Stephen A. Smith has big plans for his personal brand as well as his production company. Those plans got kicked up a notch recently with the announcement of a new strategic partnership.
Smith has tapped Entertainment Tonight co-host Kevin Frazier, previously a Fox Sports sideline reporter and host and SportsCenter anchor, to help him “expand and elevate” Straight Shooter Media in the form of original content in the realm of sports and entertainment.
“We are looking at this shifting landscape,” said Frazier in a joint interview with Smith. “We are going to raise a few eyebrows. People are going to say, ‘They are not messing around.'”
As part of the recent $100-million deal Smith signed with ESPN, he is free to pursue projects unrelated to sports, and to identify potential content ideas, so long as Disney gets a first-look window of around 30 days.
Straight Shooter Media currently produces The Stephen A. Smith Show and also produced the ESPN+ docuseries Up For Debate. The production company is preparing to launch two Smith-hosted shows on SiriusXM next month, a sports one on Mad Dog Radio (set to premiere September 2) and a political show on POTUS Channel 124.
Smith told Variety that while he has arrangements with ESPN and SiriusXM, “my non-sports content can be on my YouTube channel and on podcasts as often as I want it. Plus, the door is open to do a weekly show.”
So why bring on Frazier? According to Smith, the two have a “strong bond” forged when they both worked for Fox Sports, and he recognized that Smith “was different than the rest of us.” According to Smith, Frazier is “the one that got me hired” at ESPN in 2005, helping to facilitate an audition for then-senior programming executive Mark Shapiro when other ESPN execs didn’t want to hire him.
“We are very, very close, and so we talk to one another. We fight for one another. We support one another,” Smith said.
Now, Frazier will be helping elevate Smith directly while also receiving an undisclosed ownership stake in the company.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.