Tony Reali was across the country when he saw the initial report revealing that Around the Horn was going to be reaching its conclusion after a 23-year run on ESPN. In fact, he was at a Junior Olympics water polo match in Palo Alto, Calif. watching his daughter compete in the event. The news took his breath away and caused him to wonder what had caused such an outcome, remarking that the sports debate show had strong ratings.
Nonetheless, Reali knew he was not going to be hosting the program forever and spoke with executive producer Erik Rydholm while driving across the Golden Gate Bridge about what had transpired. From there, he talked with Pardon the Interruption hosts Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser about the development, and they implored him to come back to the show where he gained his footing on television as “Stat Boy.”
Reali did not detect any signs of potential cancellation and remarks that he always internalized feedback from the viewers. Rather than actively focusing on the business, he trusted his friends in those meetings and instead focused on sports. Over the last several months, Reali has been studying different aspects of the industry and speaking with people outside of sports to gauge insights and expertise. While he is excited to explore a range of possibilities in the media business, the emotions of the moment are genuine.
“It’s ending because everything has to end,” Reali said. “….I think there’s more to this show, I think there’s more to gamed debate. There’s places for everything that any network would want to do with hosts and analysts who go performative and who even get into something that is really embracing debate.”
Prior to ESPN announcing that the final episode of the show would occur on Friday, May 23, Reali was hopeful that the decision would be reversed because of stellar ratings and the quality of work. Once the news was public, Reali received a flood of commentary from audience members sharing their gratitude and appreciation for the product. Over the years, he had always received messages encouraging him to continue hosting, never taking any viewers for granted.
“Everyone wants to be called a unicorn, I was being called a unicorn’s unicorn, so those were great notes,” Reali said. “I know what my strengths are, but I was discerning, and I wasn’t necessarily doing anything outside of Around the Horn and PTI on purpose, but I have to admit that has certain pros and cons.”
Despite being offered other opportunities in the past, Reali did not partake in any other ventures and realizes that he may have been siloed away. Outside of a four-year endeavor with Good Morning America as a correspondent on the show, he channeled his full efforts and energy into recording episodes of Around the Horn. Through his collaboration and zeal for the show, he helped facilitate the inclusion of more perspectives, resonating with the audience and conveying reality through the principle of feeling.
“I would still say PTI is the most underrated show on TV,” Reali articulated. “Around the Horn was the most underrated show on TV. Again, this took me years to be able to say this. That show has introduced viewers to two-dozen new voices in the industry that maybe would have never broken [in at] other places. It solidified other voices in the industry. It was an incredible value for a network to be able to say, ‘We’re talking about things on this show that we weren’t talking about,’ or we had journalists on the show that were not full-time ESPN employees.”
Facilitating Success for His Colleagues
As Reali prepares to tape Around the Horn from the South Street Seaport Studios at Pier 17, he listens to the music selected by the first cast member to arrive. In addition, he talks with the four panelists as they prepare to deliver compelling, entertaining and illuminating television filled with sports opinions. Reali has 44 different buttons at his disposal that trigger special effects, physical movement and, of course, the infamous mute. Drawing inspiration from innovation on Sport Science to the video capabilities at Cosm venues, he is directing part of the show and always aspiring to leverage technology.
“I don’t want to stop the conversation and take points away and distract the viewer from what they’re saying, but if Bill Plaschke is bringing up LA again, I want to hit a button that puts [in] a doorbell,” Reali said. “I have a button for the banned phrases because I became someone who’s like, ‘There’s too many clichés in our business. We’re lacking the reality here. Remember what you’re saying here, don’t just say a cliché.'”
With longtime panelists Woody Paige, Jackie MacMullan, Tim Cowlishaw and Bob Ryan regularly taking part in the show, Reali was cognizant of the importance of having a national presence. Concurrently though, he was aware of accusations of coastal bias, and the program sought to represent regions from all around the country in a variety of cities. On top of that, the wave of younger panelists, which has consisted of Mina Kimes, Jen Lada, Pablo Torre and Courtney Cronin, has brought contemporary viewpoints to the air and flourished across the ESPN portfolio.
“I wanted to be able to have every conversation, and in order to do that, you need everybody,” Reali divulged, “and this is when I didn’t go up to anybody and say, ‘We need to expand the show,’ I was certainly conscious and know when we welcome in another amazing panelist and writer whom you’ve bunted elbows with, that means a fewer shows for you in the week, and the producers navigated that as they saw fit.”
Working like a basketball point guard, Reali has modeled himself like Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, who revolutionized the position with his sublime three-point shooting. Working with various personalities is something Reali regards as a differentiator, and he views himself as a connector who assists his colleagues in achieving strong results.
“‘They will forget what you say, they will forget what you do, but they’ll remember how you make them feel,’” Reali remarked. “….Once I unlocked that, and I had my own growth in whatever and navigating my own life’s worth of feelings, that’s toothpaste out of a tube. I can’t see doing TV in a different way, and then I apply it to all the different other types of TV that I like watching.”
The scoring system lives in the annals of the show history. Caroline Willett, the producer of research for the show, has helped take it to another level, tracking metrics such as clutch points, which Reali awards during the “Showdown” and “After the Horn” segments. Although he claims the show has never been fixed, he puts an asterisk next to such and admits that it held true unless he heard someone had a strong “Face Time” about someone in their family or a charity.
“I could say the scoring system was arbitrary,” Reali said. “This is the secret, completely out. I was scoring the show like life scores life. Some days, you get points for doing things you always did, and they were great, and some days, the scoring system is rewarding things that you don’t do, and you have to deal with that. How do you respond? You don’t have control over things in life. You control as much as you can how you respond to those things, and these are lessons I’ve learned in life.”
Beginnings Behind the Camera
Reali can harken back to the beginning of hosting Around the Horn when he was called during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show asking him to fill in for host Max Kellerman on the show. As the days continued, he kept showing up but ultimately expected Stuart Scott to arrive in Washington, D.C. to host the show. Despite that expectation, the temporary job turned into his full-time occupation, and he continued balancing the enterprise with Pardon the Interruption.
“I didn’t take vacation for 11 years,” Reali said. “I never wanted anyone sitting in my chair. That was an imposter syndrome thing, but [it] genuinely didn’t feel like work doing the show, and we have off. Do it again is the name of the industry, right?”
Reali regards producer Bob Ahrens as a mentor while at Fordham University. Ahrens discerned Reali’s incessant energy and distinctive personality as things that would cut through, a premise that turned out to be correct. Reali still speaks with Ahrens today and tries to continue being himself during Around the Horn including, on numerous occasions, bringing in guests from off the street to the second-floor studio to watch a live taping of the show, and he has surmised having fans as panelists as well.
“Is that something maybe ESPN, the network, wants to do?,” Reali said. “I never got that feeling, but it is something I would want to do – be among the people and hosting a fans’ Around the Horn in a community forum. I’m talking to people about how to put myself out there in a space where I can do that and other things.”
Embracing New Multiplatform Possibilities
With the impending expiration of his contract, Reali is taking meetings as a free agent and has compiled a list of ideas about the next phase of his career. One thing he will not be doing, however, is only working on one show. Although he looks forward to conversations with ESPN about remaining with the network, he recognizes how seldom hosts with his level of experience become available. Reali has made it known in his meetings that he is willing to experiment and also affirms that he is not trying to take anyone’s job, but rather is staying creative as he looks to become a multiplatform personality creating and producing content.
“I know I can do an Around the Horn 2.0-type show that has a different name or has a different bent,” Reali said. “It’s just with streamers – I wouldn’t mind coming in and just kicking it around with people for a little while [as] I’m also pursuing the biggest jobs in sports TV, and then even stuff that’s outside that.”
Reali is in the process of launching his own website, a public domain that will provide the audience with an outlet and a chance to assist aspiring sportscasters in their career endeavors. Furthermore, he has also thought about creating parenting content, hosting a gameshow and children’s television program, and also creating videos for his own YouTube channel. Reali aspires to cover seminal sporting moments while flexing his abilities as a content creator, and he also remains bullish about the future of interactive gaming. At the same time, he envisions himself standing at the edge of a cliff with an expansive ocean ahead amid a world of possibilities.
“There’s different worlds and then there’s sports and there’s podcasting,” Reali said. “Whether those are shorts and 10-minute hits on the daily, or whether those are longform podcast digitals, that’s something in six months now I’d love to be doing and living in a podcast, digital space on my own.”
Reali is comfortable existing as his own entity and is also willing to move away from New York if necessary. As decisions about his future draw closer, he is continuing to place his family first and discover the best means to proceed. Once Around the Horn officially signs off, a half-hour version of SportsCenter will air in the 5 p.m. EST timeslot with more updates about the future afternoon television schedule to be announced later.
Although Reali would have Pardon the Interruption expand to an hour since he claims it is the best show on the network, he believes the program works best in its current structure. Despite affirming that Around the Horn could have existed as an hourlong show because of the panelists and his tireless energy, Reali contends that the new offering must meet the level at which the two simultaneous programs have operated for the last two decades.
“There needs to be a creative show in that space, something that is just creative and different,” Reali said. “…I hope they create a show that is a different show. I hope to be the one that could be involved maybe in it.”
As Reali prepares to bid farewell to a show he has hosted for the last 21 years, he is going to miss the daily routine associated with his job. In addition, he will miss regularly catching up with his colleagues and has vivid memories of experiencing life milestones within the group.
In fact, Reali estimates that he and Woody Paige have only been in the same room together five or six times but remembers him visiting and singing a Lionel Ritchie song as he played the piano. Music is a recurring part of Reali’s life, and while he plans to record a drum introduction for his new YouTube channel, he will never forget the rhythm that rendered Around the Horn as one of the longest-tenured sports shows in television history.
“Bill Plaschke loves ABBA, and the little dance he does in his chair when he hears it, and everybody’s feeling their music and we’re all looking at them, but they’re already lost, and it works,” Reali said. “You forget you’re about to be on TV, and then that first answer, as in depth as it might be, is going to have notes of humanity in it, and that’s what’s going to make that show work that day.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Derek Futterman is an associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, email Derek@BarrettMedia.com or find him on X @derekfutterman.
