I remember watching Around the Horn in college when it came out and thinking this show was dogshit and will last a month.
ehh I feel like there was a shift in there. Sports Reporters and PTI were still guys that took themselves very seriously. Around the Horn was when these guys realized they would get more exposure and attention if they just said stuff to make people mad.
sports reporters was definitely stuffy dudes who took themselves way too serious, no first take vibes at all there. PTI there was just a whiff of it, and then I agree, Around the Horn allowed for that type of TV to take hold.
Sports Reporters was the first attempt, but was only on once a week on Sunday mornings so it probably doesn't belong in the conversation. PTI is the gateway drug. It created all the other stuff after it. Around the Horn doesn't happen without the success of PTI. PTI is two media guys doing a show every day and talking about every sports story like they watched/followed it all when they didn't. First Take is much more like PTI than Around the Horn, IMO.
I still have a fondness for Sports Reporters but probably just the memories of watching as a kid with my dad. I'm sure if I watched it back now I'd cringe.
this is my point basically. I don't think it's fair to blame Kornheiser or Wilbon for Skip Bayless, but I absolutely will blame Cowlishaw and Woody Paige.
I remember my dad watching the Sportswriters on TV back in like the 80’s. They a bunch of old guys smoking cigars.
Sports Reporters was largely pre-internet blowing up so more of a capsule in time where those guys actually mattered.
I've never heard of Sports Reporters. Was a big ATH and PTI fan when they first started, but I was young back then. Idk the last time I watched either.
Saying PTI is the gateway drug is kind of the perfect way to describe it, though. Kornheiser and Wilbon made a show that was fun and entertaining. But the success of that show meant they were going to try to replicate it. And like most things, the knock offs aren't going to be as good as the original. Around the Horn exists because of PTI, so it's kind of hard to say it's blameless in terms of what it spawned.
Tony is the original stat boy. Am I misremembering or was Max Kellerman the original around the horn host
He was. I think the Zach Galifanakis looking guy from ESPN’s smash reality show “Dream Job” had a brief run in between.
2 decades ago ATH was goated. It was a clown show with Skip, Woody, Mariotti or whatever, Jackie, prob JA Adande
I think I was only responding because your "gateway drug" description was kind of a perfect description for PTI in that it was fun and harmless but unfortunately led to much worse things that have now ruined our sports lives.
The rat is stripping things down to the bones. It’s just gonna be Macafee, Herbstreit, Stephen A and Orlovsky 24/7 eventually unless there’s an sec game on.
I don't know if it got better. It always kind of sucked. But ATH and HQ were definitely a way for ESPN to introduce some pretty significant and diverse voices that became important to the network. Those shows were pretty big for Bomani, Mina and Pablo, as well as several others.
old school woody was the goat Never cared for the show but part of my childhood was ath, pti and baseball tonight.
ATH and PTI was a great, usually fun way to catch up on the biggest sports stories of the day. I always enjoyed watching them back when I was in high school and college. Those shows coincided with my introduction to the rivals.com message boards and the height of my sports fandom, so it was almost like an extension of what I did to pass the time back then.
ya it was a pretty awesome hour-block of TV for a young, sports-obsessed bro. the internet wasn't fully formed enough to intake sports the same way you could by just watching ESPN all day
Around the Horn did give us the mute button, which somehow has not made its way to the political equivalents.
The one thing I still remember from the Sports Reporters was Mitch Albom's huge ears. Even when he tried to cut his hair to hide half of them they were still the largest ones I had ever seen.
Ahhh, I do remember this show. Was always impressed with how bad Bob Ryan's teeth were, for somebody on TV almost every day.
The stupid hair over the ears always drew more attention to them. Like a fat kid in the pool with a shirt on.