Former ESPN and NBC host Michelle Beadle was the guest of Dan Le Batard on the latest episode of South Beach Sessions. Amongst other topics, the two talked about the media business as Michelle has experienced it since she started at ESPN, the first time, in 2009.
Beadle left ESPN in 2012 for NBC to host on NBC Sports Network and also work on Access Hollywood. She ended up being released from her contract early in order to go back to ESPN in 2014.
“When I’m working, I love the people that I’m working with, with the exception of one human ever,” Beadle told Le Batard. “And I don’t have to be around the people that normally are who I’m having an issue with. So, as long as we part ways and kind of stay out of each other’s way, it’s been great. Some are not great. Look, no industry’s perfect, I’m sure we all have our complaints.”
“Your perspective must be so much different,” Le Batard said. “You have won at this industry, but you’ve also been battered by it. You’ve fought with it a little bit because you insist on getting what you’re worth and I’m not talking about money. Just being valued, like being respected and not treated like garbage.”
Beadle said that while the money is what it is, it is about much more than that.
“It’s weird, the money’s great and sort of in a warped way it’s the scoreboard of how we all keep track of all of this crap,” she said. “But it was more about sort of just treatment of everyone…I never fought down, always fight up. That’s my one thing. You can’t fight down, and I think this business also gets a bad rep for on-air people who just treat the ones around them gross and I was paranoid about that. That’s not who I would want to be. That’s not how I would ever want to operate, but in hindsight you probably wouldn’t burn as many bridges if you just fought down instead. I’d be a garbage person, but at least I would have no regrets.”
Le Batard pointed out it is rare not to have regrets at this stage of a person’s career.
“To not have regrets about burnt bridges when this industry can be cruel about how it allows anybody to age,” he said.
“I mean NBA is going to NBC, damn it, I burned that bridge,” Beadle said about her former employer. “I’ve napalmed it. I guess I’m not going to get that job. It’s a weird small world and we all sort of get recycled and the suits get recycled and, ultimately, you don’t know who’s going to end up where, which is also fun to watch and observe. But I don’t think I’ve burnt any ties that I regret.
