Several people complained about
a media column that ran in this space two weeks ago (March 23-29). The column looked at how sports networks are cribbing a strategy from late-night hosts
Jimmy Fallon and
Jimmy Kimmel by producing television studio shows in a way that they can be sliced up and shared via social media.
The column pointed to poor TV viewership from episodes of shows like “Grantland Basketball Hour” (ESPN), “Men in Blazers” (NBC Sports Network) and “Garbage Time” (Fox Sports 1).
The common theme from most of the complaints was that my column was too simplistic and focused too much on television ratings for one episode, which is not how TV executives are looking at the numbers and not how advertisers are buying them.
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“You always hear about people talking about ESPN having a ‘Daily Show’ or a Bill Maher-type show, but it would be really tough for them to have a show like that because there’s no schedule continuity.”
Bill Simmons
Creator and editor-in-chief, Grantland.com
Photo by:KOHJIRO KINNO / ESPN IMAGES |
After getting several emails from executives I respect, I decided to reach out to ESPN’s
Bill Simmons, who is the brains behind “Grantland Basketball Hour.” He echoed many of the same complaints. He said “Grantland Basketball Hour” is using the
“30 For 30” model, which means that it has evergreen content that can fill any TV time slot over a period of several days or weeks after it debuts.
For example, the “I Hate Christian Laettner” documentary drew a solid 496,000 viewers to ESPN opposite the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight on March 28, a Saturday night that was nearly two weeks after its ESPN premiere.
“I don’t care about what the rating is for the first show,” Simmons said. “One thing about ESPN studio shows is that they can run once, and that’s it. A lot of them are basically pregame shows. It seemed like there is a way to create a show that could run five or six times over the course of four to five days.”
Simmons’ strategy is about creating a new kind of studio show for ESPN.
But he’s also catering to the realities of prime-time studio shows on ESPN, which carries live games across several networks every night. “Grantland Basketball Hour” does not have a consistent time slot, and it does not receive much promotion. As a result, “Grantland Basketball Hour” producers are forced to think differently about their show.
“You always hear about people talking about ESPN having a ‘Daily Show’ or a Bill Maher-type show, but it would be really tough for them to have a show like that because there’s no schedule continuity,” Simmons said. “They talked to me about having a late-night show in 2010. It would have been impossible because you’re getting pre-empted 60 percent of the time. Imagine if ‘PTI’ was pre-empted 60 percent of the time. Would it have the same audience? No. People need continuity with daily shows and weekly shows.”
Following the first season of “Grantland Basketball Hour,” Simmons is looking at planned shows on April 16 and 17 at 8 p.m. on ESPN as a big test for the franchise. The NBA season ends April 15, and Simmons is planning two shows that preview the playoffs. Other than NHL games and early-season MLB games, Simmons’ shows will not have heavy competition in that time slot.
“If we don’t do at least a decent rating on those two shows, then we’re doing something wrong,” he said. “That’s a perfect time to do a basketball show, and we’re doing two of them. People are going to be fired up for the NBA playoffs to start. Those are the biggest shows for us.”
For Simmons, the Fallon and Kimmel digital clips strategy supplements those television airings. “Grantland Basketball Hour” was conceived as a multimedia show that can exist online, on television and in podcasts. The challenge is to create a big picture show that can be repeated on different channels and different platforms.
“We have the ability to run it as a podcast, which is great,” Simmons said. “We have the ability to cut out clips from the show that we can run online, which is awesome. And one of the ideas we had that we haven’t implemented yet is to tape the whole show, but then tape a couple extra segments. Those segments can be Internet only.”
John Ourand can be reached at jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ourand_SBJ.
