The pirate ship sails! Details, guest list as Le Batard Show launches new era with 24-hour marathon
Dan Le Batard is sitting in the chair behind the microphone in the cramped studio that is his second home. It is on the second floor of The Clevelander hotel on South Beach, the ocean his backdrop.
He is about to set sail on one of the biggest events of his career. The waters are uncharted.
“There’s a pirate ship upstairs being built,“ he mentions casually. “With confetti cannons.”
Le Batard doesn’t do subtle or understated.
There was none of that when he left ESPN in January, forsaking the comfort of the mothership, turning the ultrapopular “Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz” into a free agent seeking new partners and a new future.
Seeking freedom from corporate constraints..
Neither was it subtle nor understated when Le Batard and John Skipper, his partner in the new content company Meadowlark Media, agreed to a three-year, $50 million sponsorship offer from DraftKings.
Le Batard’s self-described “pirate ship” had found safe (and lucrative) harbor. He bet on himself — and won.
Now comes the party, also with zero indication of subtlety or understatement:
A continuous 24-hour marathon broadcast airing from noon Friday through noon Saturday on the Le Batard And Friends’ new YouTube channel, or via the show’s Twitter or Instagram on social media.
The show has hosted massive Mas Miami street parties and done a show live from the Beacon Theater in New York City — but this is its grandest undertaking.
Said Le Batard: “This is our family business’ first symbolic step into freedom and being our own boss and working with a non-conventional partner to try and change the way that we do all of this.”
The freedom is from a corporate master that, for example, preferred Dan stick to sports and avoid politics or controversy. A company that laid off one of his producers without the courtesy of even a heads-up.
The show had other big offers that would have put its content behind a paywall and chose DraftKings to keep it free for listeners — listeners who have made the show top three on the national sports podcast charts and often No. 1.
On brand, the self-deprecating show that likes to laugh is promoting its 24-hour show under the banner and hashtag #FreeDumb as “24 Hours Of Streaming You Didn’t Ask For.”
”This is going to be a distinctly Miami party as this show that went from a little Miami show that never was supposed to have producers talking on air to an ensemble comedy show being supported as a national entity with a giant party meant to represent Miami,” Le Batard said.
The 24-hour marathon is a massive and expensive undertaking that will begin and end with the flagship “Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz” and its Shipping Container: Mike Ryan, Roy Bellamy, Billy Gil, Chris Cote and more recent members Jessica Smetana and Chris Wittyngham.
In between there will be one-hour segments devoted to Le Batard’s network of podcasts or affiliated shows, including Cinephile with Adnan Virk and Cinephobe with Amin Elhassan and Zach Harper.
I’ll be seen off and on across the marathon, including a live Greg Cote Show podcast scheduled to air from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. (#PrimeSlot!)
The cavalcade (in addition to the confetti-firing pirate ship) will also include a Ron Magill segment with live animals from Zoo Miami in studio (what could possibly go wrong?), and musical performances from show-affiliated Atlanta rapper Juju Gotti and from three Miami bands Cortadito, Lemon City Trio and Lone Wolf OMB.
Also featured: Kate Fagan, Tom Haberstroh, Jemele Hill and Michael Smith, and Jim Brockmire and Sheena Datt.
Special guests who will also have some sort of presence during the broadcast include Charles Barkley, Bob Costas, Jim Rome, Renee Montgomery, Rasheed Wallace, Michelle Beadle, Michael Irvin, Adam McKay, Mike Schur, John Amaechi, Stan Van Gundy, Scott Hanson, Neal Brennan, Chris Jericho and Pat Sajak.
Skipper, of course, also will be there. The former president of ESPN first floated the idea of a 24-hour extravaganza to ceremonially launch the new Meadowlark Media venture and the Le Batard Show’s new era. It was during a dinner meeting in Miami last month.
“Being on the air for 24 hours in itself is daunting but the preparation for this — it’s the most organized, structured thing we’ve ever done in our entire show’s history,” said Ryan, the executive producer. “The 24-hour marathon is going to be the line of demarcation. That was the old Le Batard Show, and now we’re leaning more into digital video.”
Ryan paused, added: “I’m genuinely worried whether or not we can pull it off.”
In addition to dozens of people on air across the 24 hours and the crowd of special guests who will also drop into the broadcast, there will be 12 to 15 cameras on site and 60 to 80 crew members working the technical side.
“It’s more planning and work than we’ve ever done for anything,” Le Batard said. “It is very exciting. It is moving. It is emotional. It is scary. But what it’s going to be most of all is fun.”
