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Any Given Wednesday w/Bill Simmons |OT| Grantland Died For This- Premieres June 22

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ryseing

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Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons is a weekly talk show hosted by one of the most influential figures in contemporary sports media. The weekly half-hour show begins its 20-show season on Wednesday, June 22 at 10:00 PM ET/PT on HBO.

Spanning pop culture and touching on everything from sports and entertainment to arts and technology, Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons will feature intimate conversations with compelling guests each week. The show will also include field segments and Simmons' signature commentary on current events.
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On June 22, his reign at HBO will formally begin with the launch of Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons. "It'll be conversations about sports, culture and technology," he says, "and then me being a snarky asshole." The format — a mix of his hard takes and interviews — is subject to change, particularly as its host gets more comfortable with the role of television personality. That there's a subset of the sports press that suggests the latter may never happen — that Simmons isn't cut out for TV — only appears to motivate him. "Competitive Bill is definitely fired up about that," he says, seemingly driven by the same "nobody believed in us" theory that's fueled so many of his favorite sports narratives. "I know how these things go and how easily you can fail," he adds. "But I really think this has a chance."
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- from a Hollywood Reporter profile

Also worth noting (and the THR profile mentions it) that Any Given Wednesday will not be live or a John Oliver type show. It will mostly consist of taped, condensed interviews and presumably a Simmons monologue of some sort that will be shorter than the interviews.

Guest Lineup (will be updated throughout the season)

Week 1- Charles Barkley and Ben Affleck

Week 2- Bill Hader, Mark Cuban and Malcolm Gladwell

Week 3- Joe Rogan, Anthony Anderson and Chris Bosh

Week 4- Aaron Rodgers

Week 5- Danny McBride, Christina Hendricks and Michael K. Williams

Additional clips from the interviews that do not make it into the main show are available via the various HBO streaming services.

Relevant Links

Promo 1
Promo 2
The Ringer
The Ringer OT
 
O

otake

Doesn't know that "You" is used in both the singular and plural
I admit, I'm looking forward to this.

HBO is quickly becoming the home of critical thinking. With Last Week Tonight, Real Sports and now this, all it needs is something like 60 minutes and the PBS newshour and I won't need any other channel.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
I'm in for the ride. Will it be something horrendous like Simmons's old cartoons or something pretty fun like his NBA previews?

I have to say I expect the series to be a good bit better than the previews indicate. Simbo has never really been good at promos.
 
V

Vault Dweller 111

Member
Starting right at the end of the finals. He'll have the NBA draft for a week or two, then what? He's not exactly a baseball expert. 20 episodes? So he ends in the middle of the NFL season?? Maybe i'm completely missing the point of the show.
 
R

ryseing

Member
Vault Dweller 111 said:
Starting right at the end of the finals. He'll have the NBA draft for a week or two, then what? He's not exactly a baseball expert. 20 episodes? So he ends in the middle of the NFL season?? Maybe i'm completely missing the point of the show.
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The primary focus is interviews. There will presumably be a Simmons takes segment but his pods will likely continue to be the place for that.
 
C

CopperPuppy

Member
ryseing said:
I don't want to be a dick but read the OP. It isn't that long.
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I read the OP. I understand that it isn't going to be taped in front of a live audience like LWT or TDS. My question wasn't meant to be aimed at how the show is taped or edited together. I was more thinking of content - a short but deep dive into different sports, entertainment, or tech subjects each week.
 
R

ryseing

Member
CopperPuppy said:
I read the OP. I understand that it isn't going to be taped in front of a live audience like LWT or TDS. I was more thinking of content structure - a short but deep dive into different specific sports, entertainment, or tech subjects each week.
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Ah. Apologies. It will have more of a guest heavy focus than those two shows from what we understand. It's a half hour show and there will be two interviews lasting 10-12 mins apiece.
 
V

Vault Dweller 111

Member
Basileus777 said:
It won't all be about sports.
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ryseing said:
The primary focus is interviews. There will presumably be a Simmons takes segment but his pods will likely continue to be the place for that.
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Thanks. I still think that most of his audience will be people who know him from his sports stuff. So if he's suddenly reviewing the new Iphone I'm not sure how that would be received. But HBO and Bill have much more knowledge about this stuff than me, so I assume they know what they are doing.
 
R

ryseing

Member
Vault Dweller 111 said:
Thanks. I still think that most of his audience will be people who know him from his sports stuff. So if he's suddenly reviewing the new Iphone I'm not sure how that would be received. But HBO and Bill have much more knowledge about this stuff than me, so I assume they know what they are doing.
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No chance he'll be doing that sort of thing. I could see a field piece from a Ringer tech writer but it won't be a review or something, probably something like Vice does.
 
S

spyder_ur

Member
Interested to check this out, but also extremely skeptical. How is Simmons (who is mediocre to poor on camera) going to carry this? 20 freaking episodes? The promos were goddamn horrendous.

I was kind of hoping he would leverage HBO's film talent and his past experience with 30 for 30 and this show would feature some mini-docs or something similar. Maybe that will still happen.

I'm also worried this will hurt his podcast output which is the best thing he does IMO, since he doesn't write anymore.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
I don't mind it but I can see why this segment is not good for BIll. It's basically 5 minutes of annoying Boston persecution complex. Even if they are right, I think people either A) think Brady is a cheater or B) are just tired of hearing Boston sports fans whining about this.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
It was good. I like the format, it's loose and moves fast. That said I hope this doesn't mean we get less BS Report content but I kind of get the feeling it will.
 
V

Vyer

Member
This feels more like the podcast than Simmons previous tv appearances. That's definitely a good thing.
 
K

Kwhit10

Member
Basically TV podcast. I liked the curry commercial they did, got a laugh when it said "you fucked up Nike"

I'm a Boston fan, but didn't care for the homerism and ranting. We've all heard it plenty.

Also half of Barkley's bit was already talked about in the podcast he did with Bill a while back.
 
beanman25

beanman25

Member
My buddy was in hollywood and they taped a segment for this show on hollywood boulevard. did a guy named dru answer questions?
 
V

Vault Dweller 111

Member
I liked it. Affleck aside. But does Bill have that much influence to actually get people to watch this? I'm not sure. But it's not like production costs seemed very high.

But it would suck if that half hour was the reason we've been getting fewer podcasts lately. Hopefully he gets onto a better schedule.
 
H

h1nch

Member
Wasn't bad, wasn't amazing. I'll definitely stick around for some more eps to see how it goes. I thought his closing monologue was better than the opening bit. He's right in that his obvious strength is still in the conversation pieces, rather than the solo segments.
 
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