Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [252]
ARTIE BULGRIN:
In 2001, my research team analyzed everything we were putting on air using Nielsen data. Essentially we gave our network a complete physical to find out where the vital signs were strong, where they were weak, and why. We called these analyses X-Rays, and they were eye-opening. We discovered that during a good chunk of the day, we had content that was just filler programming and not very appealing. Much of it was re-aired anthology stuff, repeated events, or syndicated sports programming. The X-Rays revealed that this just wasn’t sticky content—you could see the audience turnover in the analysis. We categorized this as “other” programming, while most of our “premium” content was represented by live events, SportsCenter, or other live news and information studio programming. This “other” content filled up time periods mostly during the day and disrupted the flow of the audience into more highly rated material. The research team knew now that we needed a clearer, more systematic approach to programming the network.
MARK SHAPIRO:
When I was twenty-five, I had tried to sell Walsh some ideas for shows. The first was a Nightline for sports, and I wanted the General [Bob Ley] to do it. I mean, come on, Bob doesn’t even look like a guy who would be on TV, and that’s what I loved about him. He wants to tell a story. He wants to break news. But Walsh didn’t respond. Then I spent months calling up Nielsen and working up a ratings analysis for the show and sent it to Walsh. He didn’t respond. Then I gave Walsh Pardon the Interruption and he rejected it. So I stopped giving him shows. I said to myself, “You know what? I’m just going to wait.” Well, the Nightline of sports became the daily Outside the Lines, which I put on, and PTI became PTI.
JIM COHEN, Vice President of News:
Mark called me into his office and said, “I want you to start a new show. I want two guys yelling at each other, and I’m thinking Kornheiser should be one of them.” I asked him about a budget and he said, “There isn’t one,” so I said, “I’ve done a lot of things, in charge of a news operation, in charge of a documentary operation, and I can manage people, but I’ve never launched a show that has no staff, no budget, no studios, no talent, and the rest of ESPN probably isn’t on board.” He looked at me and said, “Figure it out.”
TONY KORNHEISER:
I had the same feeling that all sportswriters had, which was utter contempt for television, utter contempt for anybody involved in television sports, because they weren’t newspaper writers. They were hairdos who just got in the way in the locker room—other than Cosell, that is. I mean, why would you want to be on air? The first guy who turned me around on that was Dick Schaap, because I knew Dick’s background. He had been a great writer for a long time, and then he showed up on local Channel 4 in New York City. If Dick Schaap did it, then it was okay to do. I couldn’t look down my nose on TV in quite the same way. And then you began to hear about the money that was involved.
But I looked in the mirror. I couldn’t get on television. I wasn’t pretty enough to get on television. I had no chance of getting on television. Howard Cosell is famously quoted as saying this of me—and he was my friend—“Doesn’t Tony Kornheiser know he’s unsightly?” Can you imagine that? Howard said that—talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
You know how I found out about PTI? It started in October of 2001, and in May or so of that year, Wilbon called me and said, “So you signed up?” I said, “For what?” He said, “The ESPN show.” I said, “What ESPN show?” and he said, “You and I, we’re going to do an ESPN show.” I said, “Really?”
MICHAEL WILBON, Columnist:
CNN called me to do something in 1987, when I was seven years into my work at the Washington Post. They wanted me to be a guest on some show, but I had never cared about being on TV. I never saw