TNT’s “Inside the NBA” is officially moving to ESPN and ABC starting next season.
TNT and ESPN officially announced Monday that the TNT “Inside the NBA” studio show will begin airing on ESPN and ABC next season, the first of the new NBA media rights deals. “Inside,” which per reports will continue to feature Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal, will air during Opening Week of the season, Christmas Day and throughout the NBA playoffs — including during the NBA Finals.
With the exception of a handful of postgame shows on NBA TV during the 2009 NBA Finals, “Inside” has never before aired during the NBA Finals. Johnson, Smith and Barkley have only appeared once on a Finals broadcast, as guests on NBC’s halftime coverage of Nets-Lakers Game 1 in 2002.
“Inside” will also air during all ABC games after January 1, meaning that the studio team that has largely worked Tuesday and Thursday nights the past 25 years will primarily be working on Saturdays and Sundays.
If highly unusual, it is not unprecedented for one network to rely on another to produce its studio coverage. Fox Sports for years relied on MLB Network to produce its Major League Baseball pregame, which aired from the latter’s studio.
“Inside” will continue to be produced by TNT Sports from its Atlanta studios, and the cast will continue to appear on Warner Bros. Discovery platforms in various forms, including a general “Inside Sports” program that WBD says is in development for next season.
Assuming no changes to the CBS/Turner Sports March Madness arrangement, Johnson, Smith and Barkley will now appear on both of the major men’s basketball events each season — working the Men’s Final Four for CBS/Turner in March and then the NBA Finals for ABC in June. Johnson in particular will have the unusual duty of anchoring the biggest championship events in basketball for networks that do not actually employ him.
As for ESPN, the network’s “NBA Countdown” studio show will continue to exist. It is likely the show will operate much in the same way as in the early years of ESPN’s NBA rights deal, when ABC had its own distinct pregame show. It is unclear whether ESPN talent will appear on “Inside,” much in the same way that the CBS/Turner March Madness studio includes some CBS talent alongside the TNT trio.
