Amid plummeting ratings, mass job cuts, and constant #resistance, ESPN President John Skipper has finally called it quits from running the so-called sports channel.
Today I have resigned from my duties as President of ESPN. I have had a wonderful career at the Walt Disney Company and am grateful for the many opportunities and friendships. I owe a debt to many, but most profoundly Michael Lynton, George Bodenheimer and Bob Iger.
I have struggled for many years with a substance addiction. I have decided that the most important thing I can do right now is to take care of my problem.
I have disclosed that decision to the company, and we mutually agreed that it was appropriate that I resign. I will always appreciate the human understanding and warmth that Bob displayed here and always.
I come to this public disclosure with embarrassment, trepidation and a feeling of having let others I care about down.
As I deal with this issue and what it means to me and my family, I ask for appropriate privacy and a little understanding.
To my colleagues at ESPN, it has been a privilege. I take great pride in your accomplishments and have complete confidence in your colective ability to continue ESPN"s success.
The 61-year-old Skipper joined ESPN in 1997 as senior vice president and general manager of ESPN The Magazine. He was promoted to his current job on January 1, 2012.
Here is what ESPN president John Skipper said in a recent memo to staffers:
"ESPN is about sports... It is not a political organization."
As the NFL continues to try to address the ongoing civil war between Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Commissioner Roger Goodell, not to mention the intermittent hostile fire from the White House, viewers are increasingly deciding they"ve had enough and are abandoning professional football viewership altogether. As the NY Post points out today, the embattled league saw ratings dip 6.3% in Week 11 meaning 1 million fewer people tuned in to see players take a knee during the national anthem versus last year.
The TV audience for NFL games steepened its slide in Week 11, losing 1 million viewers versus last year’s season-to-date average.
The 6.3 percent slump — worsening from comparable declines of 5.6 to 5.7 percent during the previous three weeks — plagued a week whose off-the-field drama made gridiron tackling seem almost tame by comparison.
After starting 11.8 percent behind last year’s TV audience for NFL games in Week 1, league viewership had either held its own or narrowed the gap through Week 8.
The 6.3 percent shortfall in Week 11 reflects an average viewership of 14.9 million for the NFL’s 68 national telecasts this year versus 15.9 million for the season-to-date in 2016.
Meanwhile, the ratings dip, combined with massive subscriber losses (see: ESPN Lost 15,000 Subscribers A Day In October), has taken a huge toll on ESPN which Yahoo News reports will have to cut some $80 million in salary costs to offset their plunging top line.
ESPN is poised to slash an estimated $80 million in salaries and other costs in coming weeks, sources tell Sporting News.
The third round of layoffs in two years at the Disney-owned sports network is expected to come down after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. Sporting News broke the news that ESPN planned to lay off up to 60 people in late November and early December. Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated followed up with a report that said 100 positions could be impacted.
ESPN lost a whopping $1 billion in affiliate revenue after dropping 13 million subscribers in just six years, according to the SportsBusiness Journal. Sports insiders agree ESPN overpaid for the NFL"s "Monday Night Football" ($1.9 billion annually) and the NBA ($1.4 billion a year). During 2016, ESPN"s prime-time viewership fell 19 percent, according to the SBJ. Rather than driving Disney"s profits, ESPN has been dragging them down, spooking Wall Street analysts.
Meanwhile, ESPN management threw money at many anchors, analysts and reporters whose contracts were up in recent years to stop them from jumping to FS1 and other competitors. Some lost those high-paid TV gigs this spring. But ESPN is still on the hook to pay their full salaries until they get a new job elsewhere. Not many have over the past six months. Given the length of some of these expensive deals, not many will in the future, according to Awful Announcing.
"ESPN is dealing with three simple math problems. They have fewer subscribers than they planned for. They have higher costs than they planned for. They lower ratings than they hoped for," said one source.
Perhaps it"s time for the NFL to admit that while most Americans can agree that professional football is really fun to watch, roughly half of them are going to disagree with whatever political stance its players decide to cram down their throats during games...so maybe best to just stick to football.
ESPN President John Skipper should probably lookup the meaning of "primum non nocere." Medical school students all across the country are taught this Latin phrase, meaning "first, do no harm," on their first day of classes as a reminder that, given any problem, their first priority should be to simply not make it worse than it already is.
Unfortunately, Skipper doesn"t seem to subscribe to this theory because if he did he would realize that sometimes the best way to address a controversy that never should have happened is simply to keep your mouth shut and "do no further harm." Alas, Skipper"s clearly not a doctor and thus we"re all stuck having to read another statement from ESPN attempted to explain why they made a truly moronic decision.
Here"s the new statement in which ESPN now makes it seem as if it wasn"t actually their decision to pull Robert Lee off the air in Virginia, but rather Lee"s decision intended to avoid "social media hectoring and trolling"....
"Given the amount of media attention being generated by on of the countless, routine decisions our local production teams make every day, I wanted to make sure you have the facts. There was never any concern - by anyone, at any level - that Robert Lee"s name would offend anyone watching the Charlottesville game.
Among our Charlotte production staff there was a question as to whether - in these divisive times -- Robert"s assignment might create a distraction, or even worse, expose him to social media hectoring and trolling. Since Robert was their primary concern, they consulted with him directly. He expressed some personal trepidation about the assignment and, when offered the chance to do the Youngstown State / Pitt game instead, opted for that game -- in part because he lives in Albany and would be able to get home to his family on Saturday evening.
I"m disappointed that the good intentions of our Charlotte colleagues have been intentionally hijacked by someone with a personal agenda, and sincerely appreciate Robert"s personal input and professionalism throughout this episode."
Of course, Skipper"s new statement, which makes it seems as if the decision was all Lee"s idea, somewhat contradicts ESPN"s original statement that said it just "felt right to all parties."
“We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding, simply because of the coincidence of his name. In that moment it felt right to all parties. It’s a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play by play for a football game has become an issue.”
Skipper, do us all a favor and read the first sentence of this post again...
* * *
For those who managed to ignore this story line so far, below is our post from yesterday.
We"ve been saying this a lot lately, but just when you thought the political climate in this country couldn"t get any more wacky ESPN has to go and pull an Asian-American announcer, who just happens to be named Robert Lee, off the William and Mary vs. University of Virginia college football game because of concerns they might create a mass-triggering of America"s snowflakes.
Is this even real life anymore? So the fragile millennial culture now demands that you should be thrown in jail if you call them by the wrong pronoun but it"s totally fine if their insecurities literally derail a person"s career because they refuse to be "assaulted" by the name his parents happened to give him?
In a story that seems made for The Onion, but is actually true, according to multiple Outkick fans inside ESPN MSESPN decided to pull an Asian college football announcer named Robert Lee off the William and Mary at University of Virginia college football game because they were concerned that having an ASIAN FOOTBALL ANNOUNCER NAMED ROBERT LEE would be offensive to some viewers.
Did I mention that Robert Lee is Asian?
Is this even real life anymore? This might even be worse than MSESPN apologizing for the fantasy football slave draft a couple of weeks ago.
To avoid offending left wing idiots Robert Lee, the Asian college football announcer, not the Confederate General who died in 1870 and shares a name with him, was switched to the Youngstown State at Pittsburgh game and Dave Weekley will now call the William and Mary at University of Virginia game.
Meanwhile, ESPN issued the following statement:
“We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding, simply because of the coincidence of his name. In that moment it felt right to all parties. It’s a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play by play for a football game has become an issue.”
Not surprisingly, ESPN has been mercilessly mocked on social media for their truly moronic decision as #RobertLee quickly shot to the top of Twitter"s trending board.
Irony /??r?n?/ noun
1. Punishing an Asian-American for his last name out of fear of racism.#RobertLee
Of course, ESPN may be a little sensitive to race issues after being blasted all last week for hosting a fantasy football auction that many people likened to a slave auction...
We"ve been saying this a lot lately, but just when you thought the political climate in this country couldn"t get any more wacky ESPN has to go and pull an Asian-American announcer, who just happens to be named Robert Lee, off the William and Mary vs. University of Virginia college football game because of concerns they might create a mass-triggering of America"s snowflakes.
Is this even real life anymore? So the fragile millennial culture now demands that you should be thrown in jail if you call them by the wrong pronoun but it"s totally fine if their insecurities literally derail a person"s career because they refuse to be "assaulted" by the name his parents happened to give him?
In a story that seems made for The Onion, but is actually true, according to multiple Outkick fans inside ESPN MSESPN decided to pull an Asian college football announcer named Robert Lee off the William and Mary at University of Virginia college football game because they were concerned that having an ASIAN FOOTBALL ANNOUNCER NAMED ROBERT LEE would be offensive to some viewers.
Did I mention that Robert Lee is Asian?
Is this even real life anymore? This might even be worse than MSESPN apologizing for the fantasy football slave draft a couple of weeks ago.
To avoid offending left wing idiots Robert Lee, the Asian college football announcer, not the Confederate General who died in 1870 and shares a name with him, was switched to the Youngstown State at Pittsburgh game and Dave Weekley will now call the William and Mary at University of Virginia game.
Meanwhile, ESPN issued the following statement:
“We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding, simply because of the coincidence of his name. In that moment it felt right to all parties. It’s a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play by play for a football game has become an issue.”
Not surprisingly, ESPN has been mercilessly mocked on social media for their truly moronic decision as #RobertLee quickly shot to the top of Twitter"s trending board.
Irony /??r?n?/ noun
1. Punishing an Asian-American for his last name out of fear of racism.#RobertLee
Of course, ESPN may be a little sensitive to race issues after being blasted all last week for hosting a fantasy football auction that many people likened to a slave auction...
