It’s been several months since Around the Horn was canceled at ESPN. And while Tony Reali still doesn’t have any answers as to why, he does have some thoughts on what his former show brought to the network.
Reali has moved on to his own projects since leaving ESPN, including launching his own digital network. Meanwhile, ESPN has replaced ATH with episodes of SportsCenter, yet to commit to a permanent replacement.
In an appearance on the Front Office Sports Today show, Reali reflected on the cancelation and what Around the Horn gave ESPN that other shows did not.
Why was Around the Horn canceled?
Tony Reali says he never really got an answer — and explains what it’s like when a network moves on and creative differences take center stage. pic.twitter.com/tVLeCV4U32
— Front Office Sports Today (@FOS_Today) December 29, 2025
“I don’t know if I have an answer, I don’t know if I need an answer. A creative difference in the network decision making, that’s understandable to me. I can live with that,” Reali said.
In truth, ESPN never really gave any explanation to anyone for why Around the Horn was ultimately canceled after a sustained run of success over two decades in the 5 p.m. ET timeslot. However, ESPN has noted that episodes of SportsCenter are doing just as well, if not better than ATH was doing. That’s part of the reason why ESPN has delayed in naming a permanent replacement according to executive Burke Magnus.
Around the Horn was a reliable lead-in for Pardon the Interruption throughout its run. But if there was one thing that drew outsized reaction, especially from culture warriors, it was the diverse cast and ability to tackle topics that fell in the intersection of sports, culture, and politics. Because of that, it became a bit of a lighting rod for insipid wokeness debates.
But according to Tony Reali, he saw that diversity as a strength of Around the Horn and that it offered something that other shows on ESPN did not, namely debate shows and constant Dallas Cowboys talk.
“We’ve done 50,000 topics. I don’t believe the show was too anything, honestly. Maybe we had a lot of people, I believe that was a strength of the show. Maybe we did a lot of different stories other shows on the network weren’t doing. I believe that would be a strength of our show and of the network. That we had a host that was very heartfelt and too feely and too serious for some topics, maybe that is a good thing to have when other shows can put on a good cop, bad cop hat, or the Cowboy hat and laugh at the Cowboys for losing. I think the network is best having many different things. So I operated in that way.”
“But I never got one note other than keep on doing what you’re doing and I didn’t get many of those either. I just felt very comfortable that the show was in a safe place. We didn’t have controversies,” the former ESPN host added.
ESPN is a year away from their planned timeline for an Around the Horn replacement this fall. And whether it’s Scott Van Pelt or anyone else, odds are it will look more like what we see on ESPN the rest of the day than Around the Horn did.
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