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Rick Reilly’s Homecoming Not Coming Into Many Homes

Aug 6, 2009, 7:30 PM UTC

â†µESPN sends out a lot of press releases. A lot. We’re talking three or four a day. And the releases aren’t about sports -- they are about ESPN. We just broke this record for viewers, we have John Singleton directing that movie to celebrate our 30th birthday. As I’m writing this, I just got an email from ESPNPR that they reached an agreement with the Australian Football League. â†µ

â†µâ†µThey send a lot of emails. â†µ

â†µâ†µIt was curious, then, to see that the e-mails for Rick Reilly’s Homecoming show weren’t coming from the listserv-maintaining ESPNPR account, but rather from an actual person in the public relations office at the Worldwide Leader. Having worked on that side of the fence for more than a decade, I always appreciate a personal touch in public relations, so the emails stood out to me more than other ESPNPR emails. â†µ

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â†µâ†µThe next question seemed obvious -- are the emails a product of an over-zealous PR person, or is there something more to it? ESPN wants the rest of the media to cover everything they do. So why is Rick Reilly’s show getting the personal treatment? â†µ

â†µâ†µThese emails land in my inbox before every episode, so with the season finale airing tonight on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET, I decided to take them up on the “let me know if you have any follow up questions” notice. â†µ

â†µâ†µ“I was wondering if you have the ratings information for Rick’s show,” I wrote in reply. “How has it been received from an audience standpoint? I’m wondering if they are falling below what ESPN was hoping for.” â†µ

â†µâ†µI played my hand too strong. The kindly-worded reply was simple, if not somewhat delusive. “Unfortunately we do not have ratings available for the show. Is there anything else I can help with for your article?” â†µ

â†µâ†µNo, thanks, that’s all I was looking for. And while ESPNPR is not providing ratings for Reilly’s show, the fine folks at SportsBusiness Daily were happy to do so. Reilly’s show, after six episodes where the scribe tries on his James Lipton costume for some of the biggest names in sports and a live audience of friends and neighbors, is averaging only 374,000 viewers, or a 0.3 cable rating, on ESPN. â†µ

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â†µThere was much talk of The T.O. Show's struggles last week, which landed in a tie for 798th in the weekly cable ratings with a 5 a.m. ET airing of Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Through two episodes, however, T.O.'s VH1 offering has a 1.0 cable rating, averaging 1.234 million viewers. There are that many people up at 5 a.m. watching Alfonso Ribeiro dance to Tom Jones? â†µ

â†µâ†µEven fellow ESPNer Keyshawn Johnson’s design show on A&E is averaging more than 500,000 viewers -- on Saturday afternoon. Reilly’s show is getting prime real estate on ESPN and has struggled to capture close to that number. â†µ

â†µâ†µWith the finale tonight, ESPN has to realize there’s little audience for Reilly on TV, and paying him so much money for a show like this, a weekly 800-word column, a ‘blog’ and a few unremarkable guest spots on golf telecasts probably isn’t getting the return on investment they were hoping for. â†µ

â†µâ†µI’m not sure there’s a PR person in the world who can spin that. â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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