Jones will continue to host his twice-weekly podcast after the last episode of "High Noon" airs in MarchESPN IMAGES
ESPN is canceling "High Noon," the studio show starring Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre, due to poor viewership. The show's final episode will air at the end of March. ESPN execs informed the show's staff of the decision yesterday during a meeting. The network will air a half hour of "Jalen & Jacoby" in the 4:00-4:30pm ET timeslot in which "High Noon" currently airs. The content for 2:00-3:00pm on ESPN2, where "Jalen & Jacoby" currently resides, is still to be determined. "High Noon" has averaged 330,000 viewers in Q1 to date, down 3% from the same period last year and beneath most other ESPN debate shows. ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro last night in a statement said, "Earlier today, we informed the High Noon team that the final episode of the show will air at the end of March. Co-hosts Pablo Torre and Bomani Jones are extremely talented, and they helmed what we believe was a smart and nuanced show. Unfortunately, not enough people agreed with us. We look forward to discussing with them how to best use their talents across a variety of ESPN platforms." Jones and Torre are expected to appear on ESPN shows and Jones will continue to host his twice-weekly podcast. It has been no secret that both hosts have contracts that expire in a few weeks. ESPN in August '18 moved the show from noon to 4:00pm and cut it down from an hour to 30 minutes. It took over for "SportsNation" (John Ourand, SBJ Media).
QUICK END AFTER BIG LEAD-UP: In DC, Ben Strauss notes the cancellation marks an "unglamorous end to a show that was launched with much fanfare" in '18. It was "shot in 24 frames per second instead of the usual 30 or 60, lending it a more dramatic look than traditional TV punditry." Jones and Torre are "good friends and together aspired to be something like the thinking fan's guide to sports." The move to drop "High Noon" comes after ESPN "bumped its flagship sports-news show, 'Outside the Lines,' from daily to an uncoveted timeslot on Saturday morning." The net now has "two fewer shows likely to examine race, politics and other off-the-field issues -- the types of stories that network executives appear to believe viewers want fewer of" (WASHINGTON POST, 2/25).
TOO SMART FOR THEIR OWN GOOD? POYNTER.org's Tom Jones writes Jones and Torre are "smart opinionists, but apparently, the show just never found an audience." Both hosts are "well thought of (and they should be)." It is likely they will appear on other ESPN programming until the net "figures out what's next" (POYNTER.org, 2/25). YAHOO SPORTS' Jason Owens noted the show "looked to set itself apart by focusing on the intellectual leanings of its hosts." Both Jones and Torre are "outspoken and tend to look beyond the field of play to the broader social, economic and cultural impact of sports in their analysis" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 2/24). SI.com's Dan Gartland writes Jones and Torre are "two of ESPN's smartest and [it] stinks that the network can't find anything for them to do" (SI.com, 2/25).
TWITTER REAX: Bleacher Report's Tyler Conway writes, "High Noon was the best and smartest studio show ESPN had -- and it’s not even particularly close. The way it intersected smart handling of difficult topics, humor and just regular sports was special." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Craig Meyer: "This is really discouraging to see. ... High Noon was a consistently compelling, intelligent program, which I hear people constantly say they want more of." Slate.com's Joel Anderson: "bomani and pablo had some of the most thoughtful conversations about sports and culture that you’ll hear anywhere. they had a young, dynamic, diverse production team that helped put it together. it’s a loss for all sorts of reasons." The Ringer's Haley O'Shaughnessy: "bomani and pablo are especially thoughtful and brilliant and actually funny in today’s talking heads culture and this blows." Black Sports Online's Robert Littal: "High noon was too much common sense of a show for today’s viewer who wants a lot of yelling and wild sports takes." Dallas-based KRLD-FM's Jeff Cavanaugh: "It says a lot about us as humans when a Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre show can't make it but Skip, Stephen A, Clay Travis etc can succeed. Just be loud and polarize people because intelligent discussion apparently doesn't get traction."
LIFE GOES ON, LITERALLY: Torre will not be on "High Noon" in the near future, but it has nothing to do with the status of the show. He took to Instagram this morning to note his wife went into "early labor" yesterday and will be "gone for the next couple weeks" after the birth of his first child, a daughter named Violet (INSTAGRAM.com, 2/25).
