The Rachel Nichols era is over at ESPN, and so is “The Jump.”
Sports Business Journal broke the news Wednesday that ESPN has canceled “The Jump” and will remove Nichols from all of its NBA programming. Nichols, who has a year remaining in her ESPN contract, served as ESPN’s lead NBA sideline reporter for most of last season. “The Jump” will continue to air over the “next couple of weeks” with other hosts.
Nichols had not been on the show in recent days, but ESPN characterized that as her being on vacation (savvy viewers would have been skeptical, given Nichols would be unlikely to willingly miss the NBA schedule release shows that aired last week).
If seemingly inevitable, the move represents as severe an about face as any this industry has seen. Nichols was named ABC’s NBA Finals host just two years ago. When asked about the role by this site at the 2020 NBA All-Star Weekend, she was in hindsight appropriately cautious: “Oh man, let me get through one year, okay? And then we’ll see how it goes from there. I feel very fortunate to be able to do it. I started out being a newspaper writer, so to get to be the TV host of the Finals, just for Game 1 — I’m going to be really excited about it, and then I’m going to hope that I get to do Game 2, and Game 3, and we’ll see from there.”
She never got to occupy the role as ESPN changed plans during the NBA’s four-month hiatus last year and named Maria Taylor the host instead.
That move prompted Nichols to grouse about the decision in a private phone call that was recorded against her knowledge and disseminated throughout ESPN. In the phone call, she infamously suggested that Taylor had been given the Finals gig because ESPN was feeling pressure because of its poor record on diversity.
Until the phone call became public in a New York Times report, Nichols’ status at ESPN seemed fairly secure. She was ESPN’s lead NBA sideline reporter and worked through the Western Conference Finals. The NYT report, and the public ire that ensued, cast her ESPN future into severe doubt. ESPN signaled as much, pulling her from the NBA Finals and taking “The Jump” off the air on the day of Game 1.
While Nichols worked through the Finals and even appeared on ESPN’s NBA Draft coverage, the company’s decision to put a new executive in charge of its NBA coverage was a signal that change was in order. Major ESPN moves are often presaged by a change of executives; for example, the removal of Rob King from SC6 right before Jemele Hill and Michael Smith left the show.
Per SBJ, ESPN plans to launch a new afternoon NBA studio show to replace “The Jump” prior to the start of next season, which is scheduled to begin in less than two months. ESPN is contractually obligated to air 750 hours of NBA-focused programming — beyond what it was already airing in its previous deal with the league — per year.
[News from SBJ 8.25]
