Part III: The RSN model’s challenges and benefits

A huge part of any discussion of The Best Damn Sports Show Period is about its unusual distribution model. It was not on a national cable network, but rather on a collection of regional sports networks. That was mostly those affiliated with Fox (now the Bally Sports networks), with some of those even Fox-owned (but many not), but also a few Comcast RSNs. And that created challenges, especially with the show often airing “after the game” (and often the post-game coverage) in each market rather than in a specific slot. Marcus said that particularly handicapped them on some shows particularly relevant to certain markets.

“I remember that we had Doctor J [Julius Erving] and Donovan McNabb in the same show. And Comcast Philly aired it at like two in the morning, they had a coaches’ show on after the game.  And so there was no real effort and promotion across the board. We tried, and the network tried, but you couldn’t control where it aired and how it aired. And then if the game ran long, you didn’t know what time it was on.”

Hughes had a similar thought on a Detroit-relevant show.

“We’d have, like, Vince Vaughn in the A-block, and then somebody like Chris Paul who was a big deal, and then you find out, like we only ran in three regional networks that night, or it would air the next morning when everybody at that time had SportsCenter on repeat. …I mean, we got Jalen Rose and Chris Webber together for the first time in years, and we were preempted in Detroit because of the Red Wings’ game. That would have given us two more years, probably. So that battle was tough.”

He said that was a consistent challenge over his years with Best Damn, and it was tough to deal with given the caliber of the guests they landed.

“It’s so frustrating: we would have days in our pre-show meeting where we’re like ‘Guys, this is The Tonight Show.'”

Marcus agreed with that, saying their guest lineup stacked up with network late-night shows.

“We had guests every day as worthy as them.”

She spotlighted current Arkansas men’s basketball coach John Calipari as a particularly eager guest.

“Calipari would call me whenever he was on his way to a West Coast recruiting trip and say I’m coming out west, do you need me?”

Hughes said there were incredible challenges in getting network slots and promotion despite those guests, though.

“It was definitely an uphill battle. …And it was just tough to find the spot. I mean, on the promo, when I first got there I was like, ‘Alright, so let’s tag this with 10:00 PM tonight or whatever,’ and I was told ‘No, you can’t say that you’ve got to say ‘After the game.” And I’m like ‘Okay, well, that sucks.'”

But Hughes said he understood why teams (which often controlled the RSNs) would regularly bump Best Damn to worse slots.

“Teams fight for their own network, and they take precedence, right?”

And Marcus said they did get some unusual promo (which would have mattered much more in the current out-of-home viewing era) from bars:

“There was a big awareness in bars. Every bar always had us on.”

Hughes laughed and said that had its limits, though.

“That’s because we were on at one o’clock in the morning. It was last call.”

And Marcus agreed with that.

“Awareness with no sound was our branding effect.”

She did note that Best Damn hit some branding milestones, particularly with in-show integration, long before others, though.

“That’s another thing we did before anybody else, branding. Those integrations, where we had a set, like we would have the Hooters Bar.”

Hughes added that they had a separate deal with Best Buy.

“We’d do satellite interviews from the Best Buy living room. They gave us a large TV for satellite interviews.”

And Marcus referenced a Home Depot sponsorship.

“We had an outdoor deck that was sponsored by Home Depot, and it looked like we were sitting on someone’s porch.”

Hughes noted that that brand quickly became active elsewhere, though.

“And then College GameDay came along and signed a bigger deal with them.”

Still, Marcus said their branding integration was unique for its time.

“Nobody else was doing that.”

And Arnold said there were some unexpected benefits from the show’s unusual distribution, as it meant there was less ratings pressure on them.

“When the show started, there wasn’t a Fox Sports 1, it was like 18 or 19 regional networks. If they started in Columbus, Ohio at 10:13, after the hockey game, you couldn’t say ‘Watch the show at this time’ because it was different everywhere. But I think that also gave us a pass on ratings and stuff. It was really about building something.”

Read on for more on the show’s legacy.