After cutting about 100 staffers, ESPN said it would be adding MLB Network’s studio show Intentional Talk to the afternoon lineup on ESPN2 starting May 1.
Intentional Talk will continue to appear on MLB Network in its regular 5 p.m. timeslot.
During the baseball season Intentional Talk will air from 4-5 p.m. on ESPN2, while in the offseason, a half-hour version will air.
“Intentional Talk provides us with a highly-entertaining, weekday afternoon MLB presence as we have with other signature sports properties. Intentional Talk joins Baseball Tonight, our long-standing MLB studio show, as a second and distinct MLB studio offering. The move provides us with more baseball studio content than we’ve ever had,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN executive VP, programming & acquisitions.
Chris Rose and Kevin Millar will continue to co-host Intentional Talk, which will continue to be produced by MLB Networks.
“As it continues its seventh year on the air, Intentional Talk has proven to be an important outlet to showcase MLB’s entertaining and distinctive personalities. The program will now reach a new and different audience through ESPN’s platforms, recognizing that there may be some changes between shows as news dictates,” said Rob McGlarry, MLB Network president: “This cooperation further broadens the enormously productive relationship between MLB and ESPN.”
Many of the people fired by ESPN this week covered baseball, including Doug Glanville, Dallas Braden, Raul Ibanez, Jayson Stark, Doug Padilla and Jim Bowden.
