Smith said John Skipper's resignation was a turning point for support for "SC6" within ESPNespn images
Former ESPN anchor Michael Smith currently is serving as Exec VP & Chief Content Officer of new athlete-based studio (co)laboratory after formally leaving the network last month, and he recently talked to THE ATHLETIC's Richard Deitsch about his time at ESPN. The following are excerpts from the Q&A:
Q: Why are you no longer at ESPN?
Smith: I was there 15 years -- and not just 15 years but the time in my life of those 15 years. I got there when I was 25 years old and I just turned 40. I feel like I have worn pretty much every hat that I realistically was going to be able to wear at ESPN. So it was pretty clear to me -- and it became crystal clear really over the last year or so -- that it was time for something new. It was time for a new challenge, time for a new environment, time to play for a new team.
Q: Regarding you and Jemele [Hill]'s experience doing "SportsCenter," what were the internal politics like for you?
Smith: We were in trouble before this but I think a turning point was [former ESPN President] John Skipper's sudden resignation at the end of 2017. John Skipper put us on "SportsCenter." [ESPN Senior VP/Original Content] Rob King asked us if we would be interested in doing it and John Skipper is the one who got behind the idea and pushed the idea of us doing it. What Skipper wanted, he got at that point. He was our biggest advocate and when he left our protection left along with it in terms of having someone in upper management who believed in us in this space. ... But I always knew there would be cultural shock on many levels when it came to us to doing "SportsCenter."
Q: Why were you not on the air much over the last year and a half at ESPN?
Smith: The opportunities that were available to me post "SportsCenter" were both limited and limiting, and that is no disrespect to anybody else at the company. But for me and where I am in my career and where I thought I should be headed in my career and given what I had done in said career, the opportunities that were available to me just did not appeal to me.
Q: With some distance, why did "SC6" not work from your end and ESPN's end?
Smith: If I could do anything differently, I would have put more time between two things: I would have put more time between the end of 'His and Hers' [November '16] and the launch of this reimagined "SportsCenter" [The show debuted in February '17]. We should have spent way more time in the lab how we were going to merge these two brands if that was, in fact, the goal, to make "SportsCenter" more like "His and Hers." If that is what we were going to do, we should have spent more time working on that (THEATHLETIC.com, 11/1).
