I think the show is called
Good Morning Football.
The latest to be shown "the door"--if anyone was interested in knowing was Shaun Assel, an Investigative Unit Writer who was one of the key reasons behind the launch of
ESPN The Magazine in 1998. His final piece deals with a feature on Maria Sharapova.
So, it isn't just people in front of the camera--it is writers too.
And yes, it is hard to believe--that it took ESPN this long to be like other cable channels going away from their simple vision of delivering the goods and being honest about it:
MTV, was all music videos all the time and ever since
The Real World began to insert reality shows in the 1990's, that channel even during the annual Music VMA's is unwatchable--mostly geared toward females in high school and college.
Headline News (anyone remember when it was first referred to as CNN2?), we knew then how to get our news every 30 minutes. Same with business news and sports scores too. Now, it is just Robin Meade and Friends and mostly nothing else--unless you like HLN touting crime stories on Friday nights.
The Weather Channel, yes they actually did report on the weather. Even the forecasts were decent, all set to smooth jazz music. Once Jen Carfagno tried her hand at co-hosting
Weather and a Movie on Friday nights during one summer in the mid 2000's, that channel has mostly become unwatchable.
Regionally speaking, the Comcast RSN's (Regional Sports Networks)--for over 20 years, their postgame highlight shows were just that: lots of recaps, locker room interviews with coaches and key players, and maybe one light-hearted story from across the globe.
Since earlier this year, some channels are going to more social media oriented fare. In Chicago, Leila Remini along with Luke Stuckmeyer host a show called
In The Loop. It starts out briefly into highlights from the key moments of the day in sports, but they like to stick their attention on the athletes' Twitter and Facebook pages for most of the show. The regular highlight show mostly appears overnight, unless there is no game involving West Coast teams.
The latest move involving ESPN, you figured it was going to happen with their signature show
Baseball Tonight. It was a fan's dream since 1990--but thanks to the layoffs of five men plus other writers behind the scenes, the show will only air on Sunday nights at 7 p.m. as a preview show termed
Sunday Night Countdown. Karl Ravech, Tim Kurjian, and friends will still be outside the stadium talking about the sport big picture--especially once football starts and the wild card/division races heat up in August into September.
Taking its' place is the new collaborative effort of ESPN teaming up with the MLB Network, as Chris Rose and Kevin Millar's gabfest
Intentional Talk will have a show added to ESPN2, weekdays at 4 to 5 p.m. Eastern, then go back to its' regular airing on MLB Network at 5. The ESPN2 show will be cut to 30 minutes during the off-season. Don't be surprised to see ESPN personalities on that show. I have seen it a couple of times myself, way better than any of the garbage that dominates most of the weekdays. Wonder if reruns of
SportsNation, let alone Rachel Nichols' cool NBA show,
The Jump might get bumped a bit.