ESPN is not paying Stephen A. Smith $100 million to sit on the sidelines. They want him in front of a camera.
That much has been made clear, despite Smith actually taking a step back from his ESPN duties this year. Most notably, Smith is no longer part of the regular NBA Countdown cast.
However, that doesn’t mean the ESPN frontman isn’t doing his fair share of work behind a microphone. He’s still on First Take each morning, making it about himself just as much as the athletes he’s covering. He makes spot appearances on Monday Night Countdown, the network’s NFL pregame show. Outside of ESPN, Smith is as active as ever, hosting two shows for SiriusXM, one sports and one political, along with his own podcast.
His omnipresence has raised alarm bells for some critics who believe there’s a risk of overexposure. But Burke Magnus, ESPN’s head of content, doesn’t foresee that being an issue. During a recent appearance on SI Media with Jimmy Traina, Magnus explained his rationale.
“As long as the quality and level of his work on First Take is to the degree it’s always been, which it is as we sit here today, I’m not that concerned about overexposure. There’s a school of thought that says the more politics he’s doing, the more people will understand that that’s him, not us,” Magnus said, believing viewers will make a distinction between his ESPN work and his political commentary on SiriusXM and his podcast.
“I look at it through the First Take lens — that’s his primary role for us,” Magnus continued. “Is the show as good and entertaining as it’s always been? Is it doing fun and innovative things like going to HBCUs or doing the show from Dallas before Monday Night Football in a packed environment? Is he continuing to intrigue and engage sports fans? Yeah, he’s doing all of that. So we’re good.”
Risk of Stephen A. Smith overexposure might be out of ESPN’s hands anyway. More of his content is produced outside ESPN’s confines than in. And increasingly, viewers likely understand that.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.