ESPYs 2023: Why is there no host this year?
So what’s going on here? Well, the sports-related award show is one of the latest major ones to air during the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, meaning that the broadcast will be host-less and some of the traditional comedy bits and monologues will be cut out. Early this year, you saw this with the Tony Awards, which featured a dance number at the start but no spoken dialogue or jokes.
Are we hoping for some sort of resolution to the strike over the next several weeks? You better believe it, but it is also hard to have some extreme level of confidence when there is simultaneously almost no real sign that things are changing. It would be great if they did, but it would also take the writers being paid what they deserve from the networks and streaming services. We’ve yet to even hear anything to suggest that there are more talks underway and at this point, we are more than two months into this process. Don’t the networks and/or streamers realize at this point that almost no one is on their side?
Anyhow, any moments that are funny from the show itself tonight are going to be off-the-cuff, and it is hard to have any expectation for that since professional athletes aren’t trained for all of their lives to be humorous and spontaneous. If it happens, go ahead and consider that a gift. We’re sure that the ESPYs would love to have a host again next year; of course, we want to say that we’re optimistic that a deal gets done long before then. We just have to wait and see.
Are you still excited to watch the ESPYs tonight, and how frustrated are you by the networks not getting a deal done?
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(Photo: ABC.)