Greg Gumbel will reportedly miss this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament due to health issues in his family. Plus: Deadspin has been sold yet again; former ESPN analyst Paul Pierce is said to be joining FS1’s struggling “Undisputed.”
Gumbel to miss NCAA Tournament for first time since return to CBS
CBS Sports broadcaster Greg Gumbel will not work this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament due to health issues in his family, Richard Deitsch of The Athletic reported Monday. Gumbel has served as a primary studio host on the tournament since he returned to CBS from NBC in 1998.
Ernie Johnson, who has shared the primary hosting role with Gumbel since Turner Sports acquired tournament rights in 2011, is expected to fill most of the vacancy.
Gumbel has taken on a reduced role at CBS over the past year, having relinquished his NFL play-by-play position after the 2022 season.
Deadspin sold again, staffers laid off
The website Deadspin has been sold and its staffers laid off, owner G/O Media announced in a memo obtained by Axios on Monday. The new owner, a European firm called Lineup Publishing, will be the site’s fourth in eight years since Gawker Media was sued into bankruptcy in 2016.
Deadspin had been owned by G/O Media (previously Great Hill Partners) since 2019. Clashes between the then-new ownership and the site’s editorial staff, many of whom remained from the Gawker era, resulted in a wave of resignations not long after. The site relaunched — with a far lower profile — in 2020.
Pierce to join FS1’s sinking “Undisputed”
Former ESPN NBA analyst Paul Pierce is expected to become a regular contributor on the low-rated FS1 talk show “Undisputed,” the New York Post reported Monday. Pierce was a lead NBA studio analyst for ESPN until his abrupt firing in 2021.
Pierce joins a handful of other recent ESPN employees on the Skip Bayless-fronted morning show, including Keyshawn Johnson and Rachel Nichols. Viewership for “Undisputed” has tanked since the departure of Shannon Sharpe last year, with the show bottoming out at 50,000 viewers on February 27.
