Dan Le Batard imagines that ESPN’s latest round of layoffs, which surfaced before a long, four-day holiday weekend, were strategically placed. While he later received pushback from Amin Elhassan and David Samson, who claimed that the network chose to make these firings on the last day of the month (June 30) or the end of the quarter for that matter, his point remains.
In the wake of ESPN laying off a cast of talented men and women, Le Batard attempted to offer confidence that there can be consolation in freedom from the establishment; however, on the latest episode of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Le Batard took a different tone, referring to last Friday as “the worst day in the history of ESPN.”
“The worst public day in the 40-year history of the company,” he continued.
One could make the argument that previous layoffs have had a larger impact, but the sheer magnitude of the names let go, and the fact that titans of the network were blindsided by the news is what made June 30th, 2023, a Black Friday in Bristol, Connecticut.
“We’ve seen this day coming for a long time, as Disney tries to correct some of its errors with ESPN people that are largely interchangeable,” Le Batard said. “And while ESPN took the public hit on Friday for shedding those costs, I thought to myself as it happened, Are they actually going to feel this beyond this day? Is it going to be something that empirically puts off viewers, or any of those people who were let go or all of those people, is anybody who consumes ESPN now going to say, ‘Nevermind, I’m out on ESPN?’
“Because it’s a huge public relations hit. I think you take the hit in order to save the money if you’re cold about saving money because you have to save your business. I don’t like saying that. Hell, I feel after watching that, ‘Woah, we got out of there in the nick of time.’ We got out of there just in time…”
Le Batard says that because the person who took over his time slots at ESPN—Max Kellerman—suffered the unfortunate fate of several other on-air personalities this past Friday.
The news of Kellerman’s imminent departure came just over a week after NY Post sports media reporter Andrew Marchand reported that ESPN would be phasing out the Keyshawn, JWill & Max morning radio show hosted by Keyshawn Johnson, Jay Williams, and Kellerman. That’s in addition to Kellerman’s This Just In show looking like it’s set to be replaced by newly hired Pat McAfee (one of the many times Kellerman has been replaced at ESPN).
ESPN is putting all of its eggs in the McAfee basket, but The Worldwide Leader has also significantly weakened other parts of its coverage. Le Batard questioned where ESPN has to dilute the quality of its product for viewers to leave. With these latest round of layoffs, only time will begin to tell.
