Before ESPN allowed Pat McAfee, Stephen A. Smith, and Peyton Manning to produce their own content, there was “The Decision.” In the summer of 2010, super agent Ari Emanuel pitched ESPN exec John Skipper on a TV special where LeBron James would announce where he was headed in NBA free agency. When the special aired that July, it took about 20 questions over 30 minutes for a dawdling Jim Gray to ask the one query fans wanted to know: Where was James headed after seven seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers?
“This fall, I’m going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat,” James responded. Despite airing on Disney’s
DIS,
+2.14%
ESPN, the show was not conceived by the network. It was actually a Detroit Pistons fan’s idea. James’s reps insisted that Gray, whose ESPN contract expired two years prior, do the interview, against the network’s pushback. ESPN had basically given over 75 minutes of airtime for “The Decision” special. When Gray dragged out the suspense to the fury of viewers, an impotent ESPN had no control. Even with the widespread backlash, the one-off episode remains the most-watched ESPN studio show ever. “I think it was mutual use,” Skipper said in 2020. “It worked for everybody. LeBron was smart enough to figure out he could get a platform. He did. ESPN, I believe, was smart enough to understand we could get an audience and be the center of the universe. Despite all the media criticism, 10 million people watched. A lot of them watched incensed, but that’s OK” “The Decision”—where ESPN gave up creative control of its programming fire hose to a star with a tremendous …
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
“This fall, I’m going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat,” James responded. Despite airing on Disney’s
DIS,
+2.14%
ESPN, the show was not conceived by the network. It was actually a Detroit Pistons fan’s idea. James’s reps insisted that Gray, whose ESPN contract expired two years prior, do the interview, against the network’s pushback. ESPN had basically given over 75 minutes of airtime for “The Decision” special. When Gray dragged out the suspense to the fury of viewers, an impotent ESPN had no control. Even with the widespread backlash, the one-off episode remains the most-watched ESPN studio show ever. “I think it was mutual use,” Skipper said in 2020. “It worked for everybody. LeBron was smart enough to figure out he could get a platform. He did. ESPN, I believe, was smart enough to understand we could get an audience and be the center of the universe. Despite all the media criticism, 10 million people watched. A lot of them watched incensed, but that’s OK” “The Decision”—where ESPN gave up creative control of its programming fire hose to a star with a tremendous …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]