Mike Greenberg is hoping to set the record straight just days before the debut of his next ESPN project.
Contrary to a report on the show that ran last week, Greenberg explained, “Get Up” will feature “exclusively sports” content. Political discourse may occur based on the news of the day, but the morning show, airing from New York City for the first time on Monday morning at 7 a.m. ET, won’t be the cultural commentary Greenberg felt a story in The Hollywood Reporter made it out to be.
“I don’t want to call anyone out, OK? I don’t know how that happened,” the longtime ESPN personality told the Sporting News about his recent conversation with the publication, which referred to the show as “woke.”
“I can tell you I was on that call, I was in that interview. What [co-host] Jalen [Rose] said was, ‘If the president tweets something about sports while we’re on the air, then we will talk about it.’ Somehow that became a headline that we’re going to be a ‘woke’ talk show. I don’t even know what that means, much less how it relates to what we were talking about.”
Greenberg, who’s teaming up with Rose and Michelle Beadle on the New York City set, expressed his disappointment at the “misleading headline” that he believed distorted quotes painting “Get Up” as a show fully dedicated to sports coverage.
Greenberg, Rose and Bill Wolff, the show’s executive producer, addressed the need to be versatile on the air, with Rose telling The Hollywood Reporter he has “never been muzzled in any way” and doesn’t intend to stop now.
“What we need to be is flexible,” Greenberg, previously the face of “Mike & Mike” alongside Mike Golic for 18 years, told the magazine. “Fans of sports have different needs on different days and we need to be all things to all people. There are days when we need to be the best news and information sports broadcast that there is; to cover a big story with the resources of ESPN. And then there are days that will lend themselves more to being stronger on analysis; the day after a particularly big game.”
Revisiting his message this week, Greenberg sought to clear up any confusion with a blunt analogy.
“It’s amazing to me … how many interviews I’ve done and I am asked so frequently, ‘So, is this a sports show?'” Greenberg said. “My answer to that is, if I walked into McDonald’s and they said to me, ‘We don’t have hamburgers today,’ I would be very disappointed, because I walked into McDonald’s to get a hamburger. No one goes to McDonald’s if they feel like pizza or sushi.
“I believe that when a person turns on ESPN, that person has a right to expect that we’re going to be talking about sports, so what people will see when we debut on Monday, and every single day thereafter, is that we are a sports show first, last and always.”
ESPN is banking on the show’s consistency and the hosts’ chemistry resonating with its fans. It is the network’s first major launch since Jimmy Pitaro took over as president, after John Skipper resigned amid a controversial substance abuse narrative, and it’s a significant investment, with the show airing from a new South Street Seaport studio and the hosts reportedly making up to $15 million in combined salaries.