Radio: Jemele Hill & Michael Smith JACKED the herd! & now will host Sporstcenter

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Did anyone listen/watch the herd today???
Damn it sounded like BGOL radio...
It was funny,smart and so beautifully BLACK.
REMINDED me of bhomani ...
They would be Great daily show...
They made a "sugar hill" reference...
Gasol neck beard
NBA players who are soft
Delonte west insanity
Lebron's hair line....
Wow!!!
 
i watched, great show. was like this a few months ago when they had an all black around the horn
 
Mike Hill, thats Jemele Hill's cousin right? Jemele Hill is growing on me she looking better now days. She still got a big ass head though.
 
Mike Hill, thats Jemele Hill's cousin right? Jemele Hill is growing on me she looking better now days. She still got a big ass head though.

NO they ain't cousins:lol:
They play cousins:D
Mike smith is her tv husband on by the numbers...
She is looking MUCH better the braids didn't suit her..I like her
She ain't afraid of skip
I swear ESPN slipping...
 
Yeah that show was good. Jamele was funny talking about Bill Walker's braids and Pau Gasol's neck beard. Sounded like a barber shop on ESPN this morning.
 
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damn I listen to the Herd damn near everyday at work and of course i miss this episode.
hopefully they put on a repeat performance tomorrow (glad to see I aint the only one taken aback by Bill Walker's hair)

the Herd presented by BET
 
Did anyone listen/watch the herd today???
Damn it sounded like BGOL radio...
It was funny,smart and so beautifully BLACK.
REMINDED me of bhomani ...
They would be Great daily show...
They made a "sugar hill" reference...
Gasol neck beard
NBA players who are soft
Delonte west insanity
Lebron's hair line....
Wow!!!

Is there anyway to listen yesterday's episode again?
 
Those damn weaves are pushing Jemeles wig back

Good Interview tho!!

"Motherfucker Stop Lying" lol
 
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Michael Smith is ESPN’s $10 million forgotten man
By Andrew Marchand

April 10, 2019 | 12:26pm


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It was a mere two years ago that Michael Smith was one of the franchise faces of ESPN.

He and his tag-team partner, Jemele Hill, had matching four-year, $10 million contracts and were out front on what was supposed to be a fresher, hipper 6 p.m. “SportsCenter.”

Today, Smith is in a gold-plated purgatory, nearly ostracized by ESPN.

He is rarely on-air and, according to sources, there is no current plan for his final two years at the network.

Smith’s situation is a touchy enough subject that he and ESPN declined to comment on it.

His four-year contract called for him to specifically host “SportsCenter,” according to sources, meaning if he were moved off it, he had the right to decline any assignments. But it seems as if ESPN has not given him many to decline.

In February, Smith started a weekly 12-3 p.m. ESPN Radio Sunday show with Michael Eaves. He occasionally appears as a fill-in on ESPN’s signature afternoon talk shows like “Highly Questionable,” “High Noon,” “PTI” and “Around The Horn.”

While still being paid like a starting quarterback, Smith’s role is more like a nickel back.

Meanwhile, Hill fled ESPN — “amicably,” according to both sides — and remains in the spotlight.

When SC6, the fancy name of the Smith-Hill “SportsCenter,” went under, it was Hill who was left not only unscathed, but possibly stronger moving forward in her career.

After all the attention paid to Hill’s scrape with President Trump, in which she labeled him a “white supremacist,” and then her suspension over a less explosive tweet about boycotting Dallas Cowboys advertisers, Hill has evolved into a sports/political commentator.

John Skipper left the company at the end of 2017 after admitting to an issue with cocaine, Smith and Hill lost their champion.

A month after Skipper exited, Hill stepped down from the show before she was told to go. Hill agreed to a buyout on her deal by late August.

She is now a writer for the Atlantic, doing voiceovers on Sports Emmy-nominated projects for LeBron James’ company, Uninterrupted. Hill also has a new podcast and recently appeared on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”

Smith stayed behind and even tried to continue as a “SportsCenter” anchor. Longtime ESPN executive Norby Williamson by then was in charge of “SportsCenter,” and he turned to a more traditional approach, moving from Smith to Sage Steele and Kevin Negandhi.

Whatever the circumstances of SC6’s failures, ratings have gone up with Steele and Negandhi.

When Smith left “SportsCenter,” sources said, ESPN did offer him a small variety pack of NFL coverage and fill-in work on the afternoon talk shows, which are the fiefdom of producer guru-to-the-stars Erik Rydholm. Smith did not accept the demotion, which was his contractual right.

SEE ALSO
How ESPN tried to entice Jemele Hill to stay
Smith had moved his way up the Bristol ladder after joining ESPN from the Boston Globe in 2004. He predated Adam Schefter as an NFL insider, then transferred to the main “NFL Live” desk as an analyst before shifting to hosting.

He and Hill grew together organically, initially with a podcast before she joined Smith’s afternoon show, “Numbers Never Lie.” The show took on the duo’s personality with a new name, “His & Hers.” From there, Skipper entrusted “SportsCenter” and face-of-the-franchise status to the duo.

Now, Smith seems almost forgotten. With his versatility and ESPN’s endless opportunities, reason would say both sides would be able to find more value in Smith’s $2.5 million salary per year.

ESPN+, which is viewed as the future of the company, has a once-a-week program hosted by Katie Nolan. Could a show like that work for Smith?

If not Plus, Smith has been a reporter, a host, an analyst and opinionist for nearly 15 years. There are a lot places Smith could be used.

For now, though, he remains in ESPN, Gold-Plated Purgatory.

Knicks’ free agency has already begun for its reporters. Ian Begley is leaving ESPN to join SNY as the network tries to ramp up its reporting with the Knicks potentially landing Zion Williamson, Kevin Durant and/or Kyrie Irving.

SNY wanted to have a reporter in place by May before the lottery. Begley begins May 1.

SNY had talks with Frank Isola, according to sources, after he was let go as part of the Daily News’ purge. Isola was sought after, but he is on ESPN (“Around The Horn” and “PTI”) nearly every day, while co-hosting a SiriusXM NBA morning show and writing for The Athletic. So he declined before an offer was made.

SNY had long had its eye on Begley and wanted him in place to join its main reporters, Andy Martino on baseball and Ralph Vacchiano on football.

“Getting a guy like Ian for us is a home run,” SNY senior vice president of content development Brad Como said.
 
How ESPN tried to entice Jemele Hill to stay
By Andrew Marchand

September 4, 2018 | 1:12pm


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Jemele HillGetty Images for Ozy Media
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Jemele Hill and ESPN tried to stay together before agreeing to a divorce and a buyout on the nearly three years and multimillions of dollars remaining on her contract.

Hill had the option to become a regular part of “Highly Questionable,” according to sources. Hill has been a frequent guest with the show’s host, Dan Le Batard, and his father, Gonzalo, who is better known as Papi. The idea would have been to have Hill become a regular part of a rotation for the program.

Besides “HQ,” Hill — the controversial commentator who sparred last year with President Trump — had discussions this summer about becoming a host on “SportsNation,” sources said. The show has subsequently been canceled.

Hill and ESPN also examined the possibility of her doing more in-depth work for The Undefeated, the network’s race and culture website. The thought was that her work could appear on ESPN+. The company is trying to boost its subscriber base on its $4.99 monthly extra video service.

Instead, ESPN and Hill agreed to a buyout of the final $6.25 million she is owed over the next two and a half years. Sources on both sides called the final discussions “amicable.”

The Post had previously reported that her final day would be last Friday, but it is Sept. 15 — though she is not expected to be on the air much. Last week, she was on “Highly Questionable,” which — along with an already completed interview with the Lions’ Matthew Stafford — is expected to be her final appearance on the network.


Since leaving “SportsCenter” earlier in the year, Hill had not done much for ESPN. She wrote some columns for The Undefeated and did some fill-in work on the late-afternoon talk shows. She continues to tweet regularly about politics and other subjects.

In two weeks, Hill, 42, will become a free agent, and there are no restrictions on what she can do next. She has begun a production company, which seems as if it will be part of the next stage of her career.

A year ago, her profile at ESPN was raised because of her criticisms of the president, whom she called a “white supremacist.” Though it broke ESPN’s social media rules to comment on politics when it is unrelated to sports, then-ESPN president John Skipper chose not to discipline her. Later, after a more innocuous tweet about boycotting the Cowboys because of owner Jerry Jones’ stance on the national anthem, Skipper suspended Hill for two weeks. Jones is an important member of the NFL’s TV committee.

Hill and her former TV partner, Michael Smith, were highly touted as the new hosts of the evening “SportsCenter,” dubbed “The 6.” Though there was a lot of publicity, the show never found its stride. With new hosts Sage Steele and Kevin Negandhi and a more traditional “SportsCenter” approach, the program’s ratings have risen.

ESPN still wanted to keep Hill in a new role, but in the end, both sides decided it was time to move on.
 
Michael Smith’s ESPN purgatory ends with ‘fair’ buyout
By Andrew Marchand

October 3, 2019 | 10:27am | Updated


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Former “SportsCenter” host Michael Smith has agreed to a buyout with ESPN on his four-year, $10 million contract, which has allowed him to take a job as the executive vice president and chief content officer for a Hollywood-based startup called (Co)laboratory, The Post has learned.

When reached for comment, Smith said the settlement was “fair,” but would not go into detail. His contract was not scheduled to expire until February 2021.

Smith, 40, has been in a gold-plated purgatory since his much-hyped 6 p.m. “SportsCenter” with Jemele Hill was put on ice. The show began in February 2017, but didn’t last a year.

Thirteen months ago, Hill agreed to her own buyout on a $10 million contract. She is involved in a bunch of projects, most notably as a writer for The Atlantic.

At ESPN, Smith had barely been utilized for the last 18 months since the 6 p.m. gig ended.

While Smith was silent on the exact settlement that ended his ESPN career, he sounded very excited about the growth potential of his new role with (Co)laboratory, which will work with athletes, teams and leagues.

“It is really a unique startup,” Smith said. “It is a studio and startup incubator that is going to bring together the best of Hollywood and the sports world.”

Smith will still be on-air with his own projects, but he will be instrumental in partnering with others to develop a variety of content that can be sold on various platforms, such as digital, audio, over-the-top video, film and TV.

(Co)laboratory already has 21 projects in the works, Smith said. It is run by some heavy hitters, including Players Tribune co-founder Jaymee Messler, Thunder Roads Films founder Basil Iwanyk and brand strategist Greg Economou.

When asked about how his relationship with ESPN ended, Smith didn’t have anything bad to say.

“I was ready for a new chapter,” Smith said. “I was ready for a new challenge. I’ve been at ESPN for 15 years. I’ve worn pretty much every hat imaginable. Realistically, the opportunities that were available to me at this point, I don’t know how much growth they truly represented, especially compared to this opportunity.

“I think what we are going to do for athletes and content creators throughout the industry when it comes to storytelling and when it comes to content development and distribution, it is going to be significant, impactful and disruptive. For me, personally, this has really been the career growth opportunity that I have been waiting for to really jump back in the game.

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“I’m not done being on-air talent. I’ll be the voice and the face of several projects for (Co)Laboratory. If the right opportunity presents itself, I’ll also do some on-air work outside of (Co)Laboratory.”
 

Michael Smith knows exactly why he and Jemele Hill’s ill-fated run as the anchors of the 6 p.m. edition of “SportsCenter” lasted only 13 months: “a bad fit.”

“Just a bad fit, and I think worse than a bad fit, we moved too quickly,” the ex-ESPN employee said in a lengthy interview with The Athletic. Smith and Hill debuted their edition of “SportsCenter,” called “SC6” (or “The Six”), on Feb. 6, 2017, and it would last just 13 months.

Hill and Smith, who spent years co-hosting the daytime program “His and Hers,” were set to be the faces of a “new era” for “SportsCenter,” ESPN’s legacy news show, which was bleeding viewership at the same time the network was losing subscribers. The brass at ESPN, at the time led by former president John Skipper, wanted to build “SportsCenter” more around personalities, rather than being the network’s version of the Nightly News.

But in Smith’s opinion, that’s where they got it wrong.

“We should have spent way more time in the lab how we were going to merge these two brands if that was, in fact, the goal, to make ‘SportsCenter’ more like ‘His and Hers,'” he said. “If that is what we were going to do, we should have spent more time working on that.”

Smith said that the way things worked at “SportsCenter” — where producers have much more editorial control — was far different compared to “His and Hers,” where he and Hill had almost complete control. He argued that the change from “SportsCenter” from what viewers had been accustomed to over its 40 years to a more talk-show driven format they were bringing from “His and Hers” was too jarring — for everyone.

“The Friday before the Super Bowl in February 2017 — the Super Bowl between the Patriots and Falcons — was a quote, unquote traditional ‘SportsCenter.’ On Monday, it is a talk show. Like, I can say this: Who did we think we were?” he said. “‘SportsCenter’ is too iconic a brand and is too ingrained in our culture for it to go from selling hamburgers on Friday to pizza on Monday, even if it was really good pizza.”

Smith left ESPN last month to join Los Angeles-based start-up studio, (co)laboratory, which is focused on original content around sports. Smith will serve as chief content officer and executive vice president, and is one of the company’s first hires. He will provide creative direction on (co)lab projects, identify new business opportunities and revenue-driving initiatives, and assist with on-camera development training for athletes.

Regarding Hill’s infamous tweet in September 2017 where she called President Donald Trump a “white supremacist,” Smith said he felt ESPN handled it “as best they could.”

“This is a crazy period we are in given the resident in charge, given the occupant of the White House, and how he goes about things,” he explained. “So I don’t know how they should have handled it. I don’t know what the right way is to handle it.”

He added that the end of “SC6” was “in motion” before Hill’s tweet. She would later get suspended for a tweet where she called for viewers to boycott companies that associated with the Dallas Cowboys, whose owner Jerry Jones, said he would bench any player who took a knee during the National Anthem before games. Hill left ESPN last year.

“It was in motion before that,” Smith said. “The tweet is obviously a flashpoint, but it just accelerated the process.”

Read the entire interview in The Athletic here.
 
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