The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 6
Fri, 29 Nov 2024
Despite LeBron James returning to Cleveland and Miami moving out of The Big 3 era, the show is reaching new heights. The show is being broadcast on Fusion Network from the brand new studios at The Clevelander, and it has never been more nationally relevant. Executives love the show, the ratings are great and it's even being sold in marketing packets and promoted across ESPN networks. Everything is going great, right? Not so fast. Even though the show is putting out some of the best content it ever has, something feels off to the entire crew and they can't quite put their finger on what it is. While all of this is happening, Charlie Hulme enters the pressure cooker to help improve the quality of the television product and quickly notices something isn't right. As the show searches for answers, the quality of content being produced does not drop and the show barrels towards being a giant. Yet, Mike and Stugotz feel like a critical juncture is looming and fear the end of the show could be near. Then, you will not want to miss this edition of the Supercut which includes some of the most famous stories in show history, the iconic Jesse Ventura interview featuring Pablo Torre dressed as an orca, a banger from Izzy Gutierrez and of the all-time Stugotz blunders in show history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the significance of Jägermeister in the show?
Listen, boys, we got to talk about Jägermeister, a go-to guy at home, at the bar, or maybe even out at the rink. A drink so ice cold, it deserves its own video tribute at every sports bar across North America. No trash talk, no running its mouth. We love the confidence on them. Jägermeister sent us an ad to read on the show, but they're so confident they said, don't do any of that normal ad stuff.
Tell the listeners two things. Jägermeister is great, but everyone's been drinking it wrong. Damn, that's cold. Well, how should we be drinking it? They're so glad you asked. Ice cold at zero degrees Fahrenheit, to be exact. Ice cold shots of Jagermeister. That's it. That's all they want to tell you. So wherever you are, if you're hanging out with friends or at the bar, call the shots.
Cheers with ice cold shots of Jagermeister. Damn, that's cold.
And remember to check Jagermeister out at DraftKingsXJagermeister.com.
Drink responsibly. Jagermeister liqueur, 35% alcohol by volume. Imported by Mass Jagermeister U.S. White Plains, New York. Now's a good time to remember where tequila's story truly began. In 1795, Cuervo invented tequila. Cuervo. What are you doing here?
Cuervo. Anytime someone says Cuervo, I show up.
Cuervo.
The tequila that invented tequila.
Cuervo.
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Chapter 2: How did the team navigate being on Fusion?
And when we felt people weren't adhering to the standard that we had in our brains. And at that point I was fully indoctrinated. I had a pretty good feel for what our show was and what it aspired to be. When people fell short of that standard, different time, certainly a different mic. But it was impossible for them to meet that standard.
ESPN could meet it. They could not meet it at that time.
I learned that it's an impossible standard to hold people to, especially television, because they're just following the action along. We really got sucked up in the idea of we can make a show within the show and We didn't know how overly complicated and grandiose our vision for this would be. We had no real comprehension of what budget they had to it.
We had access to Wade Beckett, who was running Fusion at the time. And these people, Miguel Tamayo was also there. And these were people that were genuinely trying their very best to help us with our vision. And it was really hard to articulate what our vision was. At that point, it was very much, don't you get what we do? We do just watch the show, but we don't have this super inclusive show.
part of its appeal over 20 years. And we heard this when we started over at ESPN. We heard this our entire climb. We're not really inclusive. We have this exclusive club. And I'm like, but that's a secret sauce. The longer you listen, the more jokes you unlock. But I look back at some of those meetings, certainly that one where Lebo was being a firecracker.
I look back to how I was reacting to people that were, honest to goodness, doing their best and just were incapable of reaching an absurd vision that I had for the show. And I look back on some of that stuff with regret.
Hmm. I don't know how much of my timeline is muddled here, but some of what I recall in here represents kind of my unhappiest time when you guys talk about the excitement of new stuff that we're doing. I'm seeing our thing get contaminated. I'm seeing the rhythms. And I felt it. The chemistry being ruined on what we were doing.
And off to the side, I also think that my dog is dying and my relationship is dying. And so I remember that my discomfort with everything, when you talk about regret, I remember in that closet one time having a conversation with you and Mike and Mike's response, even though we were always like butting heads face to face, what felt like
peers and people who had worked together for a long time, Mike sort of shrinking and saying, I'm afraid of you. I'm afraid of disappointing you. And my heart sinks just thinking about that time and all the blind spots I had about the combined discomforts of, it felt like things in my Personal life were falling apart.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Le Batard face during the transition to TV?
Courtesy of the NFL draft. But you had shown it. You had shown, yeah, it was the Jake Long draft, which it wasn't exactly.
That can't be the number one pick. It can't be the number one overall pick. An offensive lineman. That's right. I went, I didn't go to the right draft location. It was terrible. It's at MSG, not Radio City. But I'm telling you, you guys have it wrong. I know what is and isn't flimsy in terms of quitting. I was not in any way close to quitting. I was unhappy.
But I think you can probably piece together from things like thinking that we were going to be Disney employees one day and finding out the day before that we're not, to the billboards, to realizing that if Dan decides he's not going to do this anymore, ESPN Radio will be like, we'll get Bob Valdano.
Yeah, Bobby V. So while that's good to know that we were fearing that, the specter of that felt very real to you. It probably wasn't, but Sue and I, we were governed by that type of fear that you had all these other avenues. All we fucking had was this show. All we had was you. And if you decide to up and leave... We're fucked. ESPN's not going to keep us.
So, yeah, we felt like we were fighting for our lives over there.
Never an option, though. You guys do understand that the fear that you're talking about ends up being whatever accidental fuel it has to be in order. And this is not a rationalization for bad behavior because I look back at what it is that you guys are saying and I'm mortified by it.
But the accidental result of it is that you guys cared deeply in a way that made me trust you all the more with whatever it was, was our growth after that. And I'm telling you now and I'm saying it specifically, never an iota of thought about the idea of us not doing it together or us not doing it. Like I was not thinking of quitting.
Wish I knew it then. It would have saved me and Mike a lot of phone calls. I mean, a lot of sleepless nights. Dan, your standard, don't take it the wrong way. Because your standard is what makes the show great. Your standard is what has made me become very good at this and Mike become great at this. It's what makes the show.
People might say, hey, you know, I'm trying to please Dan on a daily basis. You're the boss. You're standard because most people in radio don't have this standard. They are fine. Three hours a day. I'll take a thousand phone calls and I'll see what the ratings show up as. You're standard. No, not a ton of phone calls. All of you guys be better. Meet my standard. Be as good as I am at my job.
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Chapter 4: What were the team's feelings about the quality of content?
Dan, you good? You need grandma to stick around a little bit more?
No, get out of here, old lady. I got my second win. Let's go. Give it to me again. Give it to me again. Give it to me again. Miami's first white guy off the bench puts the ball in the net. Indiana's first white guy off the bench puts his hair in the net. Stugatz, what do you call a beautiful person in Indiana?
What?
a visitor! You blow in our ear, we'll snort blow off your rear! As of today, Odin has as many finals appearances as Durant! Ha! Beasley has more finals appearances than Rose. Justin Hamilton is about to go to the finals as many times as Barkley. Ah, yes. Our coolest Kravitz is Lenny. Your coolest Kravitz is Bob. What? I thought that was visually funny. Bob Kravitz.
I like Bob Kravitz, but it's visually funny. Give it to me again. Give it to me again. Who is wearing Larry Bird's skin? He looks like a grandmother. It's one of the greatest players ever. You have South Bend, we have South Beach. You have Larry Bird, we have Larry O'Brien. You have Rudy, we have Booty. Odin and Paul George had public internet pee-pee scandals.
And suffice it to say, in every way, Indiana, Miami's is bigger than yours. I cannot breathe. You got one more. You have Hoosiers. We have Hooters. I woke up like this. Give it to me again. Give it to me again. That was so awkward. Give it to me again. Channeling that Beyonce. Go ahead, Lance. Put your hand in his face. And then America will watch him put your a** in his face.
You have merely one Skola. Miami only has a million leases. The Indianapolis 500 isn't a race. Indianapolis 500 is your basketball team's record since the All-Star break. So give me that toot, toot. Let me give you that beep, beep. Running her hands through my throat. What did I just do there? What was that?
Did you break them off a little preview of that remix?
That was so bad. You have the Colts and Andrew Luck, and we have a quarterback whose wife ends up with a machine gun in the back of her car. Give it to me one more time. Give it to me one more time. I'm running out of material, running out of breath, running out of oxygen, running out of heart capacity.
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Chapter 5: How did personal issues affect show dynamics?
hijackers were financed by upper levels of Saudi Arabia. Now that changes 9-11 completely, doesn't it?
Well, wait a minute. You've been vindicated on what there?
That there was more to 9-11 than what we're being told.
And what more was there?
What more? They were being financed by the Saudi Arabian upper level, House Assad. Who's the buddies with George Bush?
Wait a minute, Jesse, you can't just lob that out there.
I'm not lobbing it out there. It's what's in the 9-11 report that they won't let us see. There's 28 redacted pages. There's a bill in Congress to make it public. It's been over 10 years. Why can't we know what's in those 28 pages?
Okay, but you don't know what's in the 28 redacted pages.
I know because I'm taking the word of Congressman Cook and Senator Bob Graham. who both have read it. I talk to them on my show, off the grid. They've both told me all it deals with is a financial, that these guys were under the financial care of the Saudi government.
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Chapter 6: What role did Charlie Hulme play in the production?
Not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven. Ha! LeBron raises his arm after the Hitch classy video tribute. I raise a finger. There is no I in Hitch, but there are multiple L's in Cleveland. Giving love. I haven't seen that many bricks in Miami since Scarface. Give it to me again. I'm not finished. Give it to me again. One more time. Give it to me again.
LeBron fell one shrug of weight's point total. He's also one shy of weight's ring total. And he is three shy of weight's testicle total. Dan Gilbert was more red-faced than your city's racist baseball logo. They didn't have an answer for Hassan Whiteside. Ha, ha, ha. Rebounding juggernaut Kevin Love only had five rebounds last night.
Multiply that by four, and you got the number of Browns starting quarterbacks since 1999. Hey, hey, what do Halle Berry, Arsenio Hall, the Browns, and LeBron James all have in common? They all had to leave Cleveland to achieve success. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Give it to me again. Give it to me again. Okay, okay. I'm going to list all the great things about Cleveland now. That was the list.