Hey, remember the ESPYS, ESPN’s yearly sports award show that serves as a lightning rod for criticism? Well, while the ESPYS will look and feel a lot different this year, they’re still happening. Today, ESPN announced that Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe, and Russell Wilson will host this year’s ESPYS, scheduled for Sunday, June 21st at 9 PM ET on ESPN. Clearly, this is yet another example of the sports media world’s pro-Seattle bias.
The actual look and feel of the ESPYS will be a lot different, though we are not about just how different the awards show will be. Earlier this month, ESPN announced that all live events for the ESPYS had been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and continued concerns about larger gatherings, meaning that the normally over the top elements of the show (the red carpet, the random athletes and celebrities in the crowd, and so on and so forth) won’t be happening this year. The ESPYS broadcast has also been combined with the Sports Humanitarian Awards this year, the finalists for which were announced last week.
In that initial release, ESPN also noted that many of the traditional sports-centric awards would be scrapped this year with more of an emphasis placed on “narratives of service, perseverance, and courage from within the world of sports,” though some of the ESPYS’ tentpole awards would remain.
The 2020 ESPYS will preserve several core elements of the annual show, including the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, the Pat Tillman Award for Service, and the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance. Additionally, the show will include the Sports Humanitarian Awards, sponsored by Bristol Myers Squibb, with several key awards including the Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award and the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award, among others.
Maybe focusing on the human side of sports instead of the hot takey “BEST WHATEVER OF THE YEAR” bullshit and eliminating the over the top Hollywood nature of the ESPYS will temper some of the scorn thrown at the awards every year. In reality, that’s probably wishful thinking, but with the way we’re moving towards the return of live sports, maybe our focus will be elsewhere instead of drifting between the ESPYS and live baseball.
[ESPN]
