There’s been a lot of discussion about what’s ahead for Mina Kimes, whose ESPN contract is up this year. One of the places she’s been repeatedly linked with is John Skipper and Dan Le Batard’s Meadowlark Media, with both of those executives noted fans of Kimes. Skipper was ESPN’s president when they brought Kimes on board in 2014, and Le Batard regularly featured Kimes on Highly Questionable and said “Line starts behind us” when discussing her potential free agency earlier this year.
Now, as per Kyle Koster of The Big Lead, Kimes has signed a deal with Meadowlark Media and will make weekly appearances on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.
NEWS: Meadowlark Media has signed a new deal with Mina Kimes, per Dan Le Batard.
No further information at this point but it sounds as though she'll be appearing on Thursdays.
— Kyle Koster (@KyleKoster) September 6, 2023
Other details are scant, and this may well be a limited deal that also allows her to work elsewhere rather than a universal deal. (Update: it is, with her also signing a giant deal to stay with ESPN. The rest of our original post follows.)
Meadowlark has struck more limited deals with some contributors before. One of note is with Pablo Torre (also a regular Highly Questionable figure back in the day), who announced in March he was joining Meadowlark but would continue to contribute to ESPN. At Meadowlark, Torre hosts the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast while also appearing on Le Batard’s main show and other content at times. And he made headlines this week with the first episode of that podcast, playing and discussing Le Batard’s old interviews with Donald Trump (one of which featured Torre as a guest host). But he’s still a regular contributor to ESPN programming, including Around The Horn (where he revealed hair care secrets this July) and Pardon The Interruption.
However, Kimes’ current ESPN role is more regular still. She appears daily as a main analyst on NFL Live and hosts The Mina Kimes Show podcast on ESPN’s platforms. But it’s not inconceivable she could continue those roles while also working with Meadowlark. It’s also possible she could work with Meadowlark and someone else still, though, as there have been plenty of outlets and networks reportedly interested in her services. But she has done lots with Le Batard and Meadowlark before, including the May South Beach Sessions appearance seen at top, and Le Batard has made no secret of his desire to hire her.
We’ll see what more details emerge on this. But it’s notable to see Kimes joining Meadowlark in some capacity.
[Kyle Koster on Twitter]
