As ESPN employees gird for another round of layoffs that’s about to hit the company, podcast hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand look into what to expect and decisions Disney execs have made to get to this point. Sticking with ESPN, the hosts also talk about Troy Aikman’s role in the changes in the “Monday Night Football” production truck, where Derek Mobley and Steve Ackels will replace Jimmy Platt and Phil Dean as director and producer.
Other topics have Marchand and Ourand dissecting Pat McAfee’s choices as he decides where to take his career; predicting who will replace Ian Eagle on the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 and Elite Eight telecasts; and offer a tribute to Greg Gumbel, who is stepping away from play-by-play duties on the NFL next year while remaining a studio host for the NCAA Tournament. The future of the Pac-12 media rights are another topic Marchand and Ourand discuss on this week’s pod.
SBJ’s Austin Karp joins the pod for another installment of Karp’s Corner where he discusses the TV viewership performance of the NCAA Tournament and LIV Golf. This week's episode was recorded prior to SBJ's report on LIV viewership late yesterday. As always, the two offer their picks for who in sports media is up and who’s down for the week, and they roll out a Call of the Week.
