'Around The Horn' Cancellation Confirmed By ESPN; Final Episode To Air In May

The sports panel show is readying a permanent mute after 23 years

Here’s the Reali-ty: The fellowship has fallen, and happy hour is over. ESPN is canceling sports talk panel show Around the Horn after 23 years and over 4,900 episodes. Since its inception in 2002 it had been a 5 PM staple airing alongside sibling series Pardon The Interruption, which aired after it and is only about a year older. Its final episode is set to air on May 23.

Debuting in 2002 with Max Kellerman as host, Around the Horn put faces on a national stage to some of the biggest bylines in sports journalism, like Michael Smith, Jackie MacMullan, Bill Plaschke, Woody Paige, Bob Ryan, Tim Cowlishaw, Kevin Blackistone, Jemele Hill, Pablo Torre, Sarah Spain, Mina Kimes, J. A. Adande, Ramona Shelburne, Israel Gutierrez, Bomani Jones, and before domestic violence charges in 2011 kiboshed his career, Jay Mariotti. They and others of equal or lesser frequency in all sorts of permeated sets of four attempt to earn points in heated debate or be muted if their takes are bad, ranty, or a mix of both. It took a little over a year for the show to find its forever host when Kellerman left for Fox Sports and the show picked up PTI’s “Stat Boy” Tony Reali. Several of the journalists would expand their network presence, with several appearing on The Sports Reporters, Smith and Hill briefly hosting the 6 PM SportsCenter, and Torre and Jones hosting High Noon.

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The cancellation was first reported by Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post in November but Tuesday was the official announcement. “Around the Horn has had a remarkable run of more than two decades. That kind of longevity in media is incredibly rare, and we look forward to celebrating the show’s many accomplishments before the final sign-off in May,” said David Roberts, ESPN’s executive Vice President and executive editor of sports news and entertainment. “Beyond Tony and the ensemble of on-air contributors, we are particularly grateful to the production team led by Erik Rydholm and Aaron Solomon, who have been instrumental in ATH’s consistent success since the very beginning.”

Filling the slot temporarily will be a SportsCenter as Rydholm and his team, who were also behind Highly Questionable, create a replacement that was reported to start in the summer. The actual permanent programming strategy will be announced at a later date.

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Sources: New York Post/Awful Announcing, The Hollywood Reporter