Column: Hot take sports shows have gone cold

If you’ve ever watched CNN, MSNBC or Fox News before and been bored to tears by the constant repetition of topics and apparent sameness of every distinct program on the network, then you know the feeling of watching ESPN’s daytime television lineup.

On any given day, you can turn on the TV at 10 a.m. to watch Stephen A. Smith, Max Kellerman and Molly Qerim argue amongst themselves — and a rotating cast of guest stars — about the sports topics of the day on "First Take." The day then rolls on, and despite each show having its own cast of so-called "experts" and snappy names ("Get Up!," "Around the Horn," "Undisputed," etc.), they all feature the same exact formula: hosts, topic, debate. 

This repetition has only become more obvious and grating during the closures caused by COVID-19. Early on during social distancing, I turned to ESPN to satiate my desire for sports content. I then promptly turned away from it, unenthused by the lack of variation and the need every made for television personality had to give the hottest, loudest take, while raucously disagreeing with everybody else’s.

Quarantine or not, this constant, uninteresting stream of television is at best good for background noise while reading the news or scrolling through social media, or maybe for sparking conversations about the same sports topics with your friends — conversations that will likely be far more interesting than the shows themselves.

And muddled among that opinion-filled droning of hosts and programs, sadly, is the show that arguably gave birth to all the “sports debate” shows that came after it: "Pardon the Interruption."

I love "Pardon the Interruption." But I hate what it caused.

"Pardon the Interruption," or "PTI" for short, broke ground when it first aired way back in 2001. Former Washington Post sportswriters Mike Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser sat at a table for half an hour (minus commercials) and debated the topics of the day, suspiciously always seeming to disagree. Hot take after hot take led to their voices and opinions growing louder and louder as the episode went on.

And, as the name suggests, they interrupted each other. A lot.

Now, despite my trashing of this format just a few hundred words ago, I think "PTI" works incredibly well. Wilbon and Kornheiser are both experienced sportswriters from totally different upbringings, which is bound to make for interesting conversation on any topic. They were even renowned for their loud arguments during their time at The Washington Post. In a way, it almost didn’t feel like a show. It felt like you were just peering into the daily squabbles of two opinionated, yet amicable old dudes.

All that made for great television, and "PTI" was a hit. How could it not be? In an easily digestible format, ESPN turned newspaper sports columns into animated debates between writers, and all you had to do was watch.

Sadly, the success of this format is what would later run it into the ground.

Aspiring hosts and analysts saw what "PTI" was doing, and wanted to capture that same energy, and so started new shows with similar formats, featuring people — not always writers or “experts” — getting into the same kinds of heated discussions as Wilbon and Kornheiser. 

The difference was that they weren’t Wilbon and Kornheiser, and they weren’t on "PTI." Without the pedigree, the history or the chemistry the duo brought to the table, newer personalities resorted to being louder, more dramatic and more controversial as a way of getting viewers.

And get viewers they did. Soon, fresh faces like Max Kellerman, Colin Cowherd and Tony Reali came into vogue with their new and exciting programs, like "First Take" and "The Herd" and "Around the Horn." Viewers were naturally attracted to the unabashed and bold sports takes the hosts or guests always seemed to have, and the shows did numbers. 

It then became apparent that this would become the norm for ESPN’s prospective personalities and newer programs, each one trying to out-hot take the other in what would become a mindless flurry of loud opinions. The format that once broke the mold wasn’t special anymore.

Nowadays, sports channels' daytime programming is a glut of shows that all feel the same. Starting at before sunrise, you can watch a mix of experts and big personalities debate each other all day long on a redundant set of topics that make up the day in sports. In this sea of similar content, even "PTI" seems to have lost some of its mojo. Because of the loud, bombastic people that surround them, the show now feels like a tamer, less compelling version of the snappy, charming and fun half-hour it used to be.

The worst part? They barely even interrupt each other anymore. 

@pjdaman12

@DTHSports | sports@dailytarheel.com