SiriusXM's decision to cancel Michelle Beadle and Cody Decker's show isn't the problem. The way it happened was. Edit by Liam McGuire, Comeback Media.

In terms of public relations faceplants, SiriusXM might have just set a new bar.

And it’s not just that they fired Michelle Beadle and Cody Decker this week — it’s the way they went about it.

It takes real effort to lose the benefit of the doubt this quickly, but SiriusXM got there with plenty of room to spare. After reports surfaced that Stephen A. Smith would be hosting two new shows for the broadcasting corporation, including a 1-3 p.m. daily show, a growing school of thought emerged that Beadle and Decker would be the odd man and woman out.

The writing was on the wall. Just not for them to see.

They found out, like the rest of us, via media reports and were expected to go on-air and produce a show. They were given no heads-up that this was happening in the background nor that SiriusXM viewed them as expendable. They traded two veteran cornerstone players for one of the best in the sport, but didn’t have the common decency to rip the band-aid off and let them know this was going down.

It happens. Loyalty isn’t exactly a currency in the sports media business. Michelle Beadle was already working on an exit to Fox Sports before that deal fell through at the last minute. People and shows get replaced all the time; it’s the nature of the industry, which churns through talent like a revolving door. But, for better or worse, this isn’t exactly new territory for Beadle. She’s been fired and let go before.

She had more issues with SiriusXM treating her and her co-host like “pieces of sh*t” for someone she doesn’t respect. Beadle went there with Smith. She went there with Ray Rice. It’s been nearly a decade since Beadle last possessed an ounce of respect for her former ESPN counterpart.

“I don’t respect him,” Beadle told Front Office Sports. “I don’t respect his work. He doesn’t like me. This goes back to the Ray Rice stuff. He made some really piggish comments on the air. I responded; he got suspended for like two weeks. I think that was sort of the beginning of the end for anything. I just don’t respect him. I think he gets things wrong all the time. I’m not talking about opinions; those can never be wrong. But factually, when you spread yourself so thin, it’s hard to be right. Not a fan.”

And Smith will be spreading himself even more thin by adding a daily SiriusXM show to his lineup.

But, while there will be growing complaints about the oversaturation and overexposure of Smith, no one is denying the central premise. The premise is that if you can get Stephen A. Smith on your network, you do it without much of a second thought.

That’s exactly what SiriusXM did, and we don’t blame them for it. Any network in their position would likely do the same. But would any of them handle it like SiriusXM did, replacing Michelle Beadle and Cody Decker without informing them, then letting them go live on air right after they found out? Probably not.

Nevertheless, SiriusXM let them on the air, even as it quickly devolved into a public airing of grievances.

What followed was one of the most awkward lame-duck broadcasts you’ll ever hear. Beadle kicked it off with, “Welcome to the Lame Duck and Who Knew? Show.” Decker sardonically deadpanned back with a simple, “Fired.”

That’s how little control SiriusXM had over the narrative. The hosts called their own execution live on their own platform, and there was nothing the suits could do about it. You want a PR meltdown? That was it.

The decision had clearly been in the works for weeks. Chris Russo said as much. But SiriusXM kept them in the dark and let them learn the news just like the rest of us.

It didn’t even have to go down like this.

If SiriusXM wanted to replace the show, they could’ve done it. They could’ve handled it like professionals, let the hosts know privately, given them a proper sendoff — or at least a heads-up — and moved on. But that would’ve required basic respect. Instead, they opted for the most impersonal version of the media business, and still managed to bungle it.

Because in the end, it’s not just that Beadle and Decker were replaced. Few people are dying on that hill. The problem is that no one had the basic decency — or perhaps the backbone — to tell them this was in the works.

If you run a network, you know people see this. Talent sees it.

So why do it?

Because sometimes, the easiest way to move on is the worst way to show you ever cared. And SiriusXM just proved exactly how little they did.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.