ESPN pay cuts?

not sure how PTI is "mailing it in." the show seems to have exactly the same formula/energy it has always had: two informed buddies babbling about sports. it's not like they were hardcore investigating, and suddenly decided to visibly take it easy.

so: enlighten us. how so?

 

It's played out.

 

ATH has the always evolving personalities and if you ask me, Wilbon takes this stuff way too seriously anymore.

It's like Pat's and Geno's, each are enjoyable.

 

They are not informed. Kornheiser hasn't paid attention to sports or current events in 15 years. Wilbon is better but not by much.

 

I don't watch either very often any more. Loved PTI when it first came out, of course.

During the pandemic, my scheduled lined up that I did watch both kind of regularly. I started to prefer ATH during that period. Seemed fresher. I always feel like I know exactly what Kornhieser and Wilbon will say before they say it.

 

That's what I've wondered a lot about Stephen A. Smith and whoever else he debates. I never watch that ESPN morning programming, but how do those panelists possibly have the time to watch enough of the athletes/teams to have well-informed opinions across all of those sports on a daily basis? If you're bringing on an NFL analyst, and the only topics are NFL, I can understand it. But if they're constantly going from NFL to NBA to MLB to colleges, not to mention women's sports. I'll never understand why people care about the opinions of people who pay little attention to their favorite teams/players.

 

They follow golf. Wilbon follows the Chicago Cubs and can give you superficial thoughts on the NBA and NFL.

That's pretty much it. If you want "Can Tiger win another major?" they're a go-to. Outside of that, forget it.

 

The “Wilbon name dropping famous people” has been a running gag for a long time but I’m not sure it’s ever been more eye-rolly than it was in the Jokic v. Ishbia conversation a few days ago. (I rarely consume PTI or anything else these days, but did happen to see that one.)

Anyway, you’d have thought Wilbon and Ishbia were family, but really it’s just a rich guy whose ass Wilbon kisses. (Not that he’s not plenty rich himself.)

I agree they aren’t the place for any kind of deep analysis on anything. They’re proudly behind the times on plenty of stuff and it’s super apparent if you consume more focused sports content, then come back to PTI. I still appreciate their chemistry, always the best thing about the show, but then the mix of decades of experience covering sports with, especially in Tony’s case, a fan-on-the-couch perspective. as others have pointed out, it’s nice to think they actually believe what they’re saying.

 

They are both filthy rich- they don't need to do this.
But ESPN thinks this is still 2006 when two now-old dudes are funny because you know you get it they're like opposites and stuff.

 

Young folks do not want to watch oldes (and I sadly include myself in the latter) argue about sports. Or about anything. This should be abundantly obvious to anyone making these decisions.

 

Young folks don’t really want to watch much TV at all. I think PTI and ATH are still about the best ESPN can offer to the aging demographic that’s most likely to watch something in a time window without live sports. I imagine a large swath of their audience is the one that was hooked when those shows started 20 years ago. Best networks can do is hold onto those people as long as they can.