As everybody reading knows, I am a huge Michelle Beadle fan. To say I adore her is an understatement. She is smart, beautiful, sarcastic, funny, sexy, sassy, witty, and a million other adjectives. You can say I have a little crush on Michelle. So, when Michelle Beadle’s contract with ESPN came up and she started to hear offers from other organizations, I was not a happy camper. Michelle’s work with Colin Cowherd on SportsNation made her a star and gave ESPN (a.k.a. the World Wide Leader) a sports show that was more than old men yelling at each other. She has a tremendous mind for sports and, unlike most talking heads in the sports media, calls out athletes for reprehensible behavior without placing them on a pedestal. Sadly, after I heard from Michelle personally on Twitter (in my most exciting Twitter moment thus far), I knew Michelle Beadle was leaving ESPN. The news confirmed this fear on May 11th when Michelle Beadle signed a deal with NBC Universal.
On May 31st, Michelle Beadle taped her last episode of SportsNation. On June 1st, that episode aired with the best moments of Michelle Beadle playing out for the fans in a This Is Your Life-style episode that concluded with Michelle going out in style as she was shot out of a cannon while dressed like Evel Knievel.
Michelle landed at NBC with new jobs and a huge new contract. Michelle’s new deal sees her based in New York City with a rumored paycheck of $800,000 a year. She is now a correspondent on NBC Universal-produced Access Hollywood. She will also stay in sports with a job corresponding from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Also, Michelle will be a part of a new sports program that will air on NBC Sports Network in the fall. In addition, she will do some work with NBC’s longtime morning show Today. As Michelle said to me in her tweet, “I only make moves that benefit me. Don’t worry. Sports is not all I know or want.” It certainly appears as though Michelle has her dream gig.
Along with her new job, Michelle is still breaking hearts and capturing the imagination of her fans through her posts on Twitter. Michelle set the sports world abuzz once again during her brief vacation in-between jobs in early June with this picture. After having to carry Colin Cowherd for almost three years and stay muzzled by the corporate policies of ESPN, we are lucky Michelle did not assault that monkey status in photographs that would have certainly set the internet on fire.
As for SportsNation, another lovely blonde woman stepped into the hosting position alongside Colin Cowherd immediately when Charissa Thompson took over. Initially, longtime SportsNation fans were less than impressed with the news. Charissa herself took to Twitter with jokes about her “popularity” during that first week. The truth is that, while Charissa was a wonderful co-host alongside Michael Smith on Numbers Never Lie, she was never going to be able to fill Michelle Beadle’s shoes on SportsNation. That show was Michelle Beadle and Colin Cowherd. Nobody could just step in and fill their shoes. This is something I believe Colin Cowherd knows as well because rumors of Cowherd departing SportsNation for his own show at ESPN started immediately with the announcement of Michelle’s departure. After a month of episodes, Charissa’s efforts have not improved one bit. She is still Beadle-Lite. Charissa tries too hard to be the cool chick and that is something that came naturally with Michelle. Moreover, her chemistry with Colin is awkwardly uncomfortable. Cowherd runs wild over Charissa with his opinions as Thompson lacks the backbone Beadle constantly showed in talking back to Cowherd during their three years together on SportsNation. That happens when Charissa is not trying to be a female Colin by agreeing with everything Cowherd says. In a month on the job, Charissa Thompson has brought nothing but a pretty smile and hot booty to SportsNation.
It may be a good effort but it is not enough to keep this fan, or many others like me, from turning to another channel. SportsNation is dead. The heart and soul of the show left when they shot Beadle from a cannon on the June 1st episode. While the jury is already in regarding SportsNation with Charissa Thompson as co-host, the jury is still out regarding the matter of Michelle Beadle’s move to NBC Universal.
Michelle started her work on Access Hollywood on June 18th with an introduction from Billy Bush and assignment interviewing Maroon 5 members Adam Levine and James Valentine. Since then, Michelle has conducted interviews with Katy Perry, Ringo Starr, and the father of the late Amy Winehouse among her many duties as Access Hollywood’s New York correspondent. If Beadle had only Access Hollywood on her plate, I would firmly believe that she made a huge mistake with her career because, while she looked stunning in those interviews, Michelle was on camera for a minimal amount of time. In that time, Michelle’s personality was rarely on display. One key element in Michelle Beadle’s rise to fame with ESPN was that she became a daily part of fans’ lives through SportsNation. We love her opinion as much as we love her beauty. Speaking on behalf of the many BeadleManiacs out there, I hope that Michelle gets more TV time to express herself with the NBC Sports Network show because Access Hollywood definitely will not cut it. If anybody can break through the Billy Bush monopoly of television time on Access Hollywood though, it can be Michelle Beadle. She is too popular and simply too good at her job to be a sidekick to the poor man’s Ryan Seacrest.
I couldnt agree with you more except since the first month of taping Charissa has improved.The problem lies within the fact that while there may be others, no one will have the same chemistry as cowherd and beadle.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the read! Charissa does seem to have found a niche alongside Marcellus Wiley. That said, "SportsNation" should not even be a show anymore. Charissa and Marcellus will always be compared to Michelle and Colin and they can never top those two.
DeleteWhy is this the only article I can find about how Charissa ruined the show. Are the ratings down? Is the show ruined? I can't find proof, but in my opinion, absolutely! I can't stand Charissa, she's too much of a "try hard". It's like she changes her whole personality for the show, and a good host shouldn't have to act like a completely different person for the show, a good host already has that great personality, like Beadle. Marcellus is great though, him and Beadle were the best together, even though it was rare
ReplyDeleteWhile I couldn't find proof of ratings, I think we all could make that judgement based on quality. Charissa did exactly what you said -- tried too hard to be something she's not. FOX Sports 1 has here now and she's out of the shadow Michelle Beadle left in her absense. I think the show may have a new life with Max Kellerman and Marcellus Wiley if they bring their radio magic to the TV screen.
DeleteThanks for the read, Nick!