TNT Sports doesn’t make the Inside the NBA hosts sit in on production meetings and tries to build in more organic conversation across each show. It focuses on each host’s particular base of knowledge, lets the rapport develop on its own, and refrains from lengthy missives directly into the camera.
As ADWEEK found in speaking to several members of TNT Sports’ broadcast team, a combined respect for their abilities, time, and outside lives makes it easier to get the desired result—and more certain they’ll stay with TNT Sports long term.
“You want it to be natural, you want it to be spontaneous,” Barry said. “The first take is always the best take, so we sprinkle that DNA on all of our shows… all of our talent in front and behind the camera, we give them that space to plan.”
And though its roster varies across properties, the similarities among the marquee names at TNT Sports are what make it uniquely suited for the turbulent sports-media future ahead.
Adam Lefkoe, Inside the NBA
At this year’s WBD upfront event, Adam Lefoke was ad buyers’ guide through TNT Sports as he introduced Champ Bailey and Grant Hill during a college football segment, handed fellow Inside the NBA host some rhetorical flowers during an Unrivaled recap, and familiarized the room with both his newest gig at Roland-Garros and new colleague Sloane Stephens.
That’s a long way from spitting Seinfeld, wrestling, and hip hop references at a local affiliate in Louisville. Lefkoe has now been with TNT Sports in some capacity for more than a decade since leaving his gig with a local television affiliate in Louisville for a position with Bleacher Report in 2014.
According to Lefkoe, his first days with TNT Sports felt like he “was on a rocket ship” with Bleacher Report and its NFL Draft coverage earning millions of views.
“I remember very vividly that first week we got Adrian Peterson on as a guest, and some of the producers at the time were like, ‘Hey, man, this is a big one for us,’ and I got him to say that he could guarantee 2,000 yards the following season, and that went everywhere,” Lefkoe said. “It was the first time I had seen the machine that was Bleacher Report push a piece of content and the world, and that’s when you begin to realize my work here can matter.”
