ESPN has announced after 23 years, Around The Horn will air it’s final show on ESPN Friday May 23. The weekday program which debuted on November 4, 2002 will come to a close after more than 4,900 episodes of airing on the network.
Around The Horn consists of host Tony Reali and a rotation of four daily national sports media panelists break down the biggest sports stories of the day, racking up points to determine who gets the final say of each daily program.
“Around the Horn has had a remarkable run of more than two decades,” said David Roberts, ESPN Executive Vice President, Executive Editor, Sports News and Entertainment. “That kind of longevity in media is incredibly rare, and we look forward to celebrating the show’s many accomplishments before the final sign-off in May.”
According to ESPN, Reali has hosted ATH since February 2004, and the regular panelists who have been part of the show through the years include a veritable who’s who of media personalities: JA Adande, Kevin Blackistone, Tim Cowlishaw, Jemele Hill, Frank Isola, Bomani Jones, Mina Kimes, Jackie MacMullan, Woody Paige, Bill Plaschke, Bob Ryan, Ramona Shelburne, Sarah Spain, Pablo Torre and Clinton Yates, among many others.
“Beyond Tony and the ensemble of on-air contributors, we are particularly grateful to the production team led by Erik Rydholm and Aaron Solomon, who have been instrumental in ATH’s consistent success since the very beginning,” said Roberts.
Reali was originally dubbed “Stat Boy” in his role with ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption when the show debuted in October of 2001. His role was to correct and fact-check hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon throughout each show. Reali’s final show with PTI was on September 5, 2014 so he could join Good Morning America as a social media correspondent. In the fall of 2014, Reali moved from Washington, D.C. to New York, to continue hosting ATH and joining ABC’s Good Morning America as a correspondent, a role he occupied through 2018.
Reali originally joined ESPN in 2000.
Before joining ESPN, Reali was a sportscaster for WFUV 90.7 FM in The Bronx, New York. From 1997-2000, he was the voice of Fordham football and basketball and host of New York City’s longest-running sports call-in show, One on One
There is no word on exactly what the network will put in place following the conclusion of Around The Horn in May.
Around The Horn originates from ESPN’s Seaport Studios in New York and is produced by Rydholm Projects from the ABC News Bureau in Washington, D.C. Erik Rydholm is executive producer. Aaron Solomon is senior coordinating producer.
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