ESPN president John Skipper pulled the plug on “Barstool Van Talk” after only one episode aired.
Skipper released the following statement Monday afternoon:
Effective immediately, I am cancelling Barstool Van Talk.
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.
Statement from ESPN President John Skipper about Barstool Van Talk: pic.twitter.com/ysgSKDvmjx
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) October 23, 2017
ESPN obviously didn’t give a specific reason, but you can bet the house that it has to do with an audio clip of Barstool founder David Portnoy trashing ESPN employee Samantha Ponder.
This is really a mind-boggling move from ESPN. They knew exactly what they were getting into when the decision was made to join forces with the Barstool guys. A couple people get upset about an audio clip that’s several years old, and Skipper cancels the show? That’s not going to do much to kill the perception that ESPN has swung about as far left as it can go.
Absolutely indefensible move from ESPN to pull the plug at this point.
