ESPN announced last week that the iconic sports debate show Around the Horn was ending and would air its final episode at the end of May.
Now, former Around The Horn panelist Jay Mariotti is claiming that the show went downhill because it went “woke.”
During a recent interview with Front Office Sports, Jay Mariotti blasted ESPN for its “woke” agenda. He accused former ESPN president John Skipper of choosing “anti-Trump” personalities for the Around The Horn panel.
“John Skipper ran ESPN at the time,” Mariotti said. “I think what John Skipper wanted from some of the shows was he started to install people on the shows who became anti-Trump — can I put it that way? Our show was about sports. Honestly, we did delve into politics. But you were never going to get me on ripping the president or praising the president. We’re not going that far. I started to watch the show and I would see people down and out anti-Trump.
“I’m not going to tell you whether I’m a Trump guy or not. That’s really irrelevant. I did not want to watch a sports show and see it delve into that. And I think it started at the top from management, at the time, that they wanted this to be the tone of the show. Jemele Hill had her say. Michael Smith had his say. I was like, ‘Can we get back to this?’”
Mariotti claimed that the “woke” directive caused ESPN and Around The Horn to lose some of their viewers.
“I think they lost some audience. That’s rather obvious. Nobody’s turning on ESPN to watch this,” Mariotti continued. “They want to see what’s going on in the NBA and the NFL and so on. If there are political issues, fine. But please don’t turn it into this. I think they lost audience. Those people inevitably left the show. Skipper inevitably left the network… As I said, PTI has certain numbers. Around the Horn does not have anywhere near those numbers. They should get rid of the show — because there’s nothing left.”
Again, if you believe his version of events, ATH went “too woke” and is now left in the ashes of ESPN’s shifting priorities — or, more likely, in the rearview mirror of a network that moved on without him.
“We went through a difficult time in this country. I did too, and you did too,” Mariotti tells McCarthy. “But if there’s one reason why we’re turning on ESPN from 2010 to 2020, in that general range, we’re still looking at sports. Stephen A. (Smith) delves into all sorts of things. He’s even talking about running for president. Well, good for him.
“The point being that when you’re turning it on, and he’s on with his partner, they’re going to delve into LeBron playing with Luka, they’re going to get into Butler playing with Curry, they’re going to talk about Oklahoma City, they’re going to get into that… Back then I honest to god don’t know what they were getting into half the time.”
It’s worth noting that Mariotti made his last appearance on the show in 2010. The network decided not to use him on the panel after he was charged with seven misdemeanors related to an alleged domestic disturbance in 2010. He later pleaded no contest to charges involving stalking and assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
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