ESPN cancels sports debate show ‘Around the Horn’ after 23 years

The game is over for ESPN‘s Around the Horn.

The show, in which host Tony Reali and a changing group of panelists discuss the day’s biggest sports news, will host its final show May 23, the network announced Tuesday. The show has been on the air for 23 years, with Reali having hosted since February 2004, after taking over from Max Kellerman.

Panelists are sports writers, including Jemele Hill, Bill Plaschke, Woody Paige, Mina Kimes, and many others, who compete for points and try to avoid being muted by Reali. At the end of each episode, one of them is named the day’s winner and is allowed to deliver a final word.

“Around the Horn has had a remarkable run of more than two decades,” said David Roberts, who’s an executive vice president and executive editor for sports news and entertainment at ESPN. “That kind of longevity in media is incredibly rare, and we look forward to celebrating the show’s many accomplishments before the final sign-off in May. Beyond Tony and the ensemble of on-air contributors, we are particularly grateful to the production team led by Erik Rydholm and Aaron Solomon, who have been instrumental in ATH‘s consistent success since the very beginning.”

Reali wrote on X that he was “overwhelmed” as his fans thanked him for the show.

The half-hour show airs on weekday afternoons alongside Pardon the Interruption, another of the network’s analysis shows. In more than two decades, more than 4,900 episodes of ATH have aired.

After its conclusion, ESPN viewers will see a 30-minute version of the Disney-owned channel’s signature series, SportsCenter, according to a news release. That will be the plan for the summer, with more to come at a later date.

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The absence of Around the Horn is one of many changes the audience will see in the coming months, as the network prepares to launch a stand-alone streaming service later this year. Just last week, ESPN confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter that it would part ways with Major League Baseball after the upcoming season. They had partnered to bring games to TV for 35 years.