In a rapidly shifting media environment 40 years of experience isn’t an immediate asset. Williamson thrived when the ESPN economic model was to make people who never watched the channel pay for it as part of their cable subscription. That bucket of money is going away and when meeting the challenge of a new era, having a senior executive who wants to stay in the past isn’t helpful.
The beef with McAfee is typical behavior. Williamson talked shit about McAfee knowing as he’s only new on-air talent, McAfee couldn’t respond. But McAfee decided to call him out publicly by name and the top ESPN management didn’t make McAfee apologize for it. That was the hint to Williamson that his time was up. On Fri, Apr 5, 2024 at 11:42 PM Mark Jeffries <[email protected]> wrote: > Norby Williamson, a 39-year veteran of the Worldwide Leader and head of > "SportsCenter" and events and news coverage, is leaving, supposedly after a > disagreement over long-term strategy with content president Burke Magnus, > although some say that he is leaving over an on-air attack on him by Pat > McAfee, the former football player and occasional pro wrestler whose talk > show is carried by ESPN--McAfee, who has hosted Aaron Rodgers on many > occasions for him to spout his rightwing anti-vaxxer crap, claimed that > Williamson was trying to "sabotage" his show by lying about his ESPN > ratings: > > https://www.thewrap.com/espn-norby-williamson-exits/ > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/e5fd6be2-0012-4d71-b7bb-1b3ce9a05904n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/e5fd6be2-0012-4d71-b7bb-1b3ce9a05904n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiEqU_Ai67S4YCYgE7RNqrURQP4uwf61AprMAD6psQZj%3DA%40mail.gmail.com.
