An image from a Dec. 19, 2024 "The Sports Reporters" with virtual panelists Nicole Auerbach, Paul Finebaum, Ryan McGee, and Josh Pate, plus in-studio host Jeremy Schaap. An image from a Dec. 19, 2024 “The Sports Reporters” with virtual panelists Nicole Auerbach, Paul Finebaum, Ryan McGee, and Josh Pate, plus in-studio host Jeremy Schaap. (ESPN on YouTube.)

Last fall, ESPN relaunched The Sports Reporters, which had previously last aired on their network in 2017. But the new version of the show is significantly different than the most common version of the old one, from often first airing on YouTube through dramatically different panelists through many editions of it featuring remote panelists.

The usage of remote panelists in particular on this new incarnation of The Sports Reporters has sparked some debate. Critics have cited the stark departure from the old in-studio format and the seemingly-lessened chemistry of doing this virtually, but others have praised this approach for the wide range of non-ESPN panelists it allows for.

In a recent interview with host Brandon Contes on the Awful Announcing Podcast (which has its full episode coming out Friday), The Sports Reporters host Jeremy Schaap discussed the new show. There, he was quite candid about the pros and cons of remote panelists. Those comments start around the 1:40 mark in the clip below:

“It’s clearly not the old Sports Reporters, although in, format, how much different is it really? Not that much different,” Schaap said. “But, you know, things change. And mostly we’ve been doing it virtually with people in boxes, which is not my preference, but it’s just much easier to get people in boxes. Here we are in boxes, right? And it’s fun to watch the evolution and we’re really in the stage now where we’re kind of like trying different things, trying different guests, trying different panel mixes, how they work with each other.”

Later in that discussion, around 3:15, Schaap said there are admitted technical challenges with all-virtual panels, and ESPN is trying to come up with ways to mitigate those.

“Technically, it’s harder,” he said. “We’re working on it. We literally had a meeting a few days ago about how we reduce the delay between the different panelists so that there is more of a natural flow, right, the way that you would have in studio. And you know, I’m the last person who should be talking about the technical aspect of any of this stuff, but there are ways to do it: I think generally you’re going to sacrifice some of the video and audio quality.”

Schaap said that’s a continuation of a long-running broadcasting quest to balance audio, video, and latency. But he said The Sports Reporters has some positives there versus, say, live games, with the content of panelists’ comments mattering more for their show than perfect visuals.

“When I was a kid, before I was working there, I remember them using film on TV, right? The news was cut with the mesh bags with the film in it. And one thing that was always kind of the holy grail was perfect video, perfect audio.

“And here we are all these decades later where those things which you thought would just keep getting better, we actually don’t care as much about, right? Like, it doesn’t have to be high-def in these kinds of discussions for The Sports Reporters. What really matters, and you know, I guess this is something that we should be encouraged by, is the content. So we’re figuring that stuff out.”

Schaap said back-to-back The Sports Reporters shows in December showed how the show can work both virtually and in-studio, with chemistry key for both.

“We had Ryan McGee, Nicole Auerbach, Josh Pate, and Paul Finebaum, and that was virtual, and they really know each other, I think they all know each other, and they really played well off of each other. So it really, really worked well. And the next day we did it in the studio with Bill Rhoden and Hannah Storm and Trey Wingo, who are all veterans of the old Sports Reporters, especially Bill, but the others as well, Hannah and Trey.

“And for me as the host sitting there, you can tap somebody, you know, on the shoulder, you can make eye contact, you can do all these things with body language to indicate where you’re going to really have a different level of interaction with each other, you know, that’s great. But you’re going to limit yourself in terms of the people you can get into the studio.”

We’ll see what ESPN does with the in-studio versus virtual mix for The Sports Reporters going forward. But it’s interesting to hear Schaap talk about why they’re doing it the way they are, and what they’re trying to do to improve the quality of the virtual ones.

Listen to the full episode of the Awful Announcing Podcast featuring Larry McReynolds beginning Friday, Feb. 14. Subscribe to the show on Apple PodcastsSpotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. For more content, subscribe to AA’s YouTube page.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.