Highly Questionable bids farewell.

It’s a rare ESPN program that lasts multiple years, much less 10 years. That’s the case with Highly Questionable (originally Dan Le Batard Is Highly Questionable), though; it premiered on September 12, 2011, and after news of its cancellation Thursday (in favour of new show This Just In with Max Kellerman), it broadcast its final show Friday (Sept. 10, almost 10 years to the day after its debut). And that show wrapped up with a look back at some of the show’s best moments, and signoffs from Katie Nolan, Domonique Foxworth, and Bomani Jones  (the longest-tenured remaining HQ contributor following Dan and Gonzalo “Papi” Le Batard leaving ESPN in January 2021), plus a note that “the spirit of this show will exist in the form of something called Debatable, that will be online” (as per an ESPN release ThursdayDebatable will launch on Oct. 4, and “will be available every weekday with new 45-60 minute episodes debuting exclusively on ESPN’s Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts and the ESPN App”). Here’s that wrap-up:

The first notable part there is Jones’ starting comments introducing the montage:

“All right, man, Highly Questionable has been on 10 years. It went from Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable to Highly Questionable, and for all of us who’ve had the chance to do this, this has been a whole lot of fun. There has been no show that it’s been more guaranteed that you were going to sit down and laugh at work like you would at this one. And for that, we definitely have to thank Dan Le Batard, because the last thing he felt like doing at work was being serious.”

After the montage, Nolan has some thoughts on what this show meant to her (starting around 3:30):

“Man, this show has been so fun. A lot of the stuff I’ve done on TV has been by myself, and this was truly the coolest thing to be a part of this family. I never would have pictured that I could have done this with such talented and wonderful people. You’ve all been great, and Charlie and everyone behind the scenes has been great. Thank you, Dan, thank you, Dan, thank you, Dan. This has been really wonderful, and I love you guys. I’m going to get emotional.”

Foxworth then chimes in with “You said it all, I don’t need to be mushy. Ditto. What she said.”

And Jones concludes with a wrapup that puts a lot of emphasis on the various behind-the-scenes people who made Highly Questionable work (4:32):

“The one thing that I don’t think people hear and understand is that there are a lot of people who work behind this show and make this go. Especially in the past couple years, they’ve had to do real hard work as things changed, as people changed, as pieces changed. It’s difficult to name everybody, but I really want to say three people in particular.”

“The relentlessly positive Bill Rayment, who I don’t think I have ever heard in anything less than a fantastic mood. No matter what you do, when you come on here and Bill tells you he liked the thing he heard you do, that powers this thing and helps keep it going. We have Meghan McHale, who I’ve worked with on this show probably longer than anyone else, who has been on here, and thank you so much for all the wonderful R&B conversation that we are able to have that no one else was able to appreciate, including Katie Nolan, who never knew that K-Ci and Jojo were part of Jodeci.”

“And in particular, I think I feel confident in saying I speak for everybody, Charlie Kravitz. In the time that I’ve been doing this, there’s been nobody that I’ve worked with that has been more invested in this, that has been more helpful, who always has something for us to do. And the job that he has had to do to keep putting this show together as all these things changed was not an easy one to do, and I know that. And that is his voice that you hear every time we go to the producer and do that.”

“And to you in particular, on top of everyone else that we talked about and everything else that we talked about, to you in particular, I say confidently and comfortably on behalf of everybody else, the work that you and everybody else has done has been seen, has been noticed, and it has been appreciated. And we’ve been doing this for 10 years because of that kind of work. And for you, I say thank you.”

“And to the audience, ain’t nothing sticking around for 10 years unless it lands with somebody, and this has landed with a lot of people. Thank you for allowing all of us to have the opportunity to do something that could connect with you, in different ways, through different people, and at different times.”

“And the spirit of this show will exist in the form of something called Debatable, that will be online and there will be more information that everybody will be able to get. But on behalf of the motley crew of humanity that shows up here to kind of clown around for an hour and give you the best of it in 22 minutes, thank you.”

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.