The end of Around the Horn figures to feature many fan favorites from the show’s two-decade run. On Thursday, it was former ESPN.com columnist and SportsCenter host Jemele Hill who came through, alongside former Outside the Lines host Kate Fagan.
Hill was let go by the Worldwide Leader in 2018 after multiple run-ins with management over her comments online toward President Donald Trump and his supporters. The ATH appearance marked her first return to ESPN airwaves since then.
When host Tony Reali introduced Hill, she made a joking comment about being “uncanceled.” But it wasn’t until later in the show that she really landed the joke.
During a segment in which the panel reacted to old takes from Hill and Fagan, Hill feigned concern over Reali looking back through her old posting history.
“I got a little bit nervous when I saw you were pulling up our tweets,” she laughed. “I just came back, man!”
“I got a little bit nervous when I saw you were pulling up our tweets … I just came back, man!”
Jemele Hill is sweating in her return to ESPN airwaves on today’s ‘Around the Horn’ pic.twitter.com/5AS9XR8tXO
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 8, 2025
In Hill’s final years at ESPN, she tweeted that Trump was a “white supremacist,” leading the president to personally respond from the White House. She also suggested that NFL fans boycott Dallas Cowboys sponsors over owner Jerry Jones’ comments toward players like Colin Kaepernick who were kneeling in protest of police brutality during the pregame national anthem.
Since leaving ESPN, Hill has contributed to The Atlantic, Spotify, iHeartMedia and Meadowlark Media.
She notably did get back into business with the Worldwide Leader in recent years as a coproducer on a documentary series about Kaepernick, directed by Spike Lee.
