landing spot for Skip Bayless if he leaves FS1.
Good riddance to these racists.