Stephon Marbury is gaining a talk show while Stephen A. Smith is losing his. According to a post from SimonOnSports, linked by The Big Lead, Smith announced on his talk show yesterday that his Quite Frankly talk show has been canceled.
Smith, who now rarely appears on NBA Shootaround, appears to have nothing left to do at ESPN. His appearances on SportsCenter have been nonexistent, with the exception of ‘analysis’ of and an ‘interview’ with Allen Iverson. Assuming his ego is as big as he portrays it to be, he wouldn’t want to be demoted back to guest hosting PTI or — gasp — replacing Woody Paige on First and Ten.
It is possible that Smith could leave ESPN all together, although there are no published reports or rumors to that effect. Smith’s career at the network started to slide with the addition of Quite Frankly; in fact, the talk show could have been the ‘shark jumping’ point of his career. The overexposure, having him on NBA Shootaround, his own talk show, SportsCenter, PTI and the radio, caused him to flame out rather quickly. This could also be part of the “End of the Boo-yah Era” The Big Lead wrote about a few months ago. Skip Bayless is confined to ESPN2, Smith is in no-mans land, and — this might just be because I hardly ever watch SportsCenter — Stuart Scott seems to have a much lower profile at the network than he did two years ago (he no longer hosts such illuminating programing as the ESPN100, or even worse, ESPN’s New Year’s Eve party).
One final point: this is another setback for ESPN Original Entertainment. None of EOE’s ventures have been successful, outside of PTI and Around the Horn. Playmakers was canceled, Tilt was canceled, ESPN Hollywood was canceled, Mohr Sports was canceled. A Season on the Brink was panned, as was Hustle, as was 3 — and did anyone actually watch Four Minutes or Through the Fire? Here’s hoping John Skipper’s prediction of even more EOE ventures this year will fall flat.
