Jump to content

Around the Horn

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 209.244.188.8 (talk) at 22:50, 6 February 2007 (→‎''Around the Horn'' unofficial statistics). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the American ESPN show. For other uses, see Around the Horn (disambiguation).
Around the Horn
File:AroundTheHornlogo.PNG
StarringTony Reali various sports writers, notably Woody Paige and Jay Mariotti
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes909 (as of 2/2/2007)
Production
Running time30 minutes
Original release
NetworkESPN (2002-)
ReleaseNovember 4, 2002 –
Present

Around the Horn is a daily, half-hour sports talk program on ESPN filmed in Washington, D.C. It airs at 5:00 pm ET, in a sports talk hour with Pardon the Interruption. Around the Horn premiered on November 4, 2002. Its official title is Around the Horn presented by Nissan. It is produced by ESPN Original Entertainment. The show celebrated it's 900th episode on January 22, 2007.

Around the Horn follows a standard format. The host (originally Max Kellerman and now Tony Reali) moderates discussions of various sports topics among four different sports columnists and awards points for good arguments. In addition, he can mute columnists for 10 seconds, which also subtracts a point from their score. He can also subtract points for poor arguments, bad puns or references, or when contestants try to change the subject. At the end of the second and third rounds of discussion a columnist is eliminated, until only two are left for the final "Showdown" round. The winner of the showdown is given 15 to 30 uninterrupted seconds to comment on any topic they please in a segment called "Facetime" as well as be awarded a gold medal that appears in the top-left corner of the screen.

The set

File:Athset.jpg
Around the Horn set

The Around the Horn set features the host's desk with the point triggers and mute buttons, opposite of four screens of the panelists with their score under them and the mute sign above them. Behind the host's desk is a map of the contiguous United States of America with the newspapers on the show outlined in their region which include: the Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post, Chicago Sun Times, The Dallas Morning News, and the Boston Globe. The Around the Horn set is downstairs from the Pardon the Interruption set, which Tony Reali also contributes to.

Meanwhile, each panelist is seated within the offices of their respective newspaper, with either a clear or opaque partition patterned with the newspaper's masthead logo in the background; an exception was Woody Paige sitting in a portion of the Cold Pizza set, which had a chalkboard with various messages (mainly humorous) written on it in the background, when he was in New York. Paige took the chalkboard with him when he returned to Denver in December 2006. Boston has also become an exception, as The Boston Globe is no longer associated with the show. Boston columnists are now seen with the Boston skyline behind them.

Rounds

The current Around The Horn format consists of the following:

  • Introduction: Usually opens with Reali saying "Welcome back to the show of competitive banter" or "Welcome back to the show that scores the arguments." The panelists are introduced and given a first word. Most of the panelists use this time for jokes or criticism of the host or other panelists. Some also take mutes for their comments during this part. Occasionally (usually on Fridays), there are "themed" introductions, including karaoke, "big words", and movie lines. Reali often awards extra points for quotes from Goodfellas or Napoleon Dynamite, and often subtracts points when any panelist makes a joke about his Italian heritage or his close relationship with his mother. (Tim Cowlishaw often makes gratuitous Goodfellas references in a blatant attempt to get extra points, but Reali rarely obliges him.)
  • The First Word: Two relevant sports headlines of the day are discussed.
  • Buy or Sell: The columnists are asked to buy or sell (be for or against) three different concepts, also drawn from the relevant sports headlines.
  • 1st Cut: The contestant with the lowest point total is eliminated. In the case of ties, the winner is determined by which contestant is wearing a tie to the show. If both or neither contestant is wearing a tie, Reali often breaks them by miscellaneous things, like whose hair is better combed and what not. If the awarding of a point causes a tie for the two lowest panelists, Reali sometimes gives the same panelist a second point to break it. Soon after, a comnmerical break follows with Reali saying "The Horn goes deeper next."
  • Out of Bounds: The remaining contestants discuss off-the-field sports issues or American popular culture (favorite movies, American Idol, best pop divas, etc.), often including quasi-sports stories or other controversial issues. This segment will sometimes be used to tackle a more serious subject than the others, such as gambling scandals or other substantial topics.
  • 2nd Cut The next contestant with the lowest point total is removed, leaving just two.
  • Showdown Mentioned above, the two remaining columnists take sides on any sports or cultural stories remaining. The winner is determined in a best-of-three set of questions, though there have been contestants that lost up 2-0. There are two or three questions, depending on the amount of time left (some shows only have two questions total when pressed for time), or (usually) whether a tie-breaker is necessary. The third topic is sometimes - though not always - a non-sports related issue, usually dealing in some way with pop culture. Usually, the western most panelist goes first for the first topic, with the other speaking for the second half. The panelists then alternate going first for the remaining topics. Each topic is timed, usually to 20, 25, or 30 seconds, but sometimes to 40 seconds if there is sufficient time.
  • Facetime: The winner of the showdown and therefore winner of that particular episode gets 15 to 30 seconds (depending on remaining time) to talk about anything he/she wishes to discuss. Most of the time these are sports related, but often their own personal life or an issue in pop culture is discussed. For example in a May 2006 episode Michael Smith made a tribute to his newborn baby girl.
  • Goodbye: Reali says how long it will be until the next episode, for example, "We're on a 23-and-a-half hour break." On Fridays, off until Monday, it's, "We're on a 71-and-a-half-hour break." Reali sometimes tells viewers to figure out the break time themselves: "You do the math!"
  • Paper Toss: Signature sign-off of the show, with Reali throwing paper at the camera.

Previous format

Before the show was retooled in early 2003, the format was similar, wherein the first two rounds were pretty much the same but with different titles. There was a bigger difference after that. The show ran like so:

  • The Opening Round: the two biggest headlines of the day.
  • The Lightning Round: a quick-moving round with four topics where players had to make their points quickly or risk getting muted by Kellerman.
  • The Bonus Round: one final topic, with the panelists trying to earn some last-second points, followed by a sports trivia question for each panelist, worth five points
  • The Medal Round: the panelists earned facetime equal to their scores converted to seconds, in reverse order of their placing. The winner received a gold medal, second place received silver, third place got bronze, and the fourth place finisher was given a foil ball. More often than not, due to time restrictions, the panelists were given less time than they earned, or at least one panelist would not be given any time at all.

Points

The show is unique as it "scores the argument." The awarding of points is done at the discretion of the host. In the Kellerman era, the two final contestants generally had about 25 points. Before becoming host, Tony Reali as a guest host awarded a show record 51 points to Bill Plaschke. Reali is now much stingier in awarding points. The two finalists rarely have more than 30 points at the end of the show.

The rewarding - and deduction - of points has changed throughout the series. Originally, being muted cost a panelist five points. Later, while Kellerman was still hosting the show, the scoring was at its most strict: "good" answers were awarded two points, "great" answers were given three, and a mute subtracted three (originally five) points from a panelist's score. Around the time Reali took over the show, the host was allowed to give points at his own discretion (Reali may give a single point for a weak argument, or many points for a particularly strong case backed by statistical information), and the penalty for a mute was reduced to a single point (although this rule actually made its debut while Kellerman was hosting).

Reali also makes bets occasionally with the panelists on sporting events, with the panelist gaining or losing a large amount of points based on the outcome. Memorable examples:

  • Jay Mariotti made a bold guarantee in 2005, stating he'd be docked 30 points if Tiger Woods wins a major golf tournament. After Woods won the Masters and Mariotti was proven incorrect, the next day he was so far behind that he failed to even reach positive figures before being eliminated. He finished that day with a record low throughout the show's history, -28 points.
  • In June of 2006, Tim Cowlishaw guaranteed an Edmonton Oilers win in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and lost 15 points for it. He also failed to make it past the first elimination.
  • Throughout the August 3, 2006 episode, Woody Paige drank an entire five-gallon water-cooler bottle, barely finishing it as winner Kevin Blackistone's face time expired. Reali told Paige at the beginning of the show that if Paige were to finish the whole bottle in the show's 30 minutes, he would get 100 points at the start of the next show. The next day, Reali revealed that cameras were installed in Woody's studio, which showed him pouring water from the bottle into a cooler. Because of his cheating, Reali gave him a mute instead of the points.

Points are also taken away for self-promotion, which Reali calls "the mating call of the mute button."

Hosts

Guest hosts

Panelists

Current panelists

Former panelists

Guest panelists

Running gags

Main article: Running gags on Around the Horn

During the show's long run, it has developed certain comedic long-running gags, much like its sister show Pardon the Interruption, that longtime viewers will recognize and casual viewers may be unable to easily comprehend. Many of the gags revolve around the personalities of Reali and the frequent guests such as Paige, Mariotti, Plaschke, Adande, Cowlishaw, Smith, Armstrong, and Ryan, among others.

Miscellaneous

  • As ESPN's schedule is made erratic to accommodate the irregular times of the various sports events that it covers, it is quite common for regular shows to be "bumped" by events. To let the audience know of these postponements, most ESPN talk show hosts end the program by telling the audience when their next show will air. Reali (as did Kellerman) idiosyncratically ends the show by saying how much time will elapse before the next show. The most common of these statements is "We're on a twenty-three and a half hour break," which signifies that the show will be back tomorrow at its usual time. On Friday, reflecting the weekend, the sign-off is, "We're on a seventy-one and a half hour break." But when the show is bumped, sometimes Reali will give the break length, and sometimes he'll say to the viewers, "You do the math!"
  • During the Max Kellerman era and shortly thereafter, every segment would conclude with some way to end a sentence with "around", so "disembodied voice" Bill Wolff could add "...the horn!" This idiosyncrasy remains on the show today in a slightly modified fashion, as Reali often attempts to end a segment with either "around" or a word that rhymes with it before yelling "Horn!" right before the cut to commercial.
  • In the show's first couple of years, through Kellerman's tenure and early into Reali's, the "outtro" to the final commercial break nearly always featured a clip of an attractive female celebrity, either from a film, a red carpet walk, or a music video. Apparently, both Kellerman and Reali were huge fans of the video for Beyoncé's smash hit from 2003, Crazy in Love. During one year-long period extending into both of their tenures as host, a segment from the Crazy in Love video was always shown on Fridays, during an "outtro" to a commercial break about halfway through the episode. Jennifer Lopez's video for I'm Glad, featuring her homage to the film Flashdance, was also a regular outtro.
  • On the December 8, 2006 episode, Tony Reali's points system in the showdown was based on a voiceover of Tony thoughtfully thinking of how he should give the points out, while he sat at the desk looking perplexed. His final instruction was to give Cowlishaw the win over Mariotti, because Jay wasn't wearing a tie. This coincided with Cowlishaw being given 40 seconds of "Face Time", the longest since the old format of the show.
  • In rare cases, Reali has decided to give a contestant the "Showdown" win after only one topic. One example is when Bill Plaschke and Woody Paige were disscussing snowboarding in the Olympics. While Paige gave a fantastic argument, Plaschke did not answer the topic and changed the subject to Sasha Cohen and her silver medal. Reali felt that the difference in argument quality between Plaschke and Paige was so lopsided toward Paige that Reali punished Plaschke by giving Paige 5 points and the win while giving Plaschke -3 points and hitting his Mute button several times, despite the fact that there were two more topics left.
  • http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/ESPNsAroundTheHorn/. Woody Paige, Tony Reali, Bob Ryan, Tim Cowlishaw, and J.A. Adande, amongst others, read and reply daily to fan emails and questions. Also full in depth recaps of every show, posted nightly after the show airs.

Around the Horn unofficial statistics

All-Time Wins
as of 2/06/07 (909 episodes)

Rank Panelist Amount
1 Woody Paige 176
2 Jay Mariotti 173
3 Tim Cowlishaw 101
4 Bill Plaschke 97
5 J.A. Adande 87
6 Michael Smith 73
7 Bob Ryan 62
8 Kevin Blackistone 42
9 Michael Holley 34
10 Jackie MacMullan 20
11 Jim Armstrong 13
12 T.J. Simers 10
13 Charlie Pierce 5
14 Josh Elliot 5
15 Gene Wojciechowski 4
16 Adam Schefter 2
17 Tony Reali 2 (pre-hosting)
18 Richard Justice 1
19 Mark Cuban 1

Wins By City
as of 2/06/07

Rank City Amount Panelists
1 Boston 194 Smith, Ryan, Holley, MacMullan, Pierce
2 Los Angeles 194 Plaschke, Adande, Simers
3 Denver 191 13 by Armstrong, 2 by Schefter, rest by Paige
4 Chicago 177 4 byWojciechowski, rest by Mariotti
5 Dallas 144 Cowlishaw, Blackistone, Cuban
6 New York 7 Elliott, Reali
7 Houston 1 Justice

All-Time Win Percentage
min. 50 appearances

Rank Panelist Percentage
1 Bob Ryan 38.3% (62/162)
2 Jackie MacMullan 30.8% (20/65)
3 Tim Cowlishaw 28.7% (101/352)
4 J.A. Adande 28.4% (87/306)
5 Michael Holley 28.33% (34/120)
6 Michael Smith 28.29% (73/258)
7 Bill Plaschke 26.6% (97/365)
8 Kevin Blackistone 25.6% (42/164)
9 Woody Paige 22.8% (176/773)
10 Jim Armstrong 22.0% (13/59)
11 Jay Mariotti 20.3% (173/851)
12 T.J. Simers 15.4% (10/65)

Win Percentage by City

Rank City Percentage
1 Boston 31.2% (194/622)
2 Dallas 27.9% (144/517)
3 Los Angeles 26.4% (194/735)
4 New York 24.1% (7/29)
5 Denver 22.8% (191/837)
6 Chicago 20.5% (177/863)
7 Houston 20.0% (1/5)

All-Time Appearances
Total # of shows: 909

Rank Panelist Appearances
1 Jay Mariotti 851
2 Woody Paige 773
3 Bill Plaschke 365
4 Tim Cowlishaw 352
5 J.A. Adande 306
6 Michael Smith 258
7 Kevin Blackistone 164
8 Bob Ryan 162
9 Michael Holley 120
10 Jackie MacMullan 65
11 T.J. Simers 65
12 Jim Armstrong 59
13 Josh Elliott 23
14 Gene Wojciechowski 14
15 Charlie Pierce 13
16 Tony Reali 6 (pre-hosting)
17 Dan Shanoff 5
18 Adam Schefter 5
19 Richard Justice 5
20 Ron Borges 4
21 Mark Kiszla 2
22 Mark Cuban 1
23 John Powers 1

Among regulars or semi-regulars, Cowlishaw has the best winning percentage, while Mariotti is "bringing up the rear."

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Around_the_Horn&oldid=106168324"