New Stephen A. Smith ESPN Series Explores Evolving Sports Media Debate Culture

Trust Stephen A. Smith to tell it the way he sees it—especially when it comes to the sports media landscape he helped shape with his brand of ferocity.

Smith, one of the most recognized voices in the sports landscape, recently launched on ESPN the limited series “Up For Debate: The Evolution of Sports Media.” Across three episodes, he analyzes how broadcast media evolved from its earliest days to a space where the louder the voice, the better it might thrive and drive the future.

The three-part show is a collaboration between Smith and his Mr. SAS Productions, as well as Religion of Sports. It features personalities like Troy Aikman, Mina Kimes, Molly Qerim, Shannon Sharpe, Michael Wilbon and Hannah Storm talking about where sports media debate culture came from, where it is today, and where it may be heading .

The goal, according to a press release from ESPN, is “showcasing the evolution of sports discourse.”

“From the legends who paved the way to the current kings and queens of the mic, we’re bringing you a front-row seat to the passion and intensity that fuel debates in today’s generation of sports,” Smith stated in the release.

No one knows, or stimulates, that intensity better than Smith.

The one-time print reporter, who joined radio before heading to TV and becoming a cult personality, has imprinted sports media like no one else.

Smith became in 2012 the most vocal voice on ESPN’s “First Take,” and is also featured on NBA Countdown and “The Stephen A. Smith Show” podcast. In 2023 he published, “ “Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes,” which became a New York Times
New York Times
best seller.

The five-year deal he inked with ESPN in 2019 is worth $60 million.

Smith remade the landscape in his image with a partisan debate style that entices and offends at the same time. He is synonymous with provocative commentary, delivered as aggressively as possible, with immovable conviction.

There is little doubt this series is designed to reflect the Smith style, showcasing his role as the evolutionary product of early personality-driven coverage.

“I watched sports from the days of Howard Cosell,” Smith said on the May 22 First Take show. “To me it all originated from him in terms of sports commentary, and we saw a sports setup of folks become personalities. We saw Mike and the Mad Dog [Mike Francesa and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo of WFAN] all of a sudden becomes huge personalities in talk radio, both because of it.

“And [then there is] the advent of the podcast world and what have you has come into focus, so we’re looking at the industry—where it was, where it is, where to hell is it going.”

The series’ first episode puts Smith at center stage exploring the modern landscape of sports media, including its the foundation of sports debate. Episode 2 looks at the rapid increase in sports debate shows where personalities are more important than the athletes they discuss, and the more incendiary the take the better.

The final episode explores where the model might head in the future, and how the voices of today will influence the genres for years to come.

“A lot of times, a lot of people have become incredibly popular,” Smith said on First Take. “You’ve got a situation right now with people like Shannon Sharpe and others who have highlighted they make more money now that he made as a professional athlete, for crying out loud.”

There is no doubt that Smith and fellow bombastics like Sharpe, Skip Bayless, Joe Rogan and Pat McAfee, have caused a seismic shift in the media broadcast landscape, bringing more eyeballs than ever to their content. “First Take” in 2023, for example, averaged a record 496,000 viewers in the 10 a.m. hour, and has increased viewership for more than 20 months on a year-to-year basis.

Crossing lines, however, sometimes make those personalities more of the story than they athletes they cover.

Consider Game 7 of the New York Knicks series with the Indiana Pacers, when ESPN featured Smith’s walk-in outfit in the same segment as Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Haliburton. From the NBA Countdown desk, Malika Andrews later proclaimed, before throwing the shot court side, “Stephen A Smith, it is your moment. Please rally the Knicks faithful for a totally unbiased opinion of the outcome of this game.”

Smith said on “First Take” the unregulated and, in many ways, untapped opportunities in the sports media debate are why the time is right for “Up For Debate.”

“There’s nothing policing anything, it seems,” he said. “You go out there, you have a voice, it resonates. What is the industry turning into? What is it transformed into? This is why it was important.

“The flip side to it is that no one knows where the hell it’s going.”