When Dan Le Batard left ESPN in early 2021 and founded Meadowlark Media with former ESPN president John Skipper, many expected the company would scoop up many of the exiled former ESPNers Le Batard and Skipper had championed during their time at the network.
That proved partially true, as talent like Amin El-Hassan, Kate Fagan and Tom Haberstroh came aboard. But Meadowlark couldn’t lure some of the bigger fish from that cohort, even as some left ESPN for other companies.
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One such host is Bomani Jones, who hosted Highly Questionable with Le Batard for several years and, before that, was a regular voice on Le Batard’s radio show. In an interview this week on The Awful Announcing Podcast, Jones revealed that he actually came quite close to signing with Meadowlark. If not for getting his own HBO show, Jones said may have reunited with Le Batard.
“Yeah, I talked to them about going there in 2022,” he revealed.
“If you would have asked in 2021 when Dan left ESPN and they went to start that, if you would have asked me where I would have thought I would have ended up at the end of that contract, I would have said that was the place that I thought I was going to end up. In large part because the place I worked at the time didn’t seem like they were going to want to keep me.
“But the Game Theory thing created a circumstance for me where I needed to keep that part stable, because Game Theory required so much and was so important to me. That was the most important thing in my professional life, maybe in my life-life, at that point, was doing that show. And every decision I was making was based upon whether it was good for Game Theory. And I thought it was better for Game Theory to stay at ESPN.”
Others from the Le Batard extended universe, including Katie Nolan, have previously said Meadowlark was light on structure when it recruited talent in its early days. Indeed, many of its outside hires have since left, including Fagan, Haberstroh, and core cast members like Jessica Smetana.
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Despite certain differences in worldview, Jones was attracted to Le Batard’s sensibilities and graciousness as a broadcaster.
“The big thing was even if it was a time where me and Dan weren’t great, and not everything was always going to be great, but what we always had an understanding of is, ‘What we’re here to do is a good television show,'” Jones explained on the Awful Announcing Podcast. “And I don’t think there was ever a day that I left and did not think the three of us (Jones, Le Batard and the beloved “Papi” Le Batard) had made a good television show.”
Jones said Le Batard went out of his way to make Him feel comfortable while they co-hosted the show.
“He never tried to compete with me as I started to do better on the show,” he said. “He was willing to share that light, and I was put in a position, even if it wasn’t my show, when the camera was rolling, he treated me absolutely as a peer. Which is not something that everyone in the position that he was in would have done under the circumstances.”
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Game Theory was canceled after two seasons, and Jones has since invested more time in his popular podcast. Recently, he increased the show’s weekly output, signed with Playmaker, and returned to a studio space.
The post Bomani Jones: ‘I thought I was going to end up’ at Meadowlark Media when I left ESPN appeared first on Awful Announcing.
