ESPN Re-Signs Failed TV And Radio Host Bomani Jones

Wednesday, ESPN announced it re-signed failed television and radio host Bomani Jones to a new contract.

Talk about a kick in the nuts to all of the successful personalities ESPN said it could ill-afford to keep employed. We hope radio legend Mike Golic can one day rebound from his ousting. #WhitePrivilege.

Re-signing Jones proves ESPN does not serve its viewers. See, sports fans do not like Bomani Jones. They see him on-air and quickly turn the station. They've reminded ESPN of their feelings during each of his promotions.

The network has tried to make Jones a star for the better half of a decade. First, ESPN tried to groom him as the next Colin Cowherd, the voice of sports-talk radio. But unlike Cowherd, Jones wasn't good on radio.

Per the ratings, Bomani Jones was the worst national sports radio host ever. That is not hyperbole. His PM radio show recorded the lowest ratings in ESPN Radio history. He lost a record 90 affiliates.

The network had to cancel his program in 2017. The ratings for the time slot quickly rebounded after Will Cain replaced Jones, per ESPN's own press releases.

Single-handedly tanking a radio lineup would have proved career-ending for most hosts. But not for Jones. He's too privileged.

Following the cancellation of his radio program, ESPN promoted Jones to television. Former company president John Skipper had hoped TV viewers wouldn't despise Jones to the same degree as radio listeners.

Unfortunately for Skipper, TV viewers hated Jones as well.

In 2018, "High Noon with Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre" debuted at noon ET. The show followed the highly rated "First Take" with Stephen A. Smith. Surely, Jones couldn't fail while inheriting Stephen A's large audience, ESPN thought.

Wrong again.

It turned out that Bomani Jones' race-baiting did not resonate to the same degree as Stephen A's. "High Noon" quickly set record lows in the noon time slot.

Give Jones credit: losing 60% of "First Take's" audience is no simple task.

But ESPN wasn't ready to cancel another Jones-led program quite then. Rather, it moved his show to 4 pm after three months of record-low viewership.

Want to guess what happened next? Correct: Bomani Jones then set new lows at 4 pm. He did so in a block with "PTI," the highest-rated show on ESPN.

The network finally canceled "High Noon" in 2020. But instead of firing Jones for his repeated failures, ESPN continued to pay him to host a podcast that centers around the topic of -- wait for it -- racism.

You'll notice from the press release today that ESPN did not mention a single one of Bomani Jones' accomplishments, as it did for Field Yates, or any other recent signing. That's because a) Jones has none, and b) his re-signing has nothing to do with success.

See, ESPN can decline to re-sign names like Trey Wingo, Bobby Carpenter, and Ron Jaworski because they do not have the deadly race card in their pockets. Bomani Jones does. He built a career around baseless accusations of racism. Last year, he declared "white people the problem" within all layers of sports and business.

Moreover, his online supporters use this card to protect him from any further career downfall. Jemele Hill and Twitter bros accused ESPN of racism when it canceled his show -- they sent a warning to never bury him again.

Too bad white guy Ryen Russillo didn't have "anti-racist" Twitter at his disposal when ESPN demoted him, despite his ratings success.

ESPN has received no return on its decade-long investment into Bomani Jones. And it knows it never will. Yet the cowardly bosses would rather pay him to do minimal work than allow him to go elsewhere and call the company racist.

But ESPN isn't the only fool. Bomani Jones also hosts a show on HBO, thanks to his friendship with show producer Adam McKay.

How is that show doing, you might ask. Yep, you guessed it. Record lows there too. And that's even following John Oliver.

Failing can be rewarding, as the career of Bomani Jones proves.