Add SportNet New York, the TV home of the Mets, to the long list of media companies hit hard by COVID-19. First reported by Bob Raissman of The Daily News, SNY has cut some of its original programming and employees in response to recent negative economic impacts.
LoudMouths and The Thread have both been dropped, and according to Andrew Marchand of The New York Post, 20 network employees were let go including production staff. The shows were paused in March, shortly after live sports were stopped by the current global pandemic, but now they’re officially canceled.
“For 15 years, we have made adjustments and improvements to ensure SNY’s health and sustained growth,” SNY said in a statement. “The Covid-19 pandemic has forced us to do a comprehensive assessment of our business, and we are, again, responding with changes. We have decided to discontinue two of our television programs, The Thread and LoudMouths, while we further evaluate our programming strategy. These decisions are never easy, but necessary to keep SNY well-positioned for the future.”
LoudMouths launched in 2008 with, its most recent host being Howard Stern contributor Jon Hein, who joined the show in 2016. Hosted by Justine Ward, The Thread replaced SNY original Daily News Live in March 2019. The Post also reports Ward resigned from SNY with plans of enrolling in an MBA program at Notre Dame.
The changes at SNY make SportsNite and Baseball Night in New York the two remaining studio shows on the network. SportsNite is currently on hiatus, while Baseball Night in New York has continued to create new programming.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
