First Season Of Bomani Jones' HBO Show Is An All-Time Disaster

The privilege of failed ESPN television and radio host Bomani Jones continues.

Even after ESPN canceled his show High Noon in 2020, Jones recently landed a show on HBO called Game Race Theory, a program on which Jones rambles about nothing and calls white people racist. 

The show is a disaster. Despite large promotional backing, no one watches it.

HBO airs Jones directly following its top-rated show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, with the hope that Oliver's viewers will accidentally leave the channel on during Race Theory.

They haven't.

On average, Jones is losing an unprecedented 80% of his lead-in's viewership. This past Sunday, Jones averaged just 119,000 viewers, a 76% drop from Oliver's audience.

Losing more than 3/4 of your lead-in's audience isn't easy to do. This type of tank job is noble. HBO could have aired someone reading the newspaper and garnered more than 119,000 viewers after Oliver.

Since Jones causes so many people to change the channel, he certainly hasn't attracted any new viewers to HBO. Oliver was off the week of March 22, leaving Jones on his own. How did he do? Well, he didn't do anything. Without Oliver, Jones drew 44,000 viewers. Even a 2 am airing of “PAID PROGRAMMING" on CNBC did better than Jones did. Seriously.

HBO's investment in Jones is not insignificant either. HBO is paying Jones seven figures a year. That's particularly notable since HBO owns a large library of content and thus could air other content -- any movie or series it owns -- after Oliver at no cost and draw double what Jones averages. In other words, by airing Jones, HBO loses viewership and money.

This Sunday, Race Theory wraps up its first season. In most cases, HBO would not consider renewing the show -- it would have canceled it by the second week. However, I suspect HBO will choose to renew the program. See, even though Jones costs HBO millions of dollars with no return, HBO fears the backlash it'd receive for axing him.

Jones has made a career out of race-baiting, and he has allies in media who pressure his bosses into promoting him. Look at the fawning puff pieces others have written about him recently. It's as though Jones controls the media beat and has people fromThe Ringer on his payroll. Maybe he does.

Should HBO cancel his show for horrific ratings, Jones and his media lackeys would call HBO racist. That's how they work. If HBO does renew the show, we will know why.

It's interesting to remember that HBO canceled Bill Simmons' similarly-formatted HBO sports show in 2016 for ratings that dwarfed Jones' average. Thesame media hall monitors who now cover for Jones and never mention his abysmal ratings once upon a time wrote weekly hit pieces on Simmons and his comparatively decent ratings. Here are just a few examples:

“Ratings for Bill Simmons’ ‘Any Given Wednesday’ on HBO are terrible,” wrote the Star Tribune.

“Ratings for Bill Simmons’s HBO show have hit rock bottom,” claimed the Washington Post.

“Ratings for Bill Simmons’ ‘Any Given Wednesday’ aren’t pretty,” said the rag outlet called Awful Announcing.

“5 Reasons Why Bill Simmons’ ‘Any Given Wednesday’ Tanked,” headlined a list on The Wrap.

“What Will Bill Simmons Do If Any Given Wednesday Is Canceled?” askedUSA Today.

OutKick has reached out to Bill Simmons to ask about the disparate coverage between his show and Jones'. Simmons has not responded.

This is why you should never get into business with vile wokes like Bomani Jones. These people are bad for business and difficult to cut.

ESPN knows this well. After canceling both his radio and TV show, ESPN re-signed Jones for over $1 million a year to host a random podcast in 2020. The network didn't need Jones, but it also didn't need the "racism" narrative that'd come with firing him. While ESPN certainly regrets getting into business with Jones, it's too late. He's there until he chooses to leave.

ESPN pays Jones to maintain its reputation as a progressive media brand. Expect HBO to do the same.

Bomani Jones is a disaster. But since he can wield the "racism" weapon, he remains privileged.