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The news about ESPN’s Around The Horn celebrating 23 seasons on-air this past Friday brought forth a wave of nostalgia, mixed debate, and a strong opinion or two from longtime viewers. Bill Hofheimer, ESPN vice president of communications, provided the entire roster of all-time panelists who have graced the show over the years 61 in total, including host Tony Reali, and asked: How many sports fans would know their names?
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The show had become a sort of nutritious blend of comedy, fast opinions, and a truly bizarre points system that, over time, fostered some pretty chaotic-but-fun discussions. Over the years, it featured an almost innumerable supply of sportswriters and analysts, with a host or two from outside of ESPN, including Mark Cuban.
At least there are viewers that aren’t sad about bidding it goodbye. A few scathing responses leaned to the left at Hofheimer’s post. One respondent said plainly, “The show sucked after Max left,” in homage to former co-host Max Kellerman who had left the show in 2004. Another went into heavy politics with, “61 panelists and almost all of them were leftists,” igniting a short but heated exchange further down the responses.
Some others started becoming quite earnest about their feelings towards the show’s legacy. “That’s what made it so good,” one fan said, referring to the wild energy of the show. Then someone else chimed in with tongue-in-cheek humor, “They should’ve let Jay Mariotti play one last time,” referring to the irreverent former columnist who was a frequent panelist during the early days of the show.
There were viewers who found an opportunity for reinvention in this conversation. A user tagged Mark Cuban and suggested him investing into the revival of the show outside of ESPN itself: “Maybe he can put down some money for a 30% stake in an operation that would keep the show going elsewhere.”
The discussion had then swiftly shifted into general criticisms of ESPN itself, with one user wondering, “What ESPN programming will be replacing Around The Horn?”—and it remains an unanswered question as the network continues to reshuffle its daytime workload.
Whatever the scenario, whether mixed or not, the culture that the show has etched is a culture that has never been and can never be undermined. For over two decades, it was a place where sports journalists could verbalize one another, throw jokes, and time-press for what were occasionally good arguments. Its absence will surely be felt by those who truly watched the very same show every day.
With the last episode around the corner, the real question is less about who would be able to name all 61 panelists and more about whether one of its most long-term debating shows can be filled by ESPN, and based on these responses, it most certainly will not.
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Some of the fans are already joking about throwing in a last-minute appeal. “It’s not too late to get me on the final show for my first and only appearance,” joked a hopeful fan. Knowing the show’s inclination for the unexplained, maybe it will happen.
This story originally appeared on Celebrityinsider
