The Ringer is Live

Simmons as Steve jobs is a laughable comparison. And I like Simmons a lot.

 

Ratings for Bill Simmons’s HBO show have hit rock bottom

82,000 viewers. Those would be good numbers for Fox Sports 2.

 

I'm never watched Any Given Wednesday and have no desire to—I like Simmons in print but I can't stand to hear him talk—but in his defense, the 82,000 number came from a show opposite the presidential debate.

 

As someone pointed out on twitter or maybe it was another web site, a nightly sports talk show is a non-starter. Competing against the presidential debate? Hell, tomorrow he might be competing against a Cubs-Indians Game 7. In that case, he’d be lucky to get half of that 82,000.

I’ve tried watching because I like Simmons, but he needs to cut bait with the TV show. The recorded bits are tired and unspired, he doesn’t take any controversial stands, and he’ll always be competing with live sports. The immediacy of Around the Horn or Pardon the Interruption just isn’t there. He supposedly has several Daily Show alums writing for him, but it doesn’t show.

I don’t know how this ends because I heard he got a three-year contract and like $20 million, but the show is a failure and I think he needs to refocus on the things he’s really good at: podcasts and columns.

I’m liking some of the things I read on The Ringer, but only the sports stuff. It just feels like a weakened version of Grantland.

 

I don't know why Simmons was given this kind of money, just like I wasn't sure why Rick Reilly was given his contract.

It's foolishness. But it's HBO's money. I don't have to pay for it.

 

By the way, the Ringer has a new layout with the latest stories now listed next to a main piece. I know everyone seems to love Medium, but the way they organize stories is asinine and looks built to appeal to a 5-year-old who likes bright shiny objects.

 

Totally agree. I like the "menu" on the side, it's an improvement at least. I think the idea with Medium is that you can never stop scrolling, and there is always something to click on and read, but I just find it frustrating.

 

Perfect example is The Cauldron. The story on top was posted 4 days ago, the one below it on Oct. 25. But if you scroll, you finally find a story that was posted 3 hours ago and one posted yesterday. BTW, I get the sense that The Cauldron is on life support. Ever sense the redesign of SI, they have been buried. They used to be a quick link up top. Now you can barely find them and their stories are buried. Enjoyed a lot of their stuff

 

0 for 7 on stories I want to read. Air fucking Bud? JFC, who in the hell is running things over at The Ringer? Lynn Hoppes? Is next week anti-pizza week?

SMDH. I keep returning to the site to find the occasionally piece by Robert Mays or their MLB crew, but there is so much garbage on that site.

 

To each his own. I read it quite a bit.

 

A whole new take on releasing the hounds ...

 

It's by millennials, for millennials, run by a smug, privileged, overly-sensitive guy who wishes he were a millennial and uses "fun" as a way of controlling his environment to a T.

It's Jimmy Fallon on the Web.