Tad Queasy wrote:
Curious Hair wrote:
The real story of Get Up is that ESPN consistently overinvests in Mike Greenberg.
I agree. He's a relatively polished and professional on-air personality but he has zero personality or charisma. The success of Mike and Mike was based on the nerd/jock thing but neither Greenberg nor Golic have the skill or personality to carry a show on their own. They played well enough off each other for their show until they apparently got sick of each other.
What's strange is that Bristol's m.o. for years has been to pay its talent well under market value for the privilege of working there and then cut them down when they start feelin' themselves a little too much and try to put their personal brand above the ESPN brand. The big exceptions over the years were always Chris Berman and Bob Ley, but both got in on the ground floor, and they've usually deployed Ley as almost an on-screen ombudsman who can lend gravitas to what's otherwise a silly propaganda outfit. But Olbermann, Kilborn, Eisen, Michelle Beadle, anyone who tried to make themselves stand out above the crowd would have it made clear that they were replaceable and lowballed out the door.
But then you have Mike Greenberg, who has never stood out, is completely replaceable, and keeps getting trucks of money and opportunities hurled at him. You could drive an empty bus up to Syracuse on graduation day and come back with a bus full of Mike Greenbergs. Give anyone an ESPN-branded radio show that the affiliates aren't allowed to drop and they'll do about as well. Maybe they wouldn't write books called, like,
Liking Sports: Football, Friends, And Why I Get Yelled At By My Wife that get remaindered and sidewalk-saled by the metric ton, but on the radio side you wouldn't miss a beat. But despite an organizational philosophy of treating employees like shit, some executives at Disney are like "GOD
DAMN IT AMERICA NEEDS SO MUCH MORE MIKE GREENBERG!"
_________________
Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.
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