The Underrated

STEPHEN A SMITH IS ABOUT TO GET PAID BIG TIME

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Duration:: 11m
Broadcast on:: 11 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Coming up on The Underrated, we're gonna talk about the Stephen A. Smith rumors, which are flying around like a P.G. in E. and used California Wildfire. That good old Stephen A. Smith is about to score himself an absolutely massive deal from ESPN. You know, unlike Trevor Lawrence, who got himself 55 million, largely based on potential. I mean, like Trevor Lawrence, I guarantee next season's gonna throw anywhere between 10 and 15 picks, yet the Jaguars are paying him 55 million dollars a year. Anyways, Stephen A. Smith is going to get a new deal, and when he gets that deal, I will tell you right now, he will have earned every single penny of it, every single penny will have been earned by Stephen A. Smith. We're gonna talk about that plus the National Basketball Association. Adam Silver did not take my advice by reaching out to Roger Goodell to ask him how to negotiate a fourth deal with the fourth network. Apparently, the deal is done, though it hasn't been signed yet. I've got some thoughts on this latest leaked story, which was clearly leaked by the NBA. I've got all of that. And as always, a whole lot more coming up on the big show tonight. Alright, it is just after 9 o'clock on the West Coast, North America, and the USA basketball team is handling their business against Canada right now currently up by 16 in the fourth quarter. If you saw the first couple minutes of this game, the best way to describe it was sluggish for the USA team, but they've certainly imported on since then. Anyways, onto Stephen A. Smith, our main topic of the night. And I'm sure Stephen A. Smith loves being the main topic of the night on other people's shows as well as just being the main topic. That's one of the reasons he's been so successful over the past 10 years, especially in his second run at ESPN. You know, one of the things about Stephen A. Smith is you can love him and you can love to hate him, but you can't just hate him. Quite frankly, you have to sort of respect what he's been able to pull off. I mean, everything from general hospital episodes to what he's done resurrecting first take. Just take a look at the June ratings for first take. Now, the June ratings for first take this particular June came in at around 451,000 per episode. If you compare that to Skip Bayless and whoever else is on that show and undisputed, they came in at 56,000 viewers per episode. Now, I know that says a lot about Shannon Sharp no longer being on that show, but it also says a lot about Stephen A. Smith and the job that the team has done over at first take. I do want to also point out that these are summer numbers. When we get into the fall and you get into the last couple months of the year, the first take ratings go through the rough. In fact, I've seen days in which they've had over a million viewers actually tune in to watch first take. That's the big difference right there. That summarizes the difference between the National Football League, whose ratings continue to go up and the NBA's ratings who continue to go down. Yet, the National Basketball Association is found away to actually entice three networks so far into a $76 billion deal. Now, in terms of Stephen A. Smith and his contract and the potential size of his contract, now, the rumors initially were that ESPN came back to him and gave him the Joe Buck deal. So, the Joe Buck deal is 18 million. You know, when Paul George went back to the Los Angeles Clippers a little earlier in the year and said, "Hey, just give me the Kawhi Leonard deal." They said, "No." They said, "Well, we're going to wait until after the season." And that was for $153 million over three years, which the Clippers famously screwed up and didn't give him. Anyways, so Stephen A took the contract, looked at it, apparently talked to his people and they went back to the ESPN brass and basically said, "We're worth more than that." And I think the ESPN brass absolutely knows that Stephen A. Smith is worth more than that. Look, I'm in business during the day and I can tell you that the first deal is not the deal that Stephen A. Smith is going to sign. He'll probably end up with something around 22 to 25 million dollars a year. Regardless of whether or not it's 22 or 25 million dollars, he will have earned, and I said this in the opening, every single penny of it. Stephen A. Smith has done so much for ESPN, especially during the down years. When ESPN was basically not going anywhere, the one show and the one person actually that was doing anything outside of the network to actually draw people into the network was Stephen A. Smith. You know, the reason ESPN went outside of its walls to bring in Pat McAfee is because Pat McAfee would bring in a different audience. Pat McAfee's audience is certainly different than the first take audience and is certainly different than the sports center audience. Yes, a lot of the people that watch the Pat McAfee show do watch those shows as well, but it's a different audience. It's a different target. It's a different demographic. So ESPN did the right thing. They're paying Pat 17 million dollars a year to be part of their network. And yes, Pat's Pat's ratings are going to be less than that of first take. But you can't just look at the television ratings when you look at Pat McAfee. You also have to look at the YouTube ratings and how he does on social media channels. You know, it's been one of the big differences with Stephen A. Smith over the past year when he started his own show was, you know, going out and starting his own show. Certainly, I think, has given him even more power in the negotiations that he's probably going through right now as we speak. Stephen A. Smith certainly has earned everything he's about to get the major payday announcement, I believe, is literally right around the corner. On a side note, Stephen A. Smith on August 16 is going to team up with Tom Brady at a conference put on by fanatics in New York, and they will be on a panel together in front of an audience of 2,500 people. Now, no word yet if this is going to be televised in any way. But can you imagine Stephen A. Smith and Tom Brady on the same panel? That is absolutely must see TV, especially if there's any opportunity for roast-like behavior. You know what I mean? Finally tonight, I did want to spend a little bit of time talking about the National Basketball Association contract that is done according to the National Basketball Association. It includes ESPN, it includes NBC, and it includes rights going to Amazon. So this story, which is like the 18th time the story has been leaked by the NBA, was leaked once again today, saying that the deals are done. You know, side note to that, a deal being done means they're signed, at least in the world I live in, but that's not what the article said. The article said that the deals were done but have been yet to be signed. Now, the reason for, at least in my opinion, the reason for this story actually being leaked was to give the folks over a TNT one more shot. One more opportunity to try to jump in and match what Amazon gave them. Now, my advice to Adam Silver was pretty simple, which was pick up the National Football League hotline and the red phone in your office, Adam Silver, which will send you directly to Roger Goodell and ask Roger Goodell for some advice. What Roger Goodell would have told Adam Silver if he had actually called him, which would have been pretty simple. Roger Goodell would have said, "Hey, Adam, how many games does each team play a year?" Adam would have said, "82." Then he would have said, "How many teams do you have in your league?" And yeah, Adam would have said, "30." And then Roger Goodell would say, "How many media partners do you have in North America?" And then Adam Silver would have said, "Well, we're moving to three this time around." And Roger Goodell would have stopped him right there and said, "Go for four. Take the money. The money is on the table. Go ahead and take it." And they could have easily, if they really wanted to, created a fourth package for TNT to keep them on the air. Apparently, Silver did not take the advice. Hence today's league story, which is just to see if TNT is going to attempt to match anything, which I don't think they will at this point. All right, North America, that is it for the underrated. Thanks so much for tuning in, dropping your thoughts. I want to know what you think when you have a chance for the underrated. I am Dave DeBaugh, wishing you all a tremendous rest of your sports viewing day. Hey, to the guitar refs, we go. You've been listening to the underrated podcast with Dave DeBaugh, presented by underrated.media. (upbeat music)