We finally have some news on the format and schedule of Bill Simmons’ long-in-the-works TV show, which will be called “Any Given Wednesday” and debut on HBO June 22. According to Michael O’Connell of The Hollywood Reporter, the first season is an order of 20 half-hour episodes that will air Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on HBO, HBO Go and HBO Now:

 The initial 20-episode season, part of Simmons’ exclusive multi-year, multi-platform agreement with HBO, kicks off a few weeks before the deal’s one-year anniversary. The half-hour show will air weekly, on Wednesday nights, at 10 p.m. — simultaneously becoming available on both the HBO Go and HBO Now platforms.

“I’m excited about the show, I’m excited about the title and I’m really, really excited to drop my first F-bomb on TV,” said Simmons in a statement. “We are going to figure out nudity down the road, as long as it’s tasteful.”

…“Bill Simmons represents a unique and distinct voice with a proven track record of challenging the norm and igniting debate and discussion on a wide range of topics,” said HBO programming president Michael Lombardo. “We are excited about the concept Bill and his team have developed for this show, which takes advantage of Bill’s intelligence, talent and insights.”

Any Given Wednesday, which will cover pop culture and sports, will also feature intimate conversations with guests, field segments and Simmons’ signature commentary. It marks another entry in HBO’s growing roster of news-based programming that will soon include a second entry from Vice, John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, and Real Time With Bill Maher.

While this kind of a TV show will be a different field for Simmons (he’s done plenty of sports and pop culture on his podcast and in his columns, but really the only comparable thing he’s done on TV was the short-lived Grantland Basketball Hour, which obviously had its own differences in network, personnel, subject and format), he’s working with some very experienced TV hands who are used to these kinds of shows. As previously announced, at least two alums of The Daily Show will be involved, with Stuart Miller as an executive producer and Jason Ross as lead writer. Bill Simmons Media Group president Eric Weinberger (the former executive producer at NFL Network) will also be an executive producer on this show, and Colbert Report and essayist Kim Gamble will be a co-executive producer. Simmons talking about sports and pop culture and doing interviews has been a highly-popular approach for almost a decade now, too, and it was a big part of why HBO brought him on board, so this isn’t a out-of-left-field idea. It’s going to be interesting to see what changes with Simmons doing this as a weekly HBO show, though.

[The Hollywood Reporter]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.