Around the Horn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the American ESPN show. For other uses, see Around the Horn (disambiguation).
| Around the Horn | |
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| Genre | Sports talk and debate |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Starring | Tony Reali
various sports writers, notably Woody Paige and Jay Mariotti |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Original channel | ESPN (2002-) |
| Original run | November 4, 2002–Present |
| No. of episodes | 849 (as of 11/2/2006) |
Around the Horn is a daily, half-hour sports talk program on ESPN filmed in Washington, D.C. It airs at 5:00 pm ET, in a sports talk hour with Pardon the Interruption. Around the Horn premiered on November 4, 2002. Its official title is Around the Horn presented by Nissan. The show celebrated its 800th episode on August 14, 2006. It is produced by ESPN Original Entertainment.
Around the Horn follows a standard format. The host (originally Max Kellerman and now Tony Reali) moderates discussions of various sports topics among four different sports columnists and awards points for good arguments. In addition, he can mute columnists for 10 seconds, which also subtracts a point from their score. He can also subtract points for poor arguments or when contestants try to change the subject. At the end of the second and third rounds of discussion a columnist is eliminated, until only two are left for the final "Showdown" round. The winner of the showdown is given 15 to 30 uninterrupted seconds to comment on any topic they please in a segment called "Face Time" as well as be awarded a 'gold medal' that appears at the top-left corner of the screen.
Contents |
[edit] The Set
The Around the Horn set features the hosts desk with the point triggers and mute buttons, opposite of four screens of the panelists with their score under them and the mute sign above them. Behind the hosts desk is a map of the contiguous United States of America with the newspapers on the show outlined in their region which include: the Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post, Chicago Sun Times, The Dallas Morning News, the Boston Globe and ESPN.com. The Around the Horn set is also downstairs from the the Pardon the Interruption set, which Tony Reali also contributes to.
Meanwhile, each panelist is seated within the offices of their respective newspaper, with either a clear or opaque partition patterned with the newspaper's masthead logo in the background, although when Woody Paige is in New York, he is in a portion of the Cold Pizza set, which has a chalkboard with various messages (mainly humorous) written on it in the background.
[edit] Rounds
- Introduction: Usually opens with Reali saying "Welcome back to the show of competitive banter" or "Welcome back to the show that scores the arguments." The panelists are introduced and given a first word. Most of the panelists use this time for jokes or criticism of the host or other panelists. Some also take mutes for their comments during this part. Occasionally (usually on Fridays), there are "themed" introductions, including karaoke, "big words", and movie lines. Reali often awards extra points for quotes from Goodfellas or Napoleon Dynamite, and often subtracts points when any panelist makes a joke about his Italian heritage or his close relationship with his mother. (Tim Cowlishaw often makes gratuitous Goodfellas references in a blatant attempt to get extra points, but Reali rarely obliges him.)
- The First Word: Two relevant sports headlines of the day are discussed.
- Buy or Sell: The columnists are asked to buy or sell (be for or against) three different concepts, also drawn from the relevant sports headlines.
- 1st Cut: The contestant with the lowest point total is eliminated. In the case of ties, Reali often breaks them by miscellaneous things, like whose hair is better combed and what not. If the awarding of a point causes a tie for the two lowest panelists, Reali sometimes gives the same panelist a second point to break it.
- Out of Bounds: The remaining contestants discuss off-the-field sports issues or American popular culture (favorite movies, American Idol, best pop divas, etc.), often including quasi-sports stories or other controversial issues. This segment will sometimes be used to tackle a more serious subject than the others, such as gambling scandals or other substantial topics.
- 2nd Cut The next contestant with the lowest point total is removed, leaving just two.
- Showdown Mentioned above, the two remaining columnists take sides on any sports or cultural stories remaining. The winner is determined in a best-of-three set of questions, though there have been contestants that lost up 2-0. There are two or three questions, depending on the amount of time left (some shows only have two questions total when pressed for time), or (usually) whether a tie-breaker is necessary. The third topic is sometimes - though not always - a non-sports related issue, usually dealing in some way with pop culture. Usually, Reali picks at random who speaks for the first half of the topic, with the other speaking for the second half; each topic is timed, usually to 20, 25, or 30 seconds, but sometimes to 40 seconds if there is sufficient time. The panelists alternate going first for each topic. In rare cases, Reali has decided to give a contestant the win after only one topic. One example is when Bill Plaschke and Woody Paige were disscussing snowboarding in the Olympics. While Paige gave a fantastic argument, Plaschke did not answer the topic and changed the subject to Sasha Cohen and her silver medal. Reali felt that the difference in argument quality between Plaschke and Paige was so lopsided toward Paige that Reali punished Plaschke by giving Paige 5 points and the win while giving Plaschke -3 points and hitting his Mute button several times, despite the fact that there were two more topics left.
- Facetime: The winner of the showdown and therefore winner of that particular episode gets 15 to 30 seconds (depending on remaining time) to talk about anything he/she wishes to discuss. Most of the time these are sports related, but often their own personal life or an issue in pop culture is discussed. For example in a May 2006 episode Michael Smith made a tribute to his newborn baby girl.
- Paper Toss: Signature sign off of the show with Reali throwing paper at the camera.
[edit] Points
The show is unique as it "scores the argument." The awarding of points is done at the discretion of the host. In the Kellerman era, the two final contestants generally had about 25 points. Before becoming host, Tony Reali as a guest host awarded a show record 51 points to Bill Plaschke. Reali is now much stingier in awarding points. The two finalists rarely have more than 30 points at the end of the show.
The rewarding - and deduction - of points has changed throughout the series. Originally, being muted cost a panelist five points. Later, while Kellerman was still hosting the show, the scoring was at its most strict: "good" answers were awarded two points, "great" answers were given three, and a mute subtracted three points from a panelist's score. Around the time Reali took over the show, the host was allowed to give points at his own discretion (Reali may give a single point for a weak argument, or many points for a particularly strong case backed by statistical information), and the penalty for a mute was reduced to a single point.
Reali also makes bets occasionally with the panelists on sporting events, with the panelist gaining or losing a large amount of points based on the outcome. Memorable examples:
- Jay Mariotti made a bold guarantee in 2005, stating he'd be docked 30 points if Tiger Woods wins a major golf tournament. After Woods won the Masters and Mariotti was proven incorrect, the next day he was so far behind that he failed to even reach positive figures before being eliminated.
- In June of 2006, Tim Cowlishaw guaranteed an Edmonton Oilers win in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and lost 15 points for it. He also failed to make it past the first elimination.
- Throughout the August 3, 2006 episode, Woody Paige drank an entire five-gallon water-cooler bottle, barely finishing it as winner Kevin Blackistone's face time expired. Reali told Paige at the beginning of the show that if Paige were to finish the whole bottle in the show's 30 minutes, he would get 100 points at the start of the next show. The next day, Reali revealed that cameras were installed in Woody's studio, which showed him pouring water from the bottle into a cooler. Because of his cheating, Reali gave him a mute instead of the points.
Points are also taken away for self-promotion, which Reali calls "the mating call of the mute button."
[edit] Hosts
- Max Kellerman (November 4, 2002- January 30, 2004)
- Tony Reali (February 2, 2004 - present)
[edit] Guest hosts
- Zachariah Selwyn (June 8-11, 2004)
- Duke Castiglione (July 3-5, 2006)
[edit] Panelists
[edit] Current panelists
- J.A. Adande, Los Angeles Times
- Jim Armstrong, The Denver Post
- Kevin Blackistone, former columnist for The Dallas Morning News
- Tim Cowlishaw, The Dallas Morning News
- Jackie MacMullan, The Boston Globe
- Jay Mariotti, Chicago Sun-Times
- Woody Paige, The Denver Post
- Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times
- Bob Ryan, The Boston Globe
- Michael Smith, ESPN.com
[edit] Former panelists
- Michael Holley, former columnist for The Boston Globe
- Charlie Pierce, The Boston Globe
- Tony Reali, ESPN
- Adam Schefter, former columist of The Denver Post
- Dan Shanoff, former columist of ESPN.com
- T.J. Simers, Los Angeles Times
[edit] Guest panelists
- Ron Borges, The Boston Globe
- Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner
- Josh Elliott, ESPN
- Richard Justice, Houston Chronicle
- Mark Kiszla, The Denver Post
- John Powers, The Boston Globe
- Gene Wojciechowski, ESPN.com
[edit] Running gags
- Main article: Running gags on Around the Horn
During the show's long run, it has developed certain long-running gags, much like its sister show Pardon the Interruption, that longtime viewers will recognize, and that casual viewers might normally be unable to easily comprehend. Many of the gags revolve around the personalities of Reali and the frequent guests such as Paige, Mariotti, Plaschke, and Adande, among others.
[edit] Miscellaneous
- As ESPN's schedule is made erratic to accommodate the irregular times of the various sports events that it covers, it is quite common for regular shows to be "bumped" by events. To let the audience know of these postponements, most ESPN talk show hosts end the program by telling the audience when their next show will air. Reali (as did Kellerman) idiosyncratically ends the show by saying how much time will elapse before the next show. The most common of these statements is "We're on a twenty-three and a half hour break," which signifies that the show will be back tomorrow at its usual time. On Friday, reflecting the weekend, the sign-off is, "We're on a seventy-one and a half hour break." But when the show is bumped, sometimes Reali will give the break length, and sometimes he'll say to the viewers, "You do the math!"
- In the original format, there were no eliminations and no Final Showdown, and the top three point-getters would receive Gold, Silver and Bronze medals, and would get about 15 seconds, 10 seconds and 5 seconds to speak respectively. The specific amount was determined for each of the contestants by the number of total points that they received. It was common for the Producer ("the disembodied voice") to take away a specific number of points from each contestant (along with modifying Kellerman's scoring to reward answers which didn't get their full credit, or got too much) so the total facetime would fit in the remaining time left in the show.
- During the Max Kellerman era and shortly thereafter, every segment would conclude with some way to end a sentence with "around", so "disembodied voice" Bill Wolff could add "...the horn!" This idiosyncrasy remains on the show today in a slightly modified fashion, as Reali often attempts to end a segment with either "around" or a word that rhymes with it before yelling "Horn!" right before the cut to commercial.
- In the show's first couple of years, through Kellerman's tenure and early into Reali's, the "outtro" to the final commercial break nearly always featured a clip of an attractive female celebrity, either from a film, a red carpet walk, or a music video. Apparently, both Kellerman and Reali were huge fans of the video for Beyoncé's smash hit from 2003, Crazy in Love. During one year-long period extending into both of their tenures as host, a segment from the Crazy in Love video was always shown on Fridays, during an "outtro" to a commercial break about halfway through the episode. Jennifer Lopez's video for I'm Glad, featuring her homage to the film Flashdance, was also a regular outtro.
- During the July 18, 2006 episode, Tony Reali allowed Tim Cowlishaw to select the winner of the showdown. The question related to Cowlishaw and he chose J.A. Adande's response over Woody Paige's answer.
- Mariotti was not one of the panelists on the August 28, 2006 episode, since he was substituting for Tony Kornheiser on Pardon the Interruption, whose studio is in the same Washington, D.C. complex as ATH's. Since his absence from ATH is a rarity, prior to each of the first two rounds, Reali asked the panelists if anyone was missing. They all said, "No!" After Adande got his face time on the episode, Mariotti appeared in Tony's chair out of nowhere, and acted like nothing was out of the ordinary. As the sponsors rolled by, the panelists yelled at him, and Reali came storming back into the studio, trying to get him out of the desk. Mariotti then dashed over to the PTI set to do the show with Michael Wilbon.
- On the December 8, 2006 episode, Tony Reali's points system in the showdown was based on a voiceover of Tony thoughtfully thinking of how he should give the points out, while he sat at the desk looking perplexed. His final instruction was to give Cowlishaw the win over Mariotti, because Jay wasn't wearing a tie. This coincided with Cowlishaw being given 40 seconds of "Face Time", the longest since the old format of the show.
- Around the Horn Group. Woody Paige, Tony Reali, Bob Ryan, Tim Cowlishaw, and J.A. Adande, amongst others read and reply daily to fan emails and questions. http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/ESPNsAroundTheHorn/
[edit] Around the Horn unofficial statistics
As of 11/22/2006 (863 episodes)
[edit] All Time Wins
- Jay Mariotti - 166 wins
- Woody Paige - 166 wins
- Bill Plaschke - 95 wins
- Tim Cowlishaw - 94 wins
- J.A. Adande - 82 wins
- Michael Smith - 67 wins
- Bob Ryan - 61 wins
- Kevin Blackistone - 40 wins
- Michael Holley - 34 wins
- Jackie MacMullan - 18 wins
- Jim Armstrong - 13 wins
- T.J. Simers - 10 wins
- Charlie Pierce - 5 wins
- Josh Elliott - 5 wins
- Gene Wojciechowski - 4 wins
- Adam Schefter - 2 wins
- Tony Reali - 2 wins (before becoming host)
- Richard Justice - 1 win
- Mark Cuban - 1 win
[edit] By City
- Boston - 185 wins (Smith, Ryan, Holley, MacMullan, Pierce)
- Los Angeles - 185 wins (Plaschke, Adande, Simers)
- Denver - 180 wins (12 by Armstrong, 2 by Schefter, rest by Paige)
- Chicago - 169 wins (4 by Wojciechowski, rest by Mariotti)
- Dallas - 135 wins (1 by Cuban, rest by Cowlishaw & Blackistone)
- New York - 7 wins (Elliott & Reali)
- Houston - 1 win (Justice)
[edit] All Time Appearances
Total number of shows: 863
- Jay Mariotti - 810
- Woody Paige - 735
- Bill Plaschke - 348
- Tim Cowlishaw - 332
- J.A. Adande - 283
- Michael Smith - 242
- Bob Ryan - 155
- Kevin Blackistone - 155
- Michael Holley - 120
- T.J. Simers - 65
- Jackie MacMullan - 57
- Jim Armstrong - 55
- Josh Elliott - 23
- Gene Wojciechowski - 14
- Charlie Pierce - 13
- Tony Reali - 6 (before becoming host)
- Dan Shanoff - 5
- Adam Schefter - 5
- Richard Justice - 5
- Ron Borges - 4
- Mark Kiszla - 2
- Mark Cuban - 1
- John Powers - 1
[edit] All Time Win Percentages
minimum 50 appearances
- Bob Ryan - 39.4% (61 of 155)
- Jackie MacMullan - 31.2% (18 of 57)
- J.A. Adande - 28.6% (81 of 283, leader among regulars or semi-regulars)
- Michael Holley - 28.33% (34 of 120)
- Tim Cowlishaw - 28.31% (94 of 332)
- Michael Smith - 27.7% (67 of 242)
- Bill Plaschke - 27.0% (94 of 348)
- Kevin Blackistone - 25.8% (40 of 155)
- Woody Paige - 22.6% (166 of 735)
- Jim Armstrong - 21.8% (12 of 55)
- Jay Mariotti - 20.4% (165 of 810; among regulars, he's "bringing up the rear!")
- T.J. Simers - 15.4% (10 of 65)
[edit] By City
- Boston - 31.3% (185 of 592)
- Dallas - 27.7% (135 of 488)
- Los Angeles - 26.6% (185 of 696)
- New York - 24.1% (7 of 29)
- Denver - 22.6% (180 of 797)
- Chicago - 20.4% (169 of 829)
- Houston - 20.0% (1 of 5)
[edit] External links
- "The Largest Around the Horn Group on the web"
- ESPN: Around the Horn
- Around the Horn Episode Guide at TV.com
- An Around the Horn fan club
