The Big Lead

Report: Classic ESPN Talk Show Headed for YouTube Relaunch

Jeremy Schaap is set to host the reboot of "The Sports Reporters."

By Evan Bleier

The ESPN logo at the 2011 Sugar Bowl between the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Ohio State Buckeyes.
The ESPN logo at the 2011 Sugar Bowl between the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Ohio State Buckeyes. / Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
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According to Puck's John Ourand, a two-decade veteran of Sports Business Journal whose coverage focus is the intersection of sports and business, ESPN is planning to relaunch a beloved sports talk show a little more than a half decaded afer pulling the plug on the program’s 29-year run on The Worldwide Leader.

A Sunday morning staple that launched in 1988 and featured a panel of sportswriters and sports media personalities chewing over the issues of the day with a host facilitating the discussion, The Sports Reporters ran until 2017 when it was canceled following the death of longtime host John Saunders the year before.

"It was a simple idea. Collect sportswriters, put them around a host, let them debate, and end with 60-second commentaries called 'Parting Shots.' This may seem incredibly basic today. But when we started, long-form opinion in TV sports was novel," Mitch Albom, a regular on the program, wrote in The Detroit Free Press in 2017.

Now, according to Ourand, the precursor to shows like First Take, Pardon The Interruption and Around the Horn is coming back — on YouTube.

Hosted by Jeremy Schaap, whose father Dick hosted the show in the '90s prior to his death in 2001, the first episode of The Sports Reporters reboot will feature NFL play-by-play announcers like Joe Buck and Al Michaels and will be made available via linear, digital and social platforms, according to Ourand.

"I’m hearing rumblings that ESPN is going to resuscitate The Sports Reporters, the sports talk show that turned ink-stained wretches like Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon into bona fide TV stars," Ourand, who previously had info about a Sports Reporters reboot last year, writes. "There’s a lot that’s still in the air with this—nothing has been confirmed. The show won’t have a regular daily or weekly time slot, I’m told. But it will be produced under The Sports Reporters banner for ESPN’s YouTube channel, with various segments made available via linear, digital, and social. Any plan that involves such a popular brand is certain to garner some positive press."

Ourand's got a point. Let's hope he's right about The Sports Reporters coming back.