NEW YORK — Bill Simmons was the “Boston Sports Guy,” one of Jimmy Kimmel’s first writers, a podcaster and a prolific contributor to ESPN, where he created Grantland and launched the 30 for 30 documentary series. That is, before getting suspended — and then fired, in May 2015 — for calling NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a liar and, ESPN says, showing a “lack of respect” for his colleagues.
Simmons, trim and graying at 46, says he’s amused by his former employer’s explanation, given that he has since hired many of them. But he’s charting a new path with a new network — HBO — and his first TV talk show, Any Given Wednesday (10 ET/PT).
Wednesday will riff on sports, pop culture and tech, subjects also mined by The Ringer, a spiritual successor to Grantland designed for the mobile era that he unveiled June 1. The first guests: actor Ben Affleck, a fellow Boston sports fan, and former player and NBA commentator Charles Barkley, to recap the thrilling seven-game NBA Finals and LeBron James’ legacy.
“When we put Grantland together, it didn’t make sense to people why sports and pop culture would be on the same site,” he says. “But the reality is, if you cared about Game 7 on Sunday, you probably care about Game of Thrones, too. If I love sports, I probably am going to love movies and great TV.” So summer movies and the future of Snapchat is just as interesting to him as Thursday’s NBA draft.
And though he has a fan's-eye view, he’s an admittedly unpolished TV host who’s still struggling with the teleprompter and other trappings of the medium. (“Having makeup on is just terrible.”)
But the transition to TV was inevitable: With so much online content, “even when I felt like I wrote the best possible column, maybe it has a shelf life of six hours and then people move on to the next thing,” he says. As a regular media habit, “TV’s just going to trump the Internet.”
The show, taped each Tuesday in a loft-like Hollywood studio, will air for 20 of the next 26 weeks, with 37 more episodes due next year, part of a three-year, $20 million-plus deal. An opening video essay will be followed by a one-on-one interview, a short animation or comedy segment, a topical group chat and a closing piece. (Leftover and newsier material will be available on streaming app HBO Now, and Simmons plans to eventually produce documentaries.) His inspirations range from NBC’s Later With Bob Costas (“it had a really nice vibe”) to HBO’s Dennis Miller Live (“I always liked his interviews”) and Chris Rock’s “excellent” 1990s talk show.
Though his feud continues, he’s still surprised at the outsize level of interest in his messy exit from ESPN after a 14-year run: “The ladies from The View were talking about it for five minutes,” he says. “Rosie O’Donnell was saying I had nice eyes, and I was like, ‘Where am I?’”
But while he concedes he “really pushed the envelope” at ESPN, which gave him a big platform, “they just had so many conflicts,” whereas HBO is “not beholden to anybody. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to say crazy s---; I want the show to be smart and sophisticated.”
Adds his agent, James Dixon: “Those were gigantic rights situations with a lot of masters to serve. Bill has a strong point of view, and it sometimes ruffles feathers. So being free of that is an added bonus.”
Former HBO programming president Michael Lombardo, who wooed Simmons, downplays the vitriol. “I don’t see Bill throwing firebombs; that’s not who he is,” he says. “He’s a fan, he has encyclopedic knowledge, from boxing to MMA to women’s tennis. He’s not coming in as a provocateur.”
