A Sitcom Based on ESPN College Football Analyst Paul Finebaum Might Be Coming to Your TV – Sportscasting

Sports mediapersonalityPaul Finebaumis one of the biggest and most well-known radio hosts in all of college football. In his 20 years of hosting his own show, Finebaum has been the center of the sports universe, especially in thegames epicenter of the SEC. While he just signed a new deal to continue his Charlotte-based show for ESPN, he also recently shared that there is a TV sitcom in the works about his life.

Finebaum graduated from theUniversity of Tennesseein 1978 and moved to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1980, perESPN. He became a columnist and reporter for theBirmingham Post-Heraldand theMobile Press-Register. The Memphis native also hosted thePaul Finebaum Radio Networkfrom 2001 to 2012, becoming the Voice of the SEC.

He jumped to ESPN in 2013 as the host ofThe Paul Finebaum Showand has helped anchor the networks college football coverage ever since. In July 2021, he signed a new multi-year extension withESPN.

The Mouth of the South is maybe most famous for a single call-in to his radio show in 2011. After someone poisoned Auburns famous Toomers Corner trees, an Alabama fan named Harvey Updyke using the pseudonym Al from Dadeville called into Finebaums show and admitted to the crime. He capped his admission with, Roll Damn Tide.

Finebaums radio show is also known for a host of colorful, college football-loving regular callers over the years. This includes the Alabama-loving Phyllis, Jim from Tuscaloosa, Darriel from Columbus, and the lateAuburnsuperfan Tammy.

Finebaum joinedThe Tony Kornheiser Showpodcast and shared that a sitcom is in the works based on the college football host. The opportunity arose when Finebaum taped an episode of his podcast at Kornheisers old restaurant, Chatter:

A producer in Hollywood heard the podcast. He called another guy, and two years later, this thing goes into motion, and its developed as a sitcom. It is sold to ABC. Its a takeoff of just like your show many years ago went to Hollywood, the guy who was going to play me is a younger person, Jason Biggs, the star of theAmerican Pieseries. And then COVID happened, and everythings up in the air.

They wrote it as a guy from New York who comes to the South, loosely set in Birmingham, Finebaum explained in more detail toAlabama.com. Someone with that mentality dealing with a different culture. Thats the concept. One of the ideas was to have me married to a very Southern family. And, just the conflicts of a New Yorker who was edgier than the norm.

The Kornheiser connection to Finebaums sitcom is twofold. In addition to the podcast taping that caught the ABC execs attention being at Kornheisers studio, the sitcom sounds a lot like a short-lived sitcom based on Konrheisers life that aired for one season in 2004-05.

Listen Up!was a show that aired on CBS and starred Jason Alexander fromSeinfeldas Tony Kleinman (based on Kornheiser) and focused on his family life and his job hosting a sports debate show with his partner Bernie Widmer, aMichael Wilbon-type character played by Malcolm Jamal-Warner ofThe Cosby Showfame.

Sitcoms about sports have a checkered record of success on TV. Shows about sports media have a particularly tough time succeeding. In addition toListen Up!,My Boys, about a female sportswriter looking for love in Chicago, ran for four seasons on TBS to mediocre ratings. Even Aaron Sorkins critically-acclaimedSports Night, based onSportscenters Dan Patrickand Keith Olbermann, only made it two seasons.

However, several sports-themed sitcoms have succeeded through the years. Craig T. Nelsons college football-basedCoachran for nine seasons, and Mark Currys high school basketball-centricHangin With Mr. Cooperwent five seasons, both on ABC.

GLOW, about the 80s female wrestling league, ran three seasons on Netflix before COVID-19 concerns ended the fourth and final season filming. In 2021,Ted Lasso,about an American football coach learning English footballon Apple TV+, is one of the buzzed-about sitcoms of the year. Recent years have brought edgier sports sitcoms to TV. This group includes FXsThe League, IFCsBrockmire, and HBOsEastbound and DownandBallers.

If the Finebaum sitcom ever gets off the ground, it seems like it will fall into the former category of sports media shows that dont go very far. That said, ABC has a solid history of making these types of shows work, so if Finebaum is a success, it wont be a complete surprise.

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A Sitcom Based on ESPN College Football Analyst Paul Finebaum Might Be Coming to Your TV - Sportscasting