The company once known as Turner Sports completed its 40th NBA season Thursday night no closer to clarity on its future with the league. Will WBD try to match Comcast’s bid for the “B” package or Amazon’s bid for the “C” package? Does it even have the ability to match either bid? Can the NBA carve out a fourth package if WBD is unable to match?
At the center of those questions is the fate of the “Inside the NBA” studio show, which has existed for nearly all of Turner’s run with the NBA, but has become an icon of sports television in the quarter-century since Charles Barkley joined in 2000. There is comparably little concern regarding the game production; few expect that the end of TNT’s run with the NBA will mean the last of Kevin Harlan or Ian Eagle on games, and Dylan Byers of Puck reported Wednesday that both are likely contenders to join Amazon’s NBA team if TNT loses its rights.
In fact, one of Byers’ sources floated that Amazon could rely on TNT to produce its NBA coverage, much the same way it has relied on NBC’s Sunday Night Football staff for Thursday Night Football. Such a deal, which would involve financial compensation for TNT Sports, would presumably save some of the jobs about which Charles Barkley has voiced concern in recent weeks.
There may be some breakups along the way — NBC is expected to make a push for TNT’s Allie LaForce, per Byers — but when a partner with 40 years of experience exits and a newcomer with zero infrastructure enters, it is simply common sense that the latter would draw upon the former.
Thus, the unusually high level of concern about TNT’s NBA rights — perhaps unprecedented in sports television — really centers on the studio team. The interest in the future of “Inside the NBA” is such that any number of websites and social media accounts have been eager to jump the gun in pronouncing the show dead so as to generate easy engagement. It has not been an uncommon sight on social media to see “Inside the NBA is officially done” despite the fact that negotiations remain in flux.
One might wonder why “Inside the NBA” should be in such peril given that Amazon has no studio — not just studio staff, but even any studio space. (Amazon’s Thursday Night Football studio programming airs from the site of each game.) If Amazon were to use TNT staff to produce its NBA coverage and TNT voices on its game telecasts, it would not be too great a leap for such an arrangement to extend as far as rented studio space at Techwood Drive and a continuation of the most acclaimed studio show in sports television.
Yet there has been considerable skepticism regarding the prospect of “Inside” continuing. First and foremost, Ernie Johnson is widely believed to be loyal to Turner, his employer for more than three decades. That sentiment originates from a Sports Business Journal report by Tom Friend in which Johnson was not quoted, and has since been echoed by Charles Barkley in one of his many media hits in the past month, yet the consensus belief is that Johnson “said” he is not leaving Turner. Johnson has in fact said nothing, as New York Times reporter Tania Ganguli can attest. (The Ganguli incident — in which the reporter secured an interview with Barkley without going through TNT Sports PR, over the protestations of the nearby Johnson and Kenny Smith — does indicate a certain respect for Turner as an institution.)
It certainly is hard to imagine that Johnson would leave his employer of 35 years and move to Amazon or NBC, especially given that he has other Turner responsibilities — including Major League Baseball, which one assumes holds a deeper place in his heart than the NBA. (Johnson is the son of Ernie Johnson Sr., who not only broadcast Braves games for years — including in a father-son pairing with Johnson Jr. — but played for the team.) It is also hard to imagine that he would have to leave Turner in order to continue hosting “Inside.”
Beyond the Hail Mary option of Barkley producing “Inside” through his production company and keeping the core four together, it is almost impossible to imagine that Amazon, NBC or even ESPN would not have at least some interest in acquiring the show in full. Byers of Puck wrote Wednesday that such an option is viewed as “highly unlikely,” but one of the reasons floated by his sources is that the networks would want to replace Smith with a higher-profile, more contemporary former player. Though Smith is the most easily taken-for-granted member of the “Inside” cast, it would be an exercise in executive hubris to try to replicate the show’s dynamic while changing the ingredients.
With the caveat that this does not take into account any contractual issues, the situation for “Inside” seems relatively simple. The show can go on, it is simply a question of will. Given the choice between building an NBA studio infrastructure out of nothing or taking a shortcut to instant credibility and familiarity, it is hard to imagine Amazon would not jump at the latter option, especially given the likelihood that it will rely heavily on what TNT has built.
At that point, the show’s future would come down to the choices of the main cast. Perhaps Johnson, Smith and O’Neal feel that “Inside” has run its course. It would certainly be fair for Johnson and Smith in particular, whose tenures stretch back into Barkley and O’Neal’s playing days, to feel like the end of the TNT era is a good stopping point. One might even wonder what the state of the panelists’ relationship is at this point, given the tense interaction chronicled in the Ganguli article. It is fair to wonder how enjoyable it is to work with someone who is constantly talking about the inner workings of your workplace on national platforms, sometimes doing so right next to you in a crowded elevator as you futilely encourage him to stop.
“Inside the NBA” is a television show more than it is a sports show. Jamal Crawford’s aggregatory comparison to “The Golden Girls” on “The Pat McAfee Show” this week was apt. (Johnson, it should be noted, is Bea Arthur’s Dorothy Zbornak: the glue that holds the show together. After Arthur left the show, she was replaced with Don Cheadle and Cheech Marin in a spin-off that lasted one season.)
Television shows end. Smith finished one episode of “Inside” this postseason spontaneously humming the opening theme from Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.” Carson, the biggest singular institution in the history of television, hosted that show for 30 years. Johnson has hosted “Inside” for 35.
Barkley has spoken often in his media blitz of the generational change he has witnessed working for TNT the past 24 years, seeing staffers bring in their newborns and then hearing about those same infants graduating college. The continuity of “Inside” has papered over the change of life that its panelists have experienced. Johnson is nearly 70 and Smith nearly 60, and both have been doing the same show since their 30s.
Smith has certainly desired more, having aggressively pursued coaching and GM opportunities in the 2000s. Johnson at this stage could not be blamed for desiring less. Over the same 24-year stretch, Johnson has battled cancer and blood clots, lost his father, mother, a son and any number of colleagues, and has still remained a constant every Thursday night (and almost every night in April and May). Johnson’s loyalty to Turner may well keep him from continuing the show — though one wonders how much that loyalty can survive under continually changing management — but it is fair to wonder just how much longer he would want to continue hosting even if WBD retains the rights.
All of which is to say that “Inside” is almost certainly on borrowed time no matter what happens with the media rights. Ultimately, the media rights situation is almost like a contractual look-in — an opportunity for those involved to decide whether they want to continue. If “Inside” ends, it seems more likely than not it will be because the cast views the change in media rights as a natural stopping point. They would not be wrong.
So often in television, there is an unwillingness to let go. As a result, shows like “The Simpsons” stay on the air literal decades past their sell-by date. Shows from one era are reanimated and shoehorned into the present day, and while “The Conners” worked (benefiting creatively, if not in the ratings, from the challenge of moving on without Roseanne Barr), most of the recent reboots have been more along the lines of “Murphy Brown,” forgettable epilogues few want to recall. Would “Inside” suffer such a fate on Amazon (or less likely, NBC or ESPN)? Even if most of the staff is retained, would the show have the same magic?
Of course, that question remains even if the show continues on TNT. For all intents and purposes, “Inside” has already changed networks. The TNT that exists under WBD is not the same TNT that existed under AT&T and certainly not the same one that existed prior to that merger. On the final episode of the season Thursday night, the “Gone Fishin'” segment included a couple of Easter eggs, a pair of old school Turner logos. Barkley noted that those logos were from “five mergers ago.” It is impossible for a culture to survive intact when management is changing so often, especially as time moves along and the people responsible for building said culture move on (Tim Kiely, who built “Inside,” retired last year).
The fact that “Inside” has survived this long with the same cast and general feel is fairly miraculous given those changes, and a testament to its success. It is not every show that multiple management teams will decide to simply leave alone.
Change is nonetheless inevitable, and one can sense that the show is not quite the same as it had been. Even for a network that once had a “Closer of the Night” sponsored by TNT’s “The Closer,” there was a high level of crosspromotion on “Inside” this year for WBD’s various offerings. The inclusion of Draymond Green in the conference finals was awkward at times, and while Green is a natural on television, his mean-spirited edge was an ill-fit for a show whose cheap shots are usually cut with laughter. The final episodes of the year seemed more perfunctory than usual, and while there may be some projection in that assessment given the atmosphere surrounding the show, the season finale did not carry the same wistfulness as in an ordinary season.
Like any veteran television show, “Inside” has ended its season on a cliffhanger. “Cannot wait for next season, it’s gonna be a blast,” Johnson said as the show was signing off Thursday night. Barkley characteristically joked in response: “Did you say blast or last?” Amidst the laughter viewers have become accustomed to over the past three decades, Johnson reiterated “it’s gonna be a blast!” To be continued.
