The Josh Innes Show - The end of "Around The Horn"

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

Look, "Around The Horn" was a decent little TV show. It was mid afternoon filler programming on ESPN. Can we please stop talking about it like it was revolutionary? Sarah Spain, who has been featured on the show, believes it's ending because ESPN is afraid of looking too woke.....riiiiiight... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I've been reading a lot of stories the last couple of weeks about the television show Around the Horn, which I guess debuted 20-something years ago. It was a back-to-back deal. It was part of the interruption and Around the Horn. And as a young dude like that was television man, like you'd come home from school and around the horn and PTI would be on and PTI was a show that I love because I really love Tony Kornheiser because I thought Tony Kornheiser

was this kind of crotchety but kind of a Serbic older dude that I found funny and he and Michael Wilbon had a good dynamic and they had like actual debates about things and the debates were fine, but they were about things that were actually going on. It wasn't fluff. I mean look it's sports so it's all fluff, but it wasn't like a situation where you see now like I was just watching ESPN a little while ago when I got home from walking Ross. I turned on the TV ESPN was still

on from the ball game last night. It's Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon and they are still debating Michael Jordan versus LeBron. Inane, boring arguments and like you can even see it in the eyes of Michael Wilbon. Like Wilbon's a really smart dude. He went to Northwestern. He's a Chicago guy. Like a very accomplished journalist. And then there's Stephen A. Smith a really smart dude. He went to Northwestern. He's a Chicago guy, like a very accomplished journalist. And then there's Stephen A. Smith who like has spent the last 20 years just saying dumb shit on television. And like I give Stephen A. Smith credit here. Stephen

A. Smith is able to seem engaged in the most inane of arguments. Like he's accomplished something that I don't know I'll ever accomplish and if I could maybe I'd be super successful and maybe this is the key to being super successful. Like convincing yourself and telling yourself that yes, this is a completely inane bullshit topic but at the end of the day you're just doing bullshit sports television and you're making millions of dollars and dipshits are going to argue with your point on TV and they're going to yell at you on social media and you just kind

of accept that and like it must be in like such a freeing feeling to be able to do that. It must be so freeing to be able to go on TV and just yell about dumb shit that does not matter and like dumb shit that doesn't matter in the context of a whole world that doesn't matter. At the end of the day, last night's basketball game didn't matter. What was the old quote? Five billion people in China couldn't give a damn.

The old saying at some point, I forgot who said that. But that's kind of the thing. It's the sports world. Who gives a shit? It's a basketball game. There are tons of other things going on in the world that impact life. This basketball game doesn't. So sports is the toy department and we know sports is the toy department. But then when you get into the even more inane arguments, in a world of inane arguments, to be able to put on a happy face and just yell about that shit for 10 or 15 minutes at a time on a

daily basis, the guy actually deserves some credit because I couldn't allow myself to do that because I would be bored and I'd hate it. But I guess he gets some form of credit for that. But let's play a couple commercials and we'll continue. Like it's just like I'm watching this and I turn it on and I'm just looking at Michael Wilbon. Just look like the man has no soul. He like, I've got a degree from Northwestern. I'm doing all this and I'm sitting here yelling about Michael versus LeBron for the one billionth time. But on the other hand, he's probably being paid well to do it. But anyway, so back to Around the Horn and PTI.

So that was great television. And at one point early on in the run of this Around the Horn, I actually enjoyed it. Max Kellerman was the original host of it. And you know, you'd have like a core group of guys that would always be on this show and you knew who they were. Like here's Jay Marriott and here's J.A. Adande. And here's that one lady from Boston and like they like and like there was kind of a cast and you knew who they were by the end of this show if you flipped one on two weeks going you'd see these people you'd have no idea who they were but the thing that I find amusing in all of this is people are now talking about this like the last episode of

of Cheers or something like it was a little dopey little show or a bunch of is just basically the same format as PTI except there were more people arguing about these things and it was in a competition format where you got points in the winner got to be crowned and all that like people are talking about this now like we are witnessing the end of this great era of television. It was just a

dopey TV show like I'm reading all these stories and like everybody's interviewing this Tony Reali who is the host of this and it's like what did he do? Like I saw some story where you know Tony Reali doesn't know what happens next but he's up for anything and blah blah blah like bro you like no offense and I don't mean this like like you're some sort of total non-starter here, but literally your job was to sit there and yell,

next topic, such and such, it looks like the Bulls are going to lose today. J. A. Adande, what do you think about game six? And then you give people fucking points. Like this isn't some revolutionary media talent, but like people are writing stories about this. Like we're like we're losing Johnny Carson of hosting shitty shows about sports. Like it is fascinating that this show that seemed to have so little impact on the world now has like people writing think pieces about it

about how sad it is that it no longer exists and what a horrible time this is. And my favorite is I'm seeing all these stories about how, well, the people on Around the Horn have still not been told why it was canceled. They don't have to fucking tell you why it was canceled. You're hosting this doofus TV show with doofus old crotchety media people yelling about shit about sports. They're like, listen, we don't want to spend the money on this shit anymore. They're like, that's that. We don't give a shit about your show anymore. There was nothing revolutionary about

it. Like, PTI is still on and I think PTI was like the OG of that and PTI is a show that still is charming and the people on it are charming. Whereas Around the Horn, like when I was a kid, I thought it was the shit, but there was a bunch of stuff on ESPN when I was a kid that I thought was the shit. Like Stump the Schwab where like there was a trivia game show against the guy that was like the stats dude from ESPN. Like I liked that show. Like there were shows that I enjoyed on there. It's one of

those things where it's like if nobody would have written any of these sanctimonious think pieces about the end of this show, I'd probably be more sympathetic about it. Like, oh, that's kind of unfortunate. Like, yeah, I mean, it's a solid show, whatever. Now that everybody's writing like this is the end of the Johnny Carson Tonight show, I'm like, chill the fuck out. You guys sound like dipshits. Who cares? Like, who was watching this show? Who was sitting around like, God, I gotta see what Tim Kalashov, the Dallas Morning News, thinks of all the shit that's going on in the world. Like, who was thinking these

things? Who was sitting around like, I must know what Jackie Watername, whatever name was in Boston, thinks of this shit. I also saw some story where Sarah Spain who has also been featured prominently on the show believes that ESPN canceled the show because it didn't want to be viewed as too woke and there were too many people of color on that show. Just a reminder, when I flipped on ESPN this morning, Stephen A Smith, Jay Williams, and Michael Wilbon were on my television debating some basketball topic, and a woman was the person in the middle hosting the whole thing.

So there were three black dudes and a woman on ESPN this morning when I turned it on. And you mean to tell me that you think your shitty TV show got canceled because ESPN didn't want to be considered woke. Right you totally you you nailed it there. Sarah Spain you're on top of the world with that ESPN just they dumped our show because there are too many people of color on this show. Oh wait a show that people are actually watching in the morning too many people of color on this show. Oh wait, a show that people are actually watching in the morning has three people of

color on the screen at the same time and no white people and you're like, oh, huh, interesting. I want to be considered too woke, huh? Too ethnic, huh? Too color, huh? Like, oh no. Jeez, it amazes me the dumb shit people say. I'm just truly, I'm not even amazed by it anymore because it's truly remarkable. I think what's happened in this world is people have convinced themselves, they've allowed themselves to believe that this

manufactured fake oppression and their bullshit opinions are true and they're real and they are reality when in reality they are not. And it must be in sort of the same way it must be kind of amazing to sit back and like and be able to convince yourself or like sell yourself on the idea of arguing about Michael Jordan every day. Like like Stephen A Smith being able to just say, hey, I'm making $10 million. Let's yell about Michael Jordan today, right? Like being able to put yourself in that mindset to do that

is something that I find commendable because I don't want to do it. In that same way, it's kind of admirable that these people have convinced themselves of their own bullshit to the point. Like I listen to some of the shit Jamel Hill says, and I'm like, I think she believes it. And I kind of admire it.

Like I listened to the shit that some of these people on both sides of the political spectrum say and I'm like, you know what? I'm jealous of you. I'm jealous of your ability to take bullshit planted in your brain and convince yourself that it is real. That's interesting. Like I'm listening to Jamel Hill or somebody yell about the RG3 thing with

Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese and I forgot exactly what it was she said. But like they're agreeing with the idea that RG3 doesn't understand black women because he's married to a white woman and I'm like, but he himself is black and like mom black and he's got black family but because he's not black. But then you guys agree with Ryan Clark who fucked a white chick so does that mean his half white daughter doesn't understand things like what does this all mean and like like it's a combination of I'm envious and I also pity them because I pity a lot of people who find themselves in this weird universe of like they must have real hardcore

issues with their own identity right I think there are certain groups of people who have hard times dealing with their own identity because everybody else that looks like them all has a different view of what it means to be that race or that group of people. So I'm guessing a lot of people particularly young people are like what the fuck like I don't understand. What can I be like am I accepted in this way? Like, I pity them in that way. But then I also envy some people who are

just able to operate in this universe where it's like, fuck it. Like, I believe that, like, like Sarah Spain believes, legitimately believes, I don't think she's saying this just to get a reaction on social media. I think it starts that way and then I think people grow to believe their own bullshit. It's kind of like you're doing a gimmick in wrestling enough. Like you're Ric Flair. Like you start out as Ric Flair and then by the end of it, you can't get out of Ric Flair and you just

become Ric Flair. You are no longer Richard Fleer. You are Ric Flair to the point that you don't have the money to spend on alcohol for the whole bar but you still Ric Flair to the point that you don't have the money to spend on alcohol for the whole bar but you still find a way to buy alcohol for the whole bar because you're Ric Flair, you buy a limo because Richard Flair doesn't need a limo but Ric Flair does and you just become the character. I think a lot of these people started out just kind of bullshitting and saying things that they thought people wanted to hear on social media and then at some point just start to believe all the bullshit

and like they start to live it because it becomes intoxicating. Like it becomes intoxicating to be that character. You know it becomes intoxicating to kind of carry on this role that people think of you as. Like it starts out as kind of a hey I'm going to say something I half believe on social media to get some clout and then before you know it you see all these people believing in you and buying into you and viewing you as a voice for them and then you just start to go with it and then it becomes who you are and then you're stuck in this world where you can't have a middling opinion on something. You have to have a hardcore

opinion and it has to fall in line with everything you've been pimping for the last three, four, five years of your life. It has to be tiring in that way, but in a way also intoxicating and easy in life to do that. It must be like imagine you're Sarah Spain. No one on earth gives a fuck about Sarah Spain. Sarah Spain got famous jiggling her tits around for like Barstool or whoever it was in Chicago. Like that's kind of how she became famous. There was

something involving like I forgot exactly what it was but it was some bit involving the bears and boobs and shit. Then all of a sudden she becomes a super like woke progressive person that's like women's rights and shit and then like now she's saying dumb shit like around the horn is off the air because it's too woke. They don't want too many people of color on ESPN even though virtually everyone you fucking see on ESPN is a person of color. Turn on a baton. Go ahead and turn on the NBA pregame coverage. Where are the white people in there? And I'm not asking for it. I don't give a fuck. Like I don't care who's on there. But like the idea that ESPN, like if you want to say that ESPN is afraid of looking woke, I think that's true and not in terms of who's on TV, but in terms of the messaging and I think ESPN has

seen in the last decade that being woke has turned them into a shell of what they used to be and as we've talked about many times, that's why guys like Pat McAfee and others have it have grown and excelled in there because people are looking for something opposite of the bullshit. They've been fed by ESPN for the last decade, But like if you're telling me that ESPN is afraid to have people of color on television like please like do you believe that? Do you legitimately believe that? Turn on the NBA pregame show and it's Kendrick Perkins and Sinead and and I forgot who the gal is that hosts

it but she's black and like there's one other person in there. I forgot who they gal is that hosts it, but she's black. And like there's one other person in there. I forgot who they are. I don't really watch because I don't care. I think their studio shows mostly stuck. But like it is all people of color. Like or women. Women and people of color. So like this idea, this myth that people like Sarah Spain want to tell you that, hey, ESPN, ESPN is afraid of being considered too woke. Ma'am, they've been considered too woke for a decade and a half. Like, what are you talking about? And it's killed them. It has hurt them in a major way.

But it's not about who the people are on TV. It's not the color of the people. Their most premier person they have on television there is Stephen A. Smith. Most of their panel shows are largely like, hell, PTI is the best show they've had on there is Stephen A. Smith. Most of their panel shows are largely like, hell, PTI is the best show they've had on there. It's half black, half white. Like, what do you want? Like, you've convinced yourself of this bullshit and like, I'm jealous. Congrats! But it's fucking wild, man. Anyway, more to come.