Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 11
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What happened after John Skipper's departure from ESPN?
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Stugatz. What's the single most important thing the Falcons have to do to beat the Patriots? 20 mediocre years.
Thanks for having me. Have a great day. This is the oral history of the Tan Levitard Show with Stugatz.
I'm proud of this project, we're proud of this project, narcissistic though it is, and I do believe that the second half of this has the potential to have more information and be more interesting and more honest than even the first half because there's a lot of stuff in here that I have not talked about and that I will need help remembering with mike and stugatz because it felt like such a crisis time where the things i was about felt like they were being attacked and i didn't quite feel supported by anybody but the people that we had most closely around us i'd lean on mike more than me well i'm curious i think
I think this episode, more than any of the other ones, is going to have us trying to talk out what happened here. Because if we thought the timelines got screwy before, we're walking up to COVID, which was such a life-changing event that it screwed everybody's timelines up. But just for you in the audience, where we're at right now, the last episode, we covered John Skipper stepping down from his position at ESPN. There was about a six-month period, to the best of my knowledge, Stu, where the people that were in place below John Skipper kind of stayed in place in a holding pattern as Disney tried to figure out the direction of ESPN and who they were going to put in place there. There was actually some safety in knowing that for at least six months, we just keep the status quo.
Well, those people below John Skipper were people that we had relationships with, that they became accustomed with the show and the kind of work and productivity that we put out. But they were also pretty good people. It was Rob Keller. It was Marcia Keegan. They liked us. We liked them. They spent a lot more time with us than they ever had because John Skipper was no longer there.
Trog Keller. I was senior vice president of the ESPN production business units. Oversaw some of the smaller ESPN businesses. Both shocked and saddened, right? It's out of left field and saddened because I'd known John quite a while even before my time at ESPN in my role at ABC and I knew John to be just a smart, creative executive and considered him a friend. I enjoyed our Many conversations that ranged from, is there a God, to how are sales going? Anyway, it was a shock to the system, and John had given us a lot of leeway in regards to running the radio business. He knew we knew what we were doing, and he, along with Norby, let us do our thing. I did say, okay, you know, when there's a change at the top, there's always change.
That's what happens in corporate America, and so I buckled down and waited for what was next.
I didn't realize, though, that that's why they were spending more time with us. You didn't? No, I really do think that people, if you're interested in sort of doing a forensics on how we did what we did in a way that made people curious, how are they able to do that at Disney? And it's because off-premises, a lot of stuff can be kept away from me. given how weird our whole setup was. What they have now with McAfee is not something that they had tried before. Let's rent this ready-made thing and thrust it upon our people and let it live over there and leave those people alone. And that's not the deal that they sign up for. So it created an assortment of problems that I really wasn't privy to because Mike is getting battered in all the things that you feel in the last episode because he's fighting in defensive protection of... The executive producer job on this show is protect Dan. Just make sure he's okay so that we can all be okay. Because if you take care of the show, it will take care of you.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What happened after John Skipper's departure from ESPN?
0:01–4:42
2
How did the power shift at ESPN influence the Dan Le Batard Show?
4:42–32:06
3
What were the implications of the 'send her back' controversy?
32:06–1:04:49
4
How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect the show?
1:04:49–1:23:37
5
What is Dan's perspective on ESPN's handling of political discussions?
1:23:37
6
How did the relationship with local radio evolve?
1:12:23
7
What led to the internal tensions at ESPN?
47:29–54:46
8
What was the significance of the new management team at ESPN?
54:46–2:03:46
Speakers
9 identifiedMore from The Dan Le Batard Show
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Tony Says The Justin Herbert Experiment Is OVER | Hour 3
Dan Le Batard Responds To ESPN's Statement | Hour 2
Ross Tucker Loves Football More Than You | Hour 1
Our Show's Effort Jumps Off The Tape | Local Hour
Chaos in Week 2, Aaron Donald’s Return & Puka facts (Feat. JB Long)