Popular sports analyst Bomani Jones survived ESPN’s latest round of layoffs, but the 42-year-old received some other bad news: One of his other well-known programs outside of ESPN has been canceled.
Citing sources, OutKick reports that HBO canceled Jones’ program, Game Theory with Bomani Jones. The program lasted two seasons, but a noticeable decline in ratings prompted officials to cancel it:
“Game Theory debuted in 2022, first airing after Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and then Real Time with Bill Maher for the second season.
Each season lost on average over 80% of its lead-in viewership.
HBO sister station TNT re-aired episodes of the second season the following week ahead of its NBA doubleheader. The TNT and HBO airings of the show often failed to register on the top 150 cable chart.”
That’s not all. OutKick’s report also stated that the Worldwide Leader In Sports isn’t planning to renew Jones’ deal after the current one runs up next month.
It was noted, however, that the occasional Around the Horn contributor and former Highly Questionable co-host “could negotiate to stay at ESPN at a discounted salary depending on his market elsewhere.”
On Friday, ESPN conducted a long series of layoffs. This included 27-year veteran Suzy Kolber, NBA analyst/color commentator Jeff Van Gundy, former “First Take” co-host Max Kellerman, NFL analysts Todd McShay, Keyshawn Johnson, Matt Hasselbeck and Steve Young and NBA analyst Jalen Rose.
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It has also been reported that former NBA star Vince Carter, also an analyst at ESPN, is expected to leave the network once his contract is up.
Disney CEO Bob Iger stated back in February that the company would be cutting 7,000 jobs as a tactic to save billions of dollars. That meant cutting a large number of ESPN’s most beloved and respected on-air talents, and it’ll be interesting to see how the network goes about replacing all that lost star power.
