The Bill Simmons Thread

tbrep

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For me, Bill's greatest achievement was helping us get Keeping it 1600. For that alone, his ESPN breakaway was worth it
 

johnmd20

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Just caught Doug Baldwin's appearance on Simmons's show. I was really impressed with how thoughtful and intelligent he was. Simmons continues to get pretty good guests (always enjoy a M. Rappaport segment, in limited doses). Unfortunately, Simmons remains the weak link of the show.

edit: spelling
I watched it today. Baldwin, (his inside NFL takes were very informative) McHale, and Rappaport were all excellent. It was a pretty good half hour of TV.
 

allstonite

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Why would he try and ruin one of the best episodes of the year, the NBA over/under pod with House, by doing a half assed unprepared version before doing the real thing?

And still I love Joe House. This exchange about the Heat killed me (paraphrased)

Simmons: what about Tyler Johnson?
House: who?!
S: Tyler Johnson. $50 million
H: ha America is just the best
 

gtg807y

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For me, Bill's greatest achievement was helping us get Keeping it 1600. For that alone, his ESPN breakaway was worth it
That one's up there, but I'll give Shackhouse the edge. Keepin it 1600 is great but I find Jon Lovett irritating and tend to not make it through the ones he's on.

I'll be curious to see if they keep it going after the election. Shackhouse's hiatus is going to leave a hole in my weekly podcast lineup as is, don't want to lose another one.
 

cromulence

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Don't forget that it was against the debate - not exactly a normal night.

(I tend to agree with you guys but figured it deserved to be mentioned.)
 

tbrep

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That one's up there, but I'll give Shackhouse the edge. Keepin it 1600 is great but I find Jon Lovett irritating and tend to not make it through the ones he's on.

I'll be curious to see if they keep it going after the election. Shackhouse's hiatus is going to leave a hole in my weekly podcast lineup as is, don't want to lose another one.
FWIW, Jon Favreau was on another podcast recently and said he'd like to continue Keepin it 1600 post-election (though I assume the frequency will be much much less).
 

WayBackVazquez

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Don't forget that it was against the debate - not exactly a normal night.

(I tend to agree with you guys but figured it deserved to be mentioned.)
Definitely not a normal night, but there will always be something. The Warriors/Lakers preseason game managed to draw 1.03 million, and the three-year-old Terrell Davis "A Football Life" rerun drew almost as much (94,000) as AGW at the same time on NFL Network.

Also notable, Katie Nolan got 561,000 and 299,000 18-49 at 1:00 am.
 

Leather

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Devil's advocate: most sports fans would be watching the World Series.
 

WayBackVazquez

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Yep. I think we can all agree there are many, many things people would rather watch than Any Given Wednesday, including the World Series.

Simmons also mentioned on his podcast that nobody watches TV in July.
Doesn't seem like a smart decision to debut his show in a month where no one watches TV.
Or is it? Get the kinks worked out and filter all the various internal and external feedback so tighten up the product while waiting for a larger audience to get back on their couches, at least for traditional-type HBO watchers.
The DNC and Mr. Robot probably cut into his numbers to some degree.
I have to think the kind of viewer who lazily clicks to watch part of a movie they have probably already seen 10 times when they could be watching a fairly major event like the DNC or the Olympics is probably not likely to be an Any Given Wednesday viewer.
Don't forget that it was against the debate - not exactly a normal night.
 

Van Everyman

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Did anyone else see him and Kimmel at the Schubert a few weeks back? It was a charity event my wife got us tickets to for my birthday. It was excellent – the best I've seen Simmons in a while.
 

kenneycb

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Yes but Kenneycb has been doing his whole "you guys are losers for picking on Simmons" thing for about 8 years. It's rather remarkable.
Not really. I just don't have a visceral hate for everything he does, moreso his writing, as some people do. That gets misconstrued as what you have written. I can't say I've ever made the "you guys are jealous" argument.

Haven't really watched much of AGW outside of the first few weeks so can't, and haven't, really commented on it. He's entertaining enough for me on certain topics and if that makes me a simpleton, well, I guess I won't sit at the cool kids table at lunch then.

The above issue is more of a poster issue than a topic issue.
 

8slim

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Not really. I just don't have a visceral hate for everything he does, moreso his writing, as some people do. That gets misconstrued as what you have written. I can't say I've ever made the "you guys are jealous" argument.

Haven't really watched much of AGW outside of the first few weeks so can't, and haven't, really commented on it. He's entertaining enough for me on certain topics and if that makes me a simpleton, well, I guess I won't sit at the cool kids table at lunch then.

The above issue is more of a poster issue than a topic issue.
Remember, only on SoSH are the elitist nerds considered cool kids.
 

allstonite

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To discuss the actual show, I put on a few yesterday in the background while doing some work and it got slightly better. I tuned out after the first few. It's more structured now with regular segments every week.

He does get great guests. Still sucks at interviewing them but they get into good discussions. Someone needs to tell him to listen to what the guest says and react to that instead of trying to get out his pre-written point. For someone who used to complement Ed McMahon for his ability to sell Carson jokes, Bill is terrible at selling other peoples jokes or even points they make and almost never follows up. To borrow from Grantland podcasts, it's a discussion that occasionally touches on mature subjects, but it's not really free flowing. It sounds like he has a script.

-Doug Baldwin was excellent. I normally like Joel McHale but thought he tried to hard to be funny when they were getting into serious stuff.

-Al Michaels and Bob Costas were fine with their old man ranting but I kind of zoned out during this. l thought Costas I thought tried too hard to be cool and show that he wasn't constrained because he was somewhere other than on NBC if that makes sense.

-Gretzky was way better than I'd ever seen him. The times before I've seen him he seemed very uptight and never really said much. On this show he gave thoughtful answers and Bill Burr was a great complement to him. Instead of trying to be like McHale, he also gave serious responses and you could tell he's a real fan of the sport.

Overall, it's still not great but I thought it improved a lot.
 

Shelterdog

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Not really. I just don't have a visceral hate for everything he does, moreso his writing, as some people do. That gets misconstrued as what you have written. I can't say I've ever made the "you guys are jealous" argument.

Haven't really watched much of AGW outside of the first few weeks so can't, and haven't, really commented on it. He's entertaining enough for me on certain topics and if that makes me a simpleton, well, I guess I won't sit at the cool kids table at lunch then.

The above issue is more of a poster issue than a topic issue.
You did it again.
 

Drocca

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WBV's tirade against Any Given Wednesday is definitely bordering on obsession.
Agreed, but these sorts of things are some of my favorite things about SoSH. Like Dejesus every time there's a virus outbreak, Talon (RIP) and his no-hitters, ngruz and The Hold Steady, Wingack's ability to watch every television program in the world, Sprowl's Global Warming, RR's criminal defense primers, Rough + Gold (personal favorite), London + eminent global finance collapse & MJ + the Moon.

I'm starting a P&G thread.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Yep. I think we can all agree there are many, many things people would rather watch than Any Given Wednesday, including the World Series.
BTW, you're completely misrepresenting what I said. I wasn't using it as an excuse for why the show had bad ratings, IIRC I wrote that prior to his first show and wondered whether HBO made a big mistake debuting Simmons' show in the middle of the summer right after the NBA Playoffs (his bread and butter) ended and two months before the NFL season (his second piece of bread of butter) began.

That was my point.
 

luckiestman

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Agreed, but these sorts of things are some of my favorite things about SoSH. Like Dejesus every time there's a virus outbreak, Talon (RIP) and his no-hitters, ngruz and The Hold Steady, Wingack's ability to watch every television program in the world, Sprowl's Global Warming, RR's criminal defense primers, Rough + Gold (personal favorite), London + eminent global finance collapse & MJ + the Moon.

I'm starting a P&G thread.

I loved the gold thread too, brother. Don't know how you left off Monbo and Billy Shakes
 

WayBackVazquez

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BTW, you're completely misrepresenting what I said. I wasn't using it as an excuse for why the show had bad ratings, IIRC I wrote that prior to his first show and wondered whether HBO made a big mistake debuting Simmons' show in the middle of the summer right after the NBA Playoffs (his bread and butter) ended and two months before the NFL season (his second piece of bread of butter) began.

That was my point.
I don't know how I can be completely misrepresenting what you said when I directly and completely quoted it. Also, you don't recall correctly, because you said it after his third show. And your bread and butter theory appears to be wrong, too.

Other than that, good point.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I don't know how I can be completely misrepresenting what you said when I directly and completely quoted it. Also, you don't recall correctly, because you said it after his third show. And your bread and butter theory appears to be wrong, too.

Other than that, good point.
Dummy, look at what I was writing about:

Kenneycb wrote this: "Simmons also mentioned on his podcast that nobody watches TV in July. No idea if that's based on any facts or any historical basis but he at least knew the ratings for this week, which I liked, especially the Bosh pieces, were going to be shit."

I wrote this: "Doesn't seem like a smart decision to debut his show in a month where no one watches TV."

So, I'm agreeing with you here. In your initial post, you made it seem as if I was making an excuse for him and why he has such shitty numbers. I'm not.

Two other things:

1. I was wrong about when I wrote my post but congrats on your encyclopedic knowledge of exactly when someone posts about Bill Simmons. Your family must be very, very proud.

2. Are you saying that Simmons isn't considered a basketball writer first and then a football writer? Since you're so obsessed with him, what is his bread and butter then?
 

WayBackVazquez

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Dummy, look at what I was writing about:

Kenneycb wrote this: "Simmons also mentioned on his podcast that nobody watches TV in July. No idea if that's based on any facts or any historical basis but he at least knew the ratings for this week, which I liked, especially the Bosh pieces, were going to be shit."

I wrote this: "Doesn't seem like a smart decision to debut his show in a month where no one watches TV."

So, I'm agreeing with you here. In your initial post, you made it seem as if I was making an excuse for him and why he has such shitty numbers. I'm not.

Two other things:

1. I was wrong about when I wrote my post but congrats on your encyclopedic knowledge of exactly when someone posts about Bill Simmons. Your family must be very, very proud.

2. Are you saying that Simmons isn't considered a basketball writer first and then a football writer? Since you're so obsessed with him, what is his bread and butter then?
Little dummy to dope lesson: that little blue arrow next to a poster's name before a quoted post will take you right to that post, and its time stamp. Follow this tip and you can take your first step toward making your family proud.

His numbers have cratered since football started, and NBA games running opposite his show (as they will tend to do...on a Wednesday) are now being offered as an excuse for his poor ratings. So the theories that his show should have started alongside one of those seasons, or that his viewership would increase when they started, appear to be wrong.

Also, have a Xanax, and enjoy your weekend, dipshit.
 

kenneycb

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Little dummy to dope lesson: that little blue arrow next to a poster's name before a quoted post will take you right to that post, and its time stamp. Follow this tip and you can take your first step toward making your family proud.

His numbers have cratered since football started, and NBA games running opposite his show (as they will tend to do...on a Wednesday) are now being offered as an excuse for his poor ratings. So the theories that his show should have started alongside one of those seasons, or that his viewership would increase when they started, appear to be wrong.

Also, have a Xanax, and enjoy your weekend, dipshit.
Where has this argument been made? Ctrl+f on NBA and basketball brought up nothing relevant to this point.
 

WayBackVazquez

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Where has this argument been made? Ctrl+f on NBA and basketball brought up nothing relevant to this point.
If I link you to it, what happens then? Do I "win the Internet" again? It wasn't made by anyone in this thread; if it had been, I would have quoted it in the examples post. It's been made elsewhere on the Internet.

[ad hom try again]
 
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SydneySox

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If I link you to it, what happens then? Do I "win the Internet" again? It wasn't made by anyone in this thread; if it had been, I would have quoted it in the examples post. It's been made elsewhere on the Internet.

[ad hom try again]
That's not ad hominem. It actually wasn't even an argument, just a question.