ESPN Hollywood Sinks without a trace.

[SirFozzie]

Good for ESPN.. wow.. I'm not sure they could've run a test pattern and only get 0.08. Just remember boys.. the S in your name stands for SPORTS, ya dig?



Anthony Crupi

JANUARY 17, 2006 -

After less than a half-year on the air, ESPN has pulled the plug on ESPN Hollywood, a daily news and entertainment show that never caught on with viewers.

Debuting Aug. 15 on ESPN2, Hollywood was meant to function as a hybrid of traditional sports fare and pop culture, although the network never demonstrated an affinity for the latter.

The first episode drew an anemic 0.08 rating, representing about 75,000 households.

“We were pleased with ESPN Hollywood’s ability to capture the cross currents of sports and entertainment but our research and the ratings clearly suggest that a daily show may have been too much,” said John Skipper, ESPN executive vp, content.

The final episode of Hollywood airs Jan. 26.

Beginning Jan. 30, ESPN2 will program The Best of Mike and Mike, a half-hour daily digest of Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg’s four-hour morning (6 a.m-10 a.m.) talk radio show, in Hollywood’s old 6 p.m. slot. As previously announced, on the same day the net will also push Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith from its 6:30 p.m. perch to a late-night slot (11 p.m.).

[Desmond]

Good riddance.

[kingfc22]

.08 HAHA Serves them right. Now get back to covering SPORTS!!!

[Coffee Warlord]

Heh. I never even heard of it.

Of course, I really don't watch ESPN like...ever, unless there's a game I wanna see on. Their shows are worthless, in my opinion.

[Dutch]

Heh. I never even heard of it.

Of course, I really don't watch ESPN like...ever, unless there's a game I wanna see on. Their shows are worthless, in my opinion.

Yeah, amazingly I only watch it for Sunday Night Football and to catch up on scores every once in a while.

[Abe Sargent]

Yeah - past ten years ESPN has gone from always on to rarely on. Just a slow inexorible trend. I think part of that is due to the proliferation of better information on teh Internet so I don't even need SportsCenter anymore.

-Anxiety

[JonInMiddleGA]

representing about 75,000 households.

A little perspective on that number, just for the heck of it -- that's nearly double what ESPN News got with M&M in the morning, and is 50% higher than ESPN Classic gets in primetime.

Aside from that, keep an eye out for a number of changes on the ESPN family of networks with regard to programming. A little bird tells me that a good bit of 2006 is going to be spent shifting programs around in order to give more concrete identities to the individual networks.

[Cotton]

You'd think they'd have learned after that disaster called 'Cold Pizza' - God, what a lame show. They've been trying to delame it since the day it first aired and finally gave up the morning spot to Mike and Mike...

[Pumpy Tudors]

As much as I adore Thea Andrews, she couldn't even get me to watch "ESPN Hollywood." I think "Cold Pizza" is actually halfway decent, but I want to strangle Skip Bayless, so I can't watch a pretty large portion of the show.

Evidently, other people still like ESPN, but the network has lost me. I'll watch some sporting events on it, but I think there's nothing they can do to make me enjoy it like I used to. I bet they don't really care either. They've got their viewers, and they're obviously happy with that. "ESPN Hollywood" was just a joke and doesn't indicate that their networks are floundering in any way, at least not in my eyes.

[Vince]

I still enjoy ESPN, but probably only because I actively avoid stupid shows. Now that I think about it, that's just about 90% of their programming though. Sportscenter is not the same as it used to be, but PTI is great.

[biological warrior]

We need more shows like ''The Season'' and other spoirts related documentaries (not real life tv survivor type). It would be great for ESPN to have 1/2 hr devoted to World Sports News too.

[terpkristin]

A little perspective on that number, just for the heck of it -- that's nearly double what ESPN News got with M&M in the morning...Interesting. How many households have ESPN News as compared with how many have ESPN2 (which I assume was carrying Hollywood)? I mean, I know that until recently, I never had News.

/tk

[st.cronin]

My girlfriend watched an episode of 'cold pizza' and told me I'd love it - not that SHE liked it, she just thought it was perfect for me.

That was one of the few times when I can say she was WRONG.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Interesting. How many households have ESPN News as compared with how many have ESPN2 (which I assume was carrying Hollywood)? I mean, I know that until recently, I never had News.

/tk

From http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?page=corporatefactsheet
(because I don't have the HH subscriber stuff memorized by a long shot)

ESPN: Surpassed 90 million households on June 1, 2005.
E2: Households: Over 89 million households.
Classic: Over 58 million homes
ENews: Subscribers: Over 45 million homes full-time; 11 million part-time.

I'm glad I looked that up, because I had no idea that Classic had more HH's than News.

[ice4277]

From http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?page=corporatefactsheet
(because I don't have the HH subscriber stuff memorized by a long shot)

ESPN: Surpassed 90 million households on June 1, 2005.
E2: Households: Over 89 million households.
Classic: Over 58 million homes
ENews: Subscribers: Over 45 million homes full-time; 11 million part-time.

I'm glad I looked that up, because I had no idea that Classic had more HH's than News.
I'm pretty sure that Classic is now on a large number of basic cable systems, whereas I have only ever seen News full-time on digital cable and satellite.

[terpkristin]

Thanks for that info!
Interesting, I hadn't realized Classic had so many households, either!!

/tk

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm pretty sure that Classic is now on a large number of basic cable systems, whereas I have only ever seen News full-time on digital cable and satellite.

I guess you're right, but it just never really hit me before ... which is pretty damned bad since I've got ads running there later this year. (Thankfully the cost is appropriate to the viewership).