Dan Le Batard opened his first week taking over Colin Cowherd’s former timeslot on both ESPN radio and his ESPNU simulcast. How did the Miami-based host perform compared to his predecessor? Not well.
Sports Business Journal reporter John Ourand tweeted the numbers this week, revealing viewership totals for both Le Batard and Cowherd, the latter appearing on his brand-new FOX Sports 1 time slot from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. Eastern.
Colin Cowherd averaged 82,000 viewers on FS1 on Tuesday and 58,000 on Wednesday.
— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) September 10, 2015
LeBatard averaged 33,000 viewers from 10am to 1pm on Weds; 17,000 viewers on Tues (10am-1pm). https://t.co/WQv3syKLkt
— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) September 10, 2015
The silver lining was that Dan Le Batard’s numbers did show an increase in the new slot over the span of Tuesday to Wednesday. But compared to Colin’s same numbers on previous ESPNU broadcasts, Le Batard and his sidekick Stugotz have an uphill battle to climb. According to Awful Announcing , Cowherd averaged at least 32,000 viwers on ESPNU in July of this year with a height of 73,000 viewers during the week of July 6 through July 10.
Cowherd famously made the switch over to FOX Sports 1 amid a controversy in which he insulted Dominicans in Major League Baseball for not being very intelligent. Though he was trying to illustrate the difference between football and baseball in terms of complexity — and with a contract already in place with FOX Sports 1 — ESPN took the opportunity to show Cowherd the door earlier than originally planned.
Le Batard, meanwhile, as reported by Inquisitr , actually jumped to Colin’s defense before lining up to replace him during the 10:00 a.m. time slot on ESPN radio.
“I’m hispanic … I think we know what he was trying to say. But we are in a climate where it doesn’t matter you were trying to say, and if we don’t like you, and if have a past near the 3rd rail, we will hold your body of work against you. I was not offended by this.”
As such, the two broadcasters will invariably be linked going forward. The question of whether or not Colin’s risky move to FOX will pay off remains to be seen.
As TV Newser points out, one factor that could sway the ratings numbers for Dan Le Batard is the fact that his show is being re-broadcast in it’s original time slot of 4:00 p.m. Eastern on the Fusion Network. And, although it’s being broadcast via tape delay, many fans of Le Batard may look to Fusion to catch up on his sports takes rather than Cowherd’s old ESPNU broadcast.
[Colin Cowherd photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images, Dan Le Batard image courtesy of USA Today ]
