ESPN is reportedly considering bringing back The Sports Reporters. While details are scarce, some reports say it would only air on YouTube, which Dan Le Batard believes would be a mistake.
The last episode of the long-running program aired in 2017. Jeremy Schaap, the son of the original host Dick Schaap, is reportedly the front-runner to lead the revitalized program for ESPN, with Al Michaels and Joe Buck being floated as potential panelists.
Dan Le Batard, however, believes that hosting a nuanced show featuring sports journalists is better suited for an older audience, which ESPN isn’t likely to attract by putting the program exclusively on YouTube.
“I think there’s going to be a big audience — a big, old audience — but a big audience,” co-host Stugotz said Tuesday.
“A big, old audience that doesn’t know how to find YouTube,” replied The Dan Le Batard Show host. “[It] can find an AARP magazine because they’re still buying magazines, but won’t be able to find how to pay for Sunday Ticket because it’s on YouTube.”
Le Batard added that the issues facing the show in 2017 when it ended its run — the number of NFL pre-game shows on linear television — still exist in 2024.
“It got banished to ESPN2 — they ran it off. Football came and stomped it out,” the host argued. “Football comes on Sunday mornings and just shits on everybody…. and now it’s coming back on YouTube and I ask you, ‘What is the audience for that?’”
Before discussing the topic, Dan Le Batard noted that he hadn’t “talked about anything sports media-related” for two weeks, and deserved credit for not stirring up any conversations with his Meadowlark Media crew.
