Dollars and sense is a column about Chicago sports business and media
Like Theo Epstein once said of the Cubs rebuilding plan, NBC Sports Chicago’s decision making isn’t always linear.
One year, the regional sports network is letting go of website beat writers and de-emphasizing the written word, the next, it’s hiring more expensive beat writers and doubling up the beats.
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One day, it’s debuting a multi-million-dollar studio, the next it’s laying off the staff who work there.
They re-sign their star, David Kaplan, and keep him away from the Cubs’ Marquee Sports Network, but get rid of his signature show.
One reason, I assume, for this confusion is that the station serves two masters: NBC Sports in Connecticut and the ownership tandem of Jerry Reinsdorf and Rocky Wirtz, who co-own the station, along with NBC, now that the Cubs have gone their own way. I know people who work there who are as confused as I am.
On Tuesday, a day after national NBC website writers started tweeting out their firings, we found out that the station had let go jack-of-all-trades host Leila Rahimi, part-time host Laurence Holmes, producer Tom Cooper and others behind the scenes. The station canceled Sports Talk Live, Kaplan’s daily talk show of sports reporters.
The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rosenthal broke the news.
These moves stem from NBC Sports HQ, not the local bosses who were trumpeting Rahimi’s role with the relaunched baseball season just weeks ago. NBC Sports’ Bay Area, Boston and Philadelphia operations were hit with layoffs, as well.
Obviously, firings like this are hard no matter the timing, but the COVID-19 pandemic both explains the reasoning and makes the impact even more difficult for the ones who got fired.
“Due to the ongoing economic challenges caused by the pandemic and with the need to better position NBCUniversal for the future, we have made a number of difficult decisions to achieve cost savings, including eliminating some roles across the portfolio,” is how the official statement was worded.
The expensive remake of the NBC Sports Chicago studio was nearly finished when sports shut down in mid-March, so it wasn’t as if the station planned it like this, but the juxtaposition isn’t kind.
NBC Sports Chicago, partly owned by White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, unveiled a new state-of-the-art studio weeks before firing staff. (Courtesy NBC Sports Chicago)
“Head count” is usually a popular phrase when moves like this, ones not based on merit or need, are made, and even we weren’t immune at The Athletic during the pandemic.
NBC is in cost-cutting mode for obvious reasons and is firing people all over the country.
Locally, the teams are in financial trouble, though don’t expect the Reinsdorfs and Wirtzes to start selling their baubles on Facebook. If anyone can handle this economic crisis, it’s Rocky and Jerry.
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But while ratings are good and cable customers like me are still paying a monthly fee, RSN business can’t be good. Howard Ankin can’t be paying that much for advertising and they keep cutting shows from NBC Sports Chicago’s schedule.
The White Sox are hot right now, but the MLB season is in constant jeopardy. The Blackhawks’ postseason run should be brief. The Bulls are trash. The Cubs took their ratings and went to their own network.
The NBA and NHL likely won’t start their next season until December, which means the fall is going to be fallow for programming. Is there a “Best of Jim Boylen” in the works?
Rahimi’s firing was the lead on Twitter. She was the last woman at the station with a full-time, on-air presence. Kelly Crull was let go at the end of baseball season as the Cubs left for Marquee Sports Network. Crull is now the Braves reporter for Fox Sports South.
In recent years, Michelle McMahon wasn’t renewed as a part-time Blackhawks host at the station and Siera Santos was let go as the White Sox reporter.
Rahimi signed a new deal last offseason and replaced Crull on Bulls broadcasts, while also hosting evening shows. During the pandemic, she was working from the bedroom of her one-bedroom apartment.
Her most recent assignments were hosting “Baseball Night in Chicago” and splitting time with Chuck Garfien on the pre- and postgame White Sox shows with Ozzie Guillen (a great gig if there ever was one). She’s sharp and funny. Rahimi is a regular guest on Laurence Holmes’ mid-day show on The Score and Mitch Rosen should think about putting her on a regular show at night.
As you remember, The Score recently fired Julie DiCaro from her nighttime show because of pandemic cutbacks, so I’m not sure they’re in a hiring mode. ESPN 1000 could also add Rahimi to Kaplan’s daily show. He needs a co-host to bicker with besides his producers Danny Zederman and Chris Bleck.
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Like The Score, ESPN 1000 has no female voices.
Rosenthal wrote that Kaplan could fill in for Rahimi on the baseball show and that makes sense, though a source said nothing has been finalized yet.
Laurence Holmes (left) was the host of the Bears’ postgame show the last two seasons. (Jon Greenberg / The Athletic)
Holmes has a full-time hosting job at The Score, along with his own podcast, and he’ll get more TV work in the future. He had been a part-time host at NBC Sports Chicago for years and did an excellent job the last two football seasons as the host of NBC Sports Chicago’s Bears’ postgame show, which pirated viewers away from the official one on Fox 32 with an all-star cast of Lance Briggs, Matt Forte, Olin Kreutz and Alex Brown.
Kaplan makes sense for that show too, if the station keeps it. Paying four ex-Bears doesn’t scream cost-efficient, but what else is the station going to put on?
As for Sports Talk Live, I don’t know if this is truly the end of the show, but the station did fire its producer Cooper, the heart and soul of STL and the sensible voice in Kap’s ear.
The show began as “Chicago Tribune Live” before the Trib stopped paying for the marketing rights. While that hurt the pockets of Tribune writers — who were paid to be on the show — the new approach opened up spots for everyone in Chicago sports media.
Kaplan, along with producer Danni Wysocki, did a great job of bringing in a diverse cast of poorly dressed sportswriters and radio hosts (not including the women) who otherwise wouldn’t appear together and frankly, probably shouldn’t appear on TV without a clothing budget and better lighting. (OK, I’m mostly talking about myself.)
good hair day for @jon_greenberg on @SportsTalkCHI pic.twitter.com/0MZ70Td7jd
— Sarah Lauch (@SarahLauch) December 30, 2013
It was the only place you could find Score and ESPN 1000 hosts, Tribune and Sun-Times writers, kibitzing outside of a press box. When we launched The Athletic, they put me on that night. Wysocki, Cooper and Kaplan were always willing to help out The Athletic when we were just a local operation with a few writers.
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And to be honest, I used to get recognized much more often for being on that show than anything else I do.
The show was a vehicle for Kaplan, who took over hosting duties from Dan Jiggetts, as he morphed into the guy with the bad goatee on WGN radio to the reigning King of Sports Media and Loud Sport Coats in Chicago. While he loses that show in the present, I would bet it returns later. For now, the last episode airs this Friday.
It doesn’t make much sense to air it right now — these remote talk shows with everyone dialing in from their homes are unwatchable — but it still provided the station content and audio for their growing podcast operations. Eventually, reporters will return to the studio and I hope there’s a place for televised sports discussion.
It certainly didn’t cost much to book guests. Only a few writers got paid (Nick Friedell, Rick Telander and David Haugh were three I knew of) and during 2016, they stopped giving out restaurant gift cards for appearances. Coincidentally, that’s around the time when I stopped going on.
After moving to the suburbs, I mostly appeared when the show was onsite at a game I was at, but I’ll never forget when Kap called me to invite me to start coming on early in my ESPN Chicago days. I felt like I had finally arrived. I was on the show before two of the Cubs’ World Series games in Cleveland, including Game 7. Not bad, right?
Chicago is poorer without this show, but more importantly, we’re all worse off without Rahimi, Cooper and every behind-the-scenes person who lost their job. Tip your glass in their honor tonight and pray that Cooper finds a better job than producing Kap’s Twitter videos from his home shower.
Whenever anyone complains about the situation we’re in right now because of COVID-19, I just nod my head and say, “Everything sucks.” So I’ll close with that cheery thought: This sucks.
(Photo of Leila Rahimi with Ozzie Guillen and Frank Thomas: Darren Georgia / White Sox)
