Bomani Jones' contract with ESPN will not be renewed, per report
Bomani Jones' contract with ESPN will not be renewed, Front Office Sports reported on Wednesday.
ESPN "has not shown interest in renewing his contract," which expires at the end of the month, per the report, but Jones did not explicitly confirm his departure in an interview with FOS. Jones, 42, signed a new deal with ESPN last fall to host his podcast "The Right Time with Bomani Jones," which is released three times a week. He spoke to FOS from the Writers Guild of America’s Sports Solidarity Day held on the picket line outside of the CBS Broadcast Center.
Last month, ESPN let go or did not renew the contract of nearly two dozen notable on-air personalities — among them Suzy Kolber, Jeff Van Gundy, Jalen Rose, Keyshawn Johnson, Max Kellerman and Todd McShay — although ESPN has not been shy in handing out lucrative deals; Pat McAfee's show is heading there in the fall full-time for the price of roughly $15 million per year. Parent company Disney has cut jobs over the past year as a cost-saving measure.
“The economic fate of people in sports media is getting dicier and dicier by the day,” Jones told FOS. “I think the ESPN layoffs were the beginning of it in a lot of ways. Seeing what happened (with) the New York Times shutting down their sports department and they moved those people to other desks, but at some point they’re probably going to deem those people to be surplus and they’re not going to be there anymore.”
According to the New York Post, Jones once made more than $2 million per year, but was making "just north of $1 million" on his latest deal.
Jones started at ESPN in 2004, first as a contributor and then a columnist for ESPN.com. Prior to that, he was a talk radio host in North Carolina and wrote for SB Nation.
In 2010, he began appearing on "Around the Horn" and "Outside the Lines," two flagship programs at the network in that era. Jones first paired with Dan Le Batard in 2012, and that show eventually morphed into what became "Highly Questionable," of which Jones became an official co-host in May 2013. He stayed seated next to "Papi," Le Batard's father and third member of the show, until 2017, when he left to start "High Noon" with Pablo Torre. From 2018-2020, the two co-hosted "High Noon," which was eventually moved from its hour-long slot at noon to a half hour at 4 p.m. ET.
Le Batard left ESPN and formed Meadowlark Media, which has a multi-million dollar deal with sportsbook DraftKings. His daily show is presented as a podcast. Torre joined the company in April 2023.
Jones also hosted a three-hour radio show (4-7 p.m. ET) from March 2015 to December 2017.
Jones made enough impact at ESPN to earn his own sports talk show on HBO, "Game Theory." Debuting in March 2022, Jones — never afraid to discuss politics and race — offered in-depth breakdowns on issues that intersected with sports and society. "Game Theory" was canceled earlier this month after two months, per the Post.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bomani Jones' ESPN contract will not be renewed
