FS1 host Nick Wright has his show First Things First in a great place, and it’s something he’s very proud of.
Wright was interviewed on the House of Strauss podcast with Ethan Sherwood Strauss, and Nick said he and co-hosts Chris Broussard and Kevin Wildes have managed to just find the perfect balance that works for their show.
“The reason our show is succeeding is because we have found this very fine line to straddle of taking the sports super seriously and not taking ourselves seriously at all,” he said. “People are tuning in because they love sports. So if you treat it like it doesn’t matter, you’re disrespecting the audience in my opinion.”
“Brou is great at really all of the stuff we need to do and so that’s why in my opinion our show works,” Wright added. “It feels like a good hang to people with some actual real information and substance.”
Strauss chimed in saying it’s clear how different their show is compared to other sports talk or sports debate shows on television.
“You guys have the best chemistry of any sports show right now, and I think it is resonating,” he said. “And it’s for those reasons that everybody seems to go home friends. Even if it’s a vigorous debate.”
Ethan added that while some shows gain better traction on social media in small chunks, Wright’s show is better observed as a cumulative work. He said there’s an aspect of self-awareness in the overall product Wright puts together.
Wright said it just varied how he’s perceived because what you see in clips on social media is different than what you get watching a full episode of First Things First.
“My approval rating is vastly different depending on how you consume the content I produce,” he said. “You know what I mean? If you’re someone that almost all the sports talk content you consume is via social media, here’s what you know about Nick: This f–king guy loves LeBron James, loves Patrick Mahomes, everyone else sucks and he’s never been wrong. Not everyone else sucks, but there is a kernel of truth in all of those things. But if you consume the show it’s very different.”
He did admit that things on social media with the most strident opinions that cut through end up getting more circulation, but that’s not the bulk of the show.
“Our show doesn’t do great on social media,” he said. “Does great on YouTube where it has full segments, but what’s interesting is I think a mistake that I know I made for a long time, and I see a lot of people make, is I watch and I’m like, ‘You’re not doing the show for the TV show, you are doing it for the 90 (second) clip that will crush on the internet.’ But it’s not part of an ecosystem within the show.”
“And sometimes I see things on Twitter, or I’m watching a show, and I see things and I’m like, ‘This was done for the clip, this wasn’t done for any other purpose than this will do well on the internet,’ he later added. “And I’m not saying there’s not a place for that, but I feel like that for some people has become the entirety of what they create.”
