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John Skipper resigned as president of ESPN and co-chairman of the Disney Media Networks on Monday. George Bodenheimer, ESPN's president from 1998-2011 and its executive chairman until May 2014, will take over as the acting chairman of the company for the next 90 days to help Disney chairman and chief executive officer Bob Iger find Skipper's replacement. [Snip] "I have struggled for many years with a substance addiction. I have decided that the most important thing I can do right now is to take care of my problem. "I have disclosed that decision to the company, and we mutually agreed...

As the NFL copes with a ratings slump and ESPN slashes $80 million in salaries after losing 15,000 subscribers a day in October, another major issue facing the league continued to play out in week 15 – terrible attendance. Ravens vs. Browns, Start 2nd Qtr While many blame the kneeing epidemic of unpatriotic players refusing to stand for the National Anthem – which started in the summer 2016 pre-season by former San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick, others point to a boring season, cord cutters and broke millennials staying home. Either way, it’s ugly. Since most NFL attendance figures are...

A bombshell report published Thursday described sports channel ESPN's culture as one of hostility and sexual misconduct toward women. The report by The Boston Globe specifically named several men employed by or affiliated with ESPN as being subjects of harassment complaints. Although the sports network has been embroiled in sexual misconduct scandals and lawsuits for years, current and former employees were emboldened to speak up recently after ESPN partnered with “Barstool Sports,” a blog website that has drawn criticism for content viewed as sexist. One blog entry proclaimed that ESPN anchor Sam Ponder’s No. 1 requirement was to “make men...

Back in November, shortly after Trump ignited a war with the NFL over player protests of the National Anthem, Papa John's insisted that their sales were getting crushed by a backlash from fans who decided to boycott games (we covered it here: Papa John's Pulls NFL Ads Due To "Negative Consumer Sentiment"). That said, the complaint from Papa John's was seemingly discredited as a convenient excuse for poor earnings the very next day when Pizza Hut said they had seen no impact from the NFL protests. Of course, with all of the noise of seasonality, weather and random accounting games...

Disney and Twenty-First Century Fox are closing in on a deal, and it could come as soon as next week, according to sources familiar with the matter. CNBC has been reporting that Disney has held talks with the Rupert Murdoch-controlled media company to acquire its studio and television production assets, leaving Fox with its news and sports assets. Fox is also talking with CNBC parent company Comcast, but the talks with Disney have progressed more significantly.

Cord-cutting is taking a toll on ESPN, once thought untouchable given its lock on sports coverage. The cable-television network today said it's cutting 150 jobs. Employees who are affected will receive severance, a 2017 bonus and continuing health benefits and outplacement services, the company said. ESPN wasn't the only media company to announce layoffs Wednesday, with BuzzFeed announcing layoffs affecting 8 percent of its workforce and a restructuring of its U.S. business team later. "The majority of the jobs eliminated are in studio production, digital content, and technology and they generally reflect decisions to do less in certain instances and...

ESPN says it is eliminating 150 studio and production employees as the sports broadcasting giant continues to shift its focus to a more digital future. [Snip] ESPN has lost about 10 million subscribers during the past six years, based on estimates by Nielsen Media Research.

Lunatic left-wing commentator, or something, Keith Olbermann, used the whole dustup between the President and Sen. Running-Off-At-The-Mouth as his smokescreen for “ending all political commentary in all venues.” In other words, Olbermann, who has been fired so many times by so many media outlets it’s hard to count, was most likely fired by his only current outlet, the dying GQ Magazine. In a farewell Tweet, the former bad sports newsreader for the also-dying ESPN had this to say: “After “Pocahontas,” Trump’s an ex-president waiting to happen – imminently. So this will be the last episode of #TheResistanceGQ. If you’re a...

As Roger Goodell attempts these next few days to not only save his job but ask for a raise and luxurious perks amid NFL ratings that are plummeting even further into the abyss, undoubtedly many football fans across the country are wondering if our recent national trend towards the hyper-politicization of everything is here to stay.When Colin Kaepernick began kneeling last summer during the national anthem during football games, claiming that he was doing it to protest what he believed was the oppression of people of color, it caused a sharply divisive uproar across the country that has now snowballed...

In a Sports Illustrated "Off the Board" podcast, ESPN's Scott Van Pelt took several cheap shots at the network's critics, in the process demonstrating how horribly out of touch he is with financial realities at his network. Van Pelt aimed particular venom at those who have decided that they didn't need to have cable TV any more when ESPN selected Caitlyn-formerly-Bruce Jenner as its 2015 annual Arthur Ashe Courage Award winner, calling them "so dumb that I can’t even pray for you because you’re beyond hope." The podcast's interviewer was SI's Jimmy Traina, who did his part to smear those...

ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt joined the latest edition of “Off The Board,” hosted by Jimmy Traina, and fought back hard against claims the World Wide Leader is dying. With ESPN recently losing subscribers and facing ratings that aren’t as strong as they once were (Van Pelt’s midnight edition of SportsCenter is actually up 20 percent year-over-year among total viewers), some critics of the network have said its a sinking ship. Van Pelt is having none of it. On how frustrated he gets with the narrative that ESPN is in trouble: “I push back against it. I get it everyday. Largely,...

In December of 2006, I embarked on my ninth USO Tour to entertain our troops, my eighth to the Middle East since the 9/11 attacks. My father served in Vietnam and my then-boyfriend (and now husband, Chris) is a pilot in the Air Force, so bringing a ‘little piece of home’ to servicemembers stationed far away from their families was both my passion and my privilege. Also on the trip were country music artists Darryl Worley, Mark Wills, Keni Thomas, and some cheerleaders from the Dallas Cowboys. The headliner was comedian and now-senator, Al Franken. Franken had written some skits...

A morning news anchor in Los Angeles is accusing Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken of kissing and groping her without consent in 2006, when he was a comedian headed to entertain U.S. troops overseas along with other celebrities.

President Trump got his wish Wednesday afternoon when the three UCLA basketball players busted in China for shoplifting thanked him for his help in getting them home. The three, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley and LiAngelo Ball — younger brother of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball — also apologized to their families and their school, while thanking the Chinese cops for treating them well. “I would like to thank President Trump and the United States government for the help they provided. I am grateful to be back home and I will never make a mistake like this again. I...

President Trump is hearing crickets from a trio of UCLA basketball players, despite his successful full-court press to get China to drop shoplifting charges against them. The three players, LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley, were arrested after being accused of stealing designer sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store next to the team’s hotel in Hangzhou. Trump, while on a tour of Asia, urged his Chinese counterpart to let them go, and may have been looking for some credit Wednesday. *snip* “Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for...

Monday, ESPN’s “First Take” praised Colin Kaepernick, who was announced as GQ’s “Citizen of the Year” for kneeling for the National Anthem and being a “lightning rod and a powerful symbol of activism and resistance.” “First Take” co-host Max Kellerman said Kaepernick “richly deserved” the honor, asking, “Who else would you give it to?”

1. There's been tons of talk about ratings for NFL games being down this season. A new piece in the Sporting News looks at the numbers for NFL pregame shows. CBS, which seems to change hosts every year, is down, while FOX, which has had basically the same cast forever, is up slightly. The big news, though, is that ESPN is down big.

ESPN is learning a hard lesson about politics after needlessly dragging itself into the fray: you can’t please everyone. If the network panders to one side of the political aisle, it alienates the other half of its viewership. The backlash over politicized sports coverage has ESPN reeling. The network is finding itself forced to layoff 100 employees, the Hollywood Reporter found. What makes this worst for the heads of the Disney-owned company is that the layoffs come after they delivered a mass firing of 300 employees–five percent of the ESPN workforce–in 2015. The now-frequent large-scale personnel cuts are indicative of...

Another round of layoffs are hitting ESPN, according to a Sports Illustrated report. Sources told Sports Illustrated ESPN plans to layoff more than 100 staffers after the Thanksgiving holidays, with SportsCenter in particular expected to lose jobs. ESPN did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. The company has gone through several rounds of layoffs over the past few years. In April, it let 100 people go, including about 10 percent of ESPN's more front-facing employees including on-air talent and writers. ESPN is going through changes as more people move away from cable and towards stand-alone streaming services. The...

He's the "Rolex wearin', diamond ring wearin', kiss stealin' (WOO!), wheelin'-dealin', jet flyin' son of a gun [who's] having a hard time holding this alligators down." That's Ric Flair, in his own words. The retired professional wrestler, who used the moniker "The Nature Boy," is one of the most popular of all time (and easily the most entertaining of the '80s). On Tuesday, he was the subject of the highly anticipated 30 for 30 documentary on ESPN.