NBA legend Bill Walton is one of the most unique personalities in basketball, and ESPN is set to spotlight Walton’s personality and hall-of-fame career in a new four-part 30 for 30 series.
The Luckiest Guy in the World will debut on June 6 at 8 p.m. on ESPN. The final two parts of the series, directed by Steve James, will ai on June 13 at 8 p.m. The series hits ESPN+ after the premiere.
Music from the legendary jam band Grateful Dead will help set the tone for each part of the series, which will jump back and forth from present day to his NBA heyday and dominant college years at UCLA.
In addition to Walton and his family, greats like Larry Bird and Julius Erving will also be featured as well.
The Luckiest Guy in the World is not the first 30 for 30 film focused on a broadcaster. A documentary about Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder was included in the series’ first season. Mike & The Mad Dog premiered in 2017.
It won’t even be the first time that ESPN has put a member of its college basketball staff in the spotlight. Dickie V, which was focused on the life and influence of Dick Vitale, premiered last year.
Monday night’s first round, Game 7 matchup between the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers concluded the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, being broadcast for the second-consecutive year on networks owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports. The action contained a plethora of unexpected outcomes – including the Florida Panthers tying Game 7 against the Boston Bruins in the final minute and subsequently winning the contest in overtime to eliminate the best regular season team of all time.
Akin to the Bruins setting the record for most wins and points in a regular season, TNT’s broadcast of Game 7 shattered a record by reaching an average of 3.2 million viewers, making it the most-watched first round game of all time on cable. It is also the highest mark for a first round contest on any network in over a decade, surpassing Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals between the Bruins and Washington Capitals in April 2012. Viewership for the game peaked at 4.1 million.
With their defeat of the Avalanche, the Kraken became the only expansion franchise in NHL history to earn its first playoff series win against a defending Stanley Cup champion. That Game 7 telecast, which immediately followed the Bruins-Panthers matchup, amassed over 2 million viewers, rendering it the most-watched late window game in the first round ever. Overall, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports has now broadcast the four most-watched first round games on cable. TNT and TBS combined to average 959,000 viewers throughout its broadcasts of the first round action.
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports’ broadcast of the second round of the NHL Playoffs will commence on Thursday, May 4 as the Florida Panthers battle the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST on TNT. Then at 9:30 p.m. EST/6:30 p.m. PST, the Seattle Kraken face the Dallas Stars in the second game of the Western Conference Semifinals. TNT will broadcast its first-ever Stanley Cup Final this season as part of its seven-year media rights agreement with the National Hockey League.
Yesterday, Media Matters revealed behind-the-scenes footage of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson dragging the network’s streaming service — FOX Nation — through the mud in a private conversation. Newsmax host Rob Finnerty believes Fox News was behind the release.
During Wake Up America, Finnerty showcased the clip of Carlson privately telling a colleague that the FOX Nation streaming service “sucks” and that he and his team were “working like animals” to produce content for the platform that wasn’t given the proper promotional support.
Finnerty argued that, in his estimation, it was clear Fox News was behind the leak and was trying to provoke the former host.
“They’re trying to discredit Tucker Carlson, and they’re also trying to bait him into publicly responding so they don’t have to pay him $30 million,” Finnerty said. “I’ll tell you what Fox does not want to happen – and this is the elephant in the room. We saw that TMZ report drop on Friday. We can’t really say much about what’s going on. But Fox News does not want Tucker Carlson coming to Newsmax, plain and simple.”
The reference to the TMZ report by Finnerty claims Newsmax was “beating down Carlson’s door” with an offer for him to join forces with the upstart network. The report claimed Newsmax was “doing everything it can to sweeten the deal for Tucker to come on board”, even going as far as to say Carlson could program the whole network in addition to hosting his own show.
Videos of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson trashing the network’s streaming platform were uncovered Monday, and conservative radio host Chris Stigall believes the cable outlet is behind the leaks.
During The Chris Stigall Show, the radio host argued that the release of the videos was designed to make Carlson look bad, but in his view, it has done the opposite.
“There are new videos of Tucker ‘behind the scenes’, and it makes me love him more, quite frankly, not less,” Stigall said. “I think Fox is in the middle of trying to trash Tucker Carlson.”
He then said Carlson should have been more aware of one of the first things aspiring broadcasters learn when they enter the industry.
“This is what’s so dangerous in this business. This is something you learn as a youngster coming up, with a microphone or a camera in front of your face, you don’t allow raw emotion or honesty about something like this to come pouring out when a microphone or a camera is near.
“Because even when you’re off the air, when you think you’re done and your show is over, if there are mics and cameras around, odds are — particularly when you’re dealing with a crew the size of Tucker — someone in the bunch who goes ‘Oh, Tucker’s throwing a little bit of a fit. I better hit record. This will be funny later’…All it takes is one ne’er-do-well producer or editor to just hit record while the guy’s still in the studio freaking out about something and they say ‘We’ll just tuck that away for a rainy day’, and maybe they show it at a private party or show it to their buddies.”
Stigall then argued Fox News is “running an underground smear campaign” against Carlson, in an effort to get conservatives to dislike the former host.
After playing the clip of Carlson’s anger toward the FOX Nation service, Stigall called Carlson a “beautiful S.O.B”.
“I don’t even know the circumstances of any of that, but having heard it for the first time, you just can’t possibly know how much I love him more now,” Stigall concluded.
Media Matters released three more videos of Carlson after Stigall’s show Tuesday. In the videos, he jokes about discussing “sex techniques” during an appearance on a program hosted by Piers Morgan. He also gives Media Matters two middle fingers in another, while joking that he “can never assess” his appearance before a program. “I wait for my postmenopausal fans to weigh in on that.”
On a video posted to Twitter, Smerconish — who is also a CNN weekend host — said he didn’t know about the event before it was announced, but argued that CNN This Morning co-host Kaitlan Collins, who will moderate the interview, is a great fit for the job.
“I think it’s a great thing. First of all, Kaitlan Collins is perfect,” Smerconish said. “She’s firm, she’s fair, she’s consistent. She’ll ask tough questions of Donald Trump. He’s not gonna get one over on her.”
Smerconish continued by saying that the biggest critics of Trump were being unreasonable by expecting him to simply receive no coverage from cable news outlets during the run-up to the 2024 Republican primary.
“How do you not give him some access to the airwaves? According to CBS today, he’s at 53% of the vote against Ron DeSantis and other challengers,” noted Smerconish. “Critics of Trump — who think that the media should completely ignore him — are asking too much. That’s not gonna happen. The public has a right to see how he responds to questions. So, I like it.”
Next week, @CNN will hold a town hall where moderator, @kaitlancollins, New Hampshire Republicans, and undeclared voters will question Former President Trump in what will be his first appearance on the network since the 2016 presidential campaign. pic.twitter.com/VMorJ24EBQ
The opening round of the NBA Playoffs certainly lived up to, if not exceeded expectations, and viewership across platforms owned by The Walt Disney Company set multiple new records. The network announced Tuesday that ABC and ESPN broadcasts of NBA playoff games averaged 4.52 million viewers, a record for the networks and a figure up 18% from last year. All but one of the opening-round series went more than four games, with the Golden State Warriors tilt with the Sacramento Kings being the only series that went the maximum of seven games.
In fact, Game 7 on Sunday night averaged 9.84 million viewers, which rendered it the most-watched NBA playoff game in the first round over the last 24 years, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. The broadcast reached a maximum of 11.3 million viewers in the quarter hour beginning at 6 p.m. EST. It is ABC’s largest accumulated audience ever recorded for an NBA playoff game outside of the NBA Finals.
The NBA enjoyed tremendous digital success too with its app and social media platforms amassing a total of 2.6 billion views, 46% higher than last year’s total. Digital engagement peaked on Sunday, April 30 when the mobile app evinced the most active users it ever recorded in a single day.
???? Game 7 of the GSW vs. SAC series on ABC – most-watched first round game in 24 years: 9.8M viewers
???? First round games across ABC, ESPN, TNT & NBA TV is the most watched in 9 years: 3.4M viewers
???? Won the night across all of TV among viewers under 50 on 13 out of 14 nights pic.twitter.com/mJRAqDb35h
Leading up to Game 7, the battle between the Warriors and Kings was drawing extensive appeal from viewers, setting a record of its own. The penultimate game of the series, which took place from Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., averaged 4.98 million viewers and peaked at 10:30 p.m. EST with a total audience of 6.51 million. Game 6 of the series marks the most-watched first round playoff game ever broadcast on ESPN.
The series between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Los Angeles Lakers had no shortage of talking points, especially after Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks called Lakers superstar and the Association’s all-time leading scorer LeBron James “old” and someone he did not respect. LeBron James issued a presumable response to Brooks on Twitter after the Lakers eliminated the Grizzlies.
Likely due to the intrigue surrounding the situation Brooks cultivated, along with the ardent fanbase of the Lakers, ESPN reported an average audience of 4.64 million viewers during Game 6. It marked the third-most watched first-round NBA playoff game on ESPN and peaked at 5.7 million viewers at approximately 10:50 p.m. EST.
The Los Angeles Lakers will face the Golden State Warriors beginning Tuesday night at 10 p.m. EST/7 p.m. PST on TNT. The network will also broadcast Game 2 of the New York Knicks matchup against the Miami Heat and reveal the Kia NBA Most Valuable Player during the pregame show at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST.
The Volume continues to, well, turn up the volume.
It was announced that the digital media venture, founded by FOX Sports Radio host Colin Cowherd, is adding audiovisual content from FantasyPros to its growing, eclectic repertoire of sports media offerings. Its content centers around football. The company’s YouTube channel alone has 189,000 subscribers.
Two podcasts from the company will join The Volume’s podcast network, one of which is the daily FantasyPros Football Podcast. The FantasyPros Dynasty Podcast, which is released once per week, is the other as The Volume aims to expand its reach and continue its upward trajectory.
“We’re thrilled to bring our fantasy football podcasts to The Volume Network to share our insights and analysis with their audience of millions of sports fans,” FantasyPros CEO and co-founder David Kim said in a statement. “Showcasing our podcasts alongside Colin Cowherd and so many notable shows within their network is a fantastic opportunity, and we look forward to working with The Volume team to elevate our shows to new levels.”
The Volume currently has a variety of podcasts, some of which are hosted by active players in the National Basketball Association and the National Football League. Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green recently made headlines following the team’s Game 7 defeat of the Sacramento Kings when he used his podcast to criticize Sacramento Kings forward Domantas Sabonis for refusing to express sportsmanship by shaking hands.
“We’ve been paying close attention to FantasyPros football podcasts and their rapid organic growth in only five years,” Cowherd said in a statement. “We wanted to add the FantasyPros football shows to The Volume for the same reason they have built such a big fan base: it’s smart, informative and a lot of fun to listen to.”
While speaking at the 2023 BSM Summit from Los Angeles, Calif., Cowherd expressed how he views The Volume as a media company more than a podcast company. He also articulated how the company is following content from around the industry and tailoring itself to what its audience desires and working to discover new ways to best reach it.
“If you look at what we did – Draymond Green, second-round pick. Richard Sherman, fifth-round pick,” Cowherd said at the event. “I hired a bunch of people I thought [are] grinders. Somebody’s cast them aside; they’ve been doubted.”
According to Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post, FantasyPros football podcasts and their associated talent will appear on additional content from The Volume and embark on cross-promotional endeavors.
Yesterday, a surprise announcement that former President Donald Trump would appear on CNN for the first time in seven years as part of a town hall event in New Hampshire struck many surprise. Keith Olbermann was one of them who was surprised but wasn’t pleasantly receptive to the news.
“Chris Licht’s transformation of CNN into a journalistic whorehouse is complete,” Olbermann said to begin his Countdown with Keith Olbermann podcast Tuesday. “CNN is now bribing Donald Trump to accept its offer for a town hall…during which CNN says questions will be asked by New Hampshire Republicans and undecided voters and implied that its only involvement will be having the former Tucker Carlson website employee Kaitlan Collins moderate.
“I used that word ‘bribing’ deliberately because this is more than just sacrificing the charged remains of CNN’s credibility to Trump. There is a quid-pro-quo here.”
Olbermann then read reporting from The Guardian that claimed there was an unspoken agreement between CNN and Trump officials that more of his “campaign surrogates” will appear on its programs after accepting the invitation to appear on the network.
He then criticized CNN staffers like Wolf Blitzer, Jim Acosta, Jake Tapper, and Jim Sciutto, by name for failing to stand up to CEO Chris Licht over the decision to air a town hall with the former President.
“Not one of whom quit in protest of this prostituting of their news brand or their personal reputations. Not one of whom even let out an anonymous squeak of regret to a real journalist covering this story. It must now be assumed anyone who works on or for CNN are all lying, because they work for a liar, and they appear on a channel dedicated to lying, which has just sold the few remaining shards of its soul to the greatest liar of our time in Trump. CNN is now Fox News.”
The Pittsburgh Pirates swept their doubleheader against the Washington Nationals and currently hold the best record in the National League. That’s very different from what was predicted. Tuesday morning on 93.7 The Fan, The Fan Morning Show producer Adam Crowley expressed a desire for more scheduled doubleheaders, specifically on weekends, so fans can enjoy a long day at the ballpark watching their favorite team.
“First pitch [at] 1:00, and the way that the games move now quickly, you get a little bit of a break before the second game [starts] at 6,” Crowley said. “I like the traditional doubleheaders, but I’d love to see MLB schedule a couple of these a season. You go, you buy your ticket, you stay there all day.”
Doubleheaders are generally a topic of disdain with many around the game of baseball since they are rarely what is scheduled. Yet with a litany of wet weather in the Northeast over the last week, many of them have been played already this season. This past weekend alone, three doubleheaders were played in Detroit, Washington, D.C., and New York, respectively. Going into the 2023 season, just two split doubleheaders were included in the schedule.
Three weeks into the regular season, Major League Baseball’s average time of a nine-inning game clocks in at 2 hours and 37 minutes, a 27-minute decrease from last season. Additionally, the league did away with seven-inning doubleheaders, instituted during the pandemic-stricken 60-game regular season. Extra innings still begin with an automatic runner on second base in an effort to hasten play.
Despite the initial schedule containing few doubleheaders, Crowley is encouraging Major League Baseball to consider implementing them into its planning for seasons ahead rather than utilizing them to make up for rainouts. In large part, this can be attributed to the league’s success in expediting the pace of play, most notably through the pitch clock, and infusing the sport with more offensive because of limited defensive shifts and enlarged bases.
“I love scheduled doubleheaders,” Crowley said. “I’m rooting for more of these.”
After video footage of alleged emotional abuse toward his estranged wife was uncovered, conservative commentator Steven Crowder claimed the footage was “misleadingly edited”. However, 10 former employees have now gone on the record to claim they worked under similar conditions with Crowder.
In a report from The New York Post, the former employees use terms like “volatile”, “abusive”, and “unreasonable micromanager” to describe working conditions under Crowder.
A portion of the Post’s report claims Crowder would “scream at his employees — including his own father”. Six of the ten former employees interviewed claimed he would “expose his genitals” at times.
“That might not be the Steven you see on his show, but that was the real Steven,” one former employee said.
“We don’t want Steven to suffer. We just want the abuse to stop or at least let future employees know what they’re getting themselves into,” another former employee commented.
Crowder’s behavior has risen to the forefront after revealing he has been going through what he called an “increasingly horrendous divorce”.
The Louder with Crowder host moved his video show to Rumble earlier this year after publicly alleging that conservative digital outlet The Daily Wire offered him a contract that featured “unreasonable demands for control”, calling the terms “immoral”. He has since traded barb with The Daily Wire’s Candace Owens, going as far to threaten legal action for “extorting” him by alluding to problems in his personal life.
