A ‘Le Batard Show’ producer was part of ESPN layoffs, so Le Batard found way to keep him
“The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” was hit hard by ESPN’s massive layoffs last week when Chris Cote, a popular producer and part of the show’s “Shipping Container,” was one of about 300 employees laid off.
But Le Batard has found a way to keep Cote on the Miami Beach-based radio show.
Cote is being hired as his personal assistant, Le Batard announced Wednesday on “The Big Suey,” the show’s digital hour.
“We have spent the last five days trying to figure out what it is that we can do with this,” Le Batard said, “and I’m actually happy to report — and this is a pretty cool thing to be able to report because some creativity was required from us in order to get here — but I’m going to hire Chris Cote as my personal assistant with a raise on his present salary to fill the role vacated by Allyson Turner.
“I will cover the raise. I will cover the entire thing.”
“Hold on, that’s amazing for Chris,” producer Mike Ryan said, “but what does it mean for our show?”
Le Batard replied: “It means that Chris Cote is still going to be on the show!”
Cote, who is the son of Miami Herald columnist Greg Cote and a producer on the Herald podcast “The Greg Cote Show with Greg Cote,” has been part of “The Dan Le Batard Show” since 2012 and was a full-time employee with ESPN the past five years. Cote is replacing Turner, who was a personal assistant to Le Batard before leaving last year. He will remain as a major presence on the show and appeared on air Wednesday dressed as Milton, Stephen Root’s character from “Office Space.”
Le Batard, a former Herald columnist, said he understands the present challenges of the industry and acknowledges his show is nothing more than “an accounting error” to a massive corporation like The Walt Disney Company, but said he was hurt because the decision “blindsided” him.
“We were blindsided by him being let go,” Le Batard said. “It’s the greatest disrespect of my professional career that I got no notice, no collaboration, that Mike Ryan told me that Chris Cote had been let go. I would have loved to work something out, if somebody had told me, to protect him because anyone who knows, Stugotz, what we do around here understands that we are family. A dysfunctional pirate ship-slash-clown car that shouldn’t exist in this machine.
“It’s just a number on a page. It’s not anything human. Corporations don’t tend to be human and if someone had talked to me I would’ve pleaded on the idea of humanity.”
Le Batard has repeatedly butted heads with higher-ups at ESPN, largely over the show’s freewheeling approach. Unlike other ESPN Radio programs, “The Le Batard Show” frequently touches on topics other than sports, making it almost more of a variety show than a traditional sports-talk program.
Last year, Le Batard got in trouble with ESPN when he pushed back against the network’s no-politics stance, which has since softened significantly. He called ESPN “cowardly” when calling out President Donald Trump, which led to him being absent from the show for several days, albeit without any sort of official suspension.
In July, ESPN cut an hour from Le Batard’s radio show, hoping to capitalize on the show’s large digital and podcast presence. On Wednesday, the show’s simulcast officially moved from ESPNews to ESPN+, the network’s subscription-only streaming service.
Le Batard said losing the hour from his show felt “like a demotion” and he said he had no say in the move from ESPNews to ESPN+.
He began his show Wednesday, the first since Cote’s firing, by reading a list of his 40 favorite colors. In the show’s second segment, Le Batard monotonously read football scores from the weekend.
Le Batard reportedly has about a year and a half left on his contract, which is worth $3.5 million annually.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 10:42 AM.
