Muting Reali

At 5 o’clock in the afternoon, ESPN plays a show called Around the Horn, another of ESPN’s afternoon sports talk show. The show is set up with one host, Tony Reali from Pardon the Interruption (see earlier post), and four sports journalists as they argue about the sporting worlds hottest topics of the day. Filmed in Washington D.C. this half an hour sports talk show stands as a bridge between Jim Rome is Burning and Pardon the Interruption. The show itself starts off with the four journalists but as the show continues on they are evaluated by the host as they discuss headlines and over the 30 minutes they are slowly eliminated until the end of the show and only one remains.

The journalists, together able to argue with one another via satellite on large televisions, argue on ten topics in front of the host who has joysticks where he can award points at his discretion for good answers, take points away for answers that he doesn’t like, and can even mute the journalists for whatever reason he feels. During the introduction Reali introduces the panelists and foreshadows the topics to be discussed. The first segment is called “The First Word” where the panelists discuss the first two topics on current sports headlines. After the commercial break the next segment is called “Buy or Sell” where the panelists have to buy or sell, be for or against, one of three topics from the sports headlines. After this the host cuts the panelist with the lowest number of points. In the event of ties Reali breaks the tie with miscellaneous things such as who has the nicer shirt, or who said something Reali didn’t agree with. After the first cut and commercial break then comes the next segment, “Out of Bounds” includes one topic and it is a more serious topic that is indirectly related to sports. After, the three panelists that are left are cut down to two, another commercial break follows and then the final segment “The Showdown”. Depending on how much time remains, this is consisted of two or three topics, each of them lasting for anywhere from 20-40 seconds. The panelist who makes the best argument on the sports topic gets one point per topic, and the one who has the most points gets 60 seconds to themselves called “Face time” where they can talk about whatever they want.

After face-time they bring back all of the contestants, talk for a little bit and then Reali says “We’re on a 23 ½ hour break”, and then tosses his paper at the camera. This show is popular because of the usual panelists and the host himself. It is a laidback atmosphere and overall humor of the topics keeps people interested and continually viewing in.