ESPN ends Barstool Sports partnership after one show
ESPN’s newest marriage barely lasted one show.
ESPN president John Skipper announced Monday he was canceling the show “Barstool Van Talk,” the offshoot of Barstool Sports’ popular podcast, “Pardon My Take,” to which the network had given a spot on TV.
Last Monday, a day before co-hosts Dan “Big Cat” Katz and PFT Commenter made their ESPN2 debut in what was supposed to be a weekly 1 a.m. ET slot, controversy erupted over Barstool’s past, notably comments about ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown” host Samantha Ponder.
“Effective immediately, I am cancelling ‘Barstool Van Talk,’ ” Skipper said in a statement. “While we had approval on the content of the show, I erred in assuming we could distance our efforts from the Barstool site and its content.
“Apart from this decision, we appreciate the efforts of Big Cat and PFT Commenter. They delivered the show they promised.”
ESPN’s new partnership with the controversial website raised public red flags when Ponder launched a Twitter firestorm over a 2014 Barstool blog post that demeaned and criticized her and her role with ESPN. Ponder was incorrect in her characterization that Katz wrote the post, but soon after audio surfaced of a Barstool podcast in which Katz laughed as Barstool founder David Portnoy blasted Ponder.
Portnoy told her to “go f--k herself ” in the post and called her a “slut” on air.
Portnoy responded to ESPN’s announcement with an eight-minute faux-press conference on Twitter. In it, he argued ESPN’s change of heart served as an example of the sports companies’ distinct trajectories: an unstable ESPN appears to be floundering, while a consistently offending Barstool is thriving, according to Portnoy.
“For 15 years, people have followed this company. We just talk, shoot the s--t, try to be funny, don’t let PC America get the best of us, and we’ll continue to do that,” Portnoy said at the podium in front of a backdrop littered with the Barstool logo. “That’s why ESPN had to turn to us. ESPN needed us more than we need them.”