Over the past five years, the “hot take” has absolutely dominated the sports television world. Sports television personalities such as ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and FS1’s Skip Bayless have seemingly made a living off of both radical takes and obscure sports opinions. While shows like ESPN’s First Take and FS1’s Undisputed initially started off as sports analysis and debate, they have since turned into shouting matches over who can give the more ridiculous take.
Though the sports analysis is questionable, the television ratings for these shows have skyrocketed in the past five years. Eager to capitalize on the product, ESPN and FS1 have created numerous spin-offs of the “loud” debate show. Gone are the days of solid analysis as the sports television market has been flooded with absurd opinions, viral moments and laughable shouting matches.
To find out just how much the hot take has ruined sports analysis, one would have to look no further than Skip Bayless of FS1’s Undisputed. Whether singing the praises of his Dallas Cowboys or diminishing the entirety of LeBron James’ career, Bayless has seemingly made a living off of his hot takes.
Often credited as one of the forefathers of sports debate, Bayless has rarely, if ever, used real sports analysis to support his outlandish takes. A prime example of such would be the ongoing LeBron argument Bayless has clung to for the majority of his career. Rather than researching James’ stats to form his opinion, Bayless instead claims LeBron simply does not have the “clutch gene” or “killer mentality.” Though little to no sports analysis is actually done in Bayless’ opinions, his interactions and fame continue to rise with each passing year.
With such a huge level of success and fame, Bayless has unconsciously set the standard for what it takes to make it big in the modern sports television world. Countless sports personalities such as Nick Wright, Colin Cowherd and more have abandoned hard sports analysis in favor of wild takes on multiple sports.
With the category of sports debate growing larger each day, one cannot help but think that real sports analysis is truly dead. While some television shows such as The Dan Patrick Show aim to offer real analysis, they pale in comparison to the gasbag companies that are FS1 and ESPN.
What was once credible sports television is now nothing more than gasbag opinions with little to no real analysis. Whereas before the viewers tuned in to hear statistics and news from their favorite teams, they now simply tune in to see what ridiculous thing someone will announce next. The days of real sporting analysis along with unbiased opinions are officially long gone.
