Following the death of his brother David earlier this year and nearly three years operating as an executive at Meadowlark Media, Dan Le Batard on Thursday acknowledged it could be in his best interest to take a hiatus from the daily grind of his show.
Le Batard revealed that he knows the product has worsened in recent years. He stopped looking at audience feedback as much because it hurt to see. And he is lost as to where to direct his energy and emotional effort professionally.
“I don’t feel like what we do, that everyone can be led to care the way we need them to care unless they can also see that I care the same way,” Le Batard explained. “That I am not mailing in this thing that is for all of us.”
Le Batard told stories of how David’s brain cancer diagnosis was slow to come and began with erratic, dangerous behavior. Le Batard also revealed that his father, his former ESPN cohost Gonzalo Le Batard, also struggled with cognitive function and had a near-death experience while David’s health was worsening.
All the while, Le Batard knew the show wasn’t the best it could be.
“Our audience knows what’s good and when we’re not meeting that standard,” Le Batard acknowledged. “Because I’m in a diminished confidence state, because my temperament isn’t right day to day to do this, I’ve had to check out on criticism that used to be helpful just because it was hurting me.”
Still, the show and the media company that produces it continue to expand with Le Batard a key decision-maker creatively.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz has broadcast from Los Angeles the past two weeks in a new studio. Le Batard said that decision came partly as a way to re-energize him and the crew. Le Batard’s South Beach Sessions will shoot more frequently in Southern California, he said.
“It’s such an intimate medium, we’re friends in your head, we’re dragging a lot of people through bad ***,” Le Batard said. “They expect the show to be a certain thing.”
In an industry where personalities flame out or fail all the time, Le Batard confronting his own future publicly is rare. The show is still quite popular. Meadowlark continues to make hires and grow.
The Le Batard Show audience is among the most loyal and vocal in the sports talk space. Le Batard said the comfort the audience gets from the show has circled back to him during his struggles.
“The job has done that for me, even at times when I’ve been thinking I need to step away from this for a while,” Le Batard said.
Le Batard may still have to step away. Or, like so many of us, he will push through professionally because the alternative is too uncertain.
[The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz]
