The ESPN debut of TNT’s “Inside the NBA” — just two weeks away — is now listed for an hour-long window.
ESPN’s tentative schedule now lists the TNT-produced “NBA Tip-Off” pregame and “Inside the NBA” postgame shows for hour-long timeslots leading into and out of the network’s season-opening October 22 NBA doubleheader. Both shows were previously listed for a half-hour window. The tentative schedule is not final, but ESPN is expected to officially announce its “Inside” schedule at some point in the near future.
The TNT-produced pre and postgame shows the following night are still listed for half-hour windows, but as evidenced by the change to the previous night’s schedule, that is subject to change.
“Inside” analyst Charles Barkley has repeatedly mentioned the length of the TNT postgame as a source of concern in months of media appearances, but in his most recent interview — with longtime NBA writer Steve Bulpett, now of Heavy.com — he indicated that his misgivings had been addressed. “[ESPN] said they’re not going to make us throw it to the local affiliates when we’re on ABC, and then they said, when we’re on ESPN, they’re not going to rush us off to go to ‘SportsCenter’ — which is the only two things we were really concerned with.”
ESPN president of content Burke Magnus previously told Richard Deitsch of The Athletic that the network’s “goal” is for “Inside” to run about as long as it did no TNT. “It will be as close to that as we can possibly get.”
There are no other TNT-produced pre or postgame shows currently listed on ESPN’s schedule for the remainder of October or November, but as ESPN has not yet officially announced the schedule for “Inside the NBA,” it is still possible that could change. Magnus told Deitsch last month that viewers will not see the TNT-produced show “a whole lot between Opening Night and Christmas Day,” as the schedule of appearances is backloaded “by design and at the request of Turner.”
When ESPN announced its licensing deal to acquire “Inside the NBA” last year, Opening Week and Christmas were the only dates listed before the first of the year. The “Inside” crew is set to appear adjacent to all ABC games after the start of the year, and per Magnus, all ESPN/ABC playoff games.
