A sudden fall for a debate show mastermind
Executive who pioneered polarizing TV format fired amid investigation
ESPN had struggled to crack the morning show market when, in 2011, a coordinating producer in his mid30s named Jamie Horowitz was put in charge of the show First Take.
Horowitz obsessively convened rounds and rounds of focus groups to identity the ideal hosts for the show. He discovered that participants’ interest soared the moment that Skip Bayless, a former sports reporter, appeared on screen for a debate segment.
“Research showed that debate was the perfect complement to highlights and analysis fans were also consuming on morning offerings,” Horowitz told ESPN’s corporate blog. “Debate would no longer be the best part of the show, it would be the entire show.”
With that revelation — that lots of viewers would subject themselves to constant bickering on TV — the careers of two people skyrocketed: Bayless, whose provocative comments banged around the sports landscape with abandon, driving fury and TV ratings alike; and Horowitz, the behind-the-camera boy wonder who seemed to have a special view into the psyche of sports fans.
Bayless is still unleashing unpopular yet irresistible commentary daily. Horowitz’s career — several job changes later — might have collapsed this week when he was abruptly fired amid an investigation into sexual harassment.
The company did not explicitly say why Horowitz had been fired, or what details the investigation had yielded.
Through his lawyer, Horowitz vehemently asserted his innocence.
In Horowitz, the company had an executive unafraid to disrupt the status quo in an effort to expand audience. If he did not invent shout shows for sports, he was among the first to cash in on them aggressively. Fox Sports had given him great latitude to carry out his vision — one that unapologetically veered from traditional broadcast fare and instead embraced combustible, and often contrived, argumentation.