“TK would always say, ‘We want to feel like we’re on a couch in the living room watching you guys do the show. You don’t have to teach us what’s being shown on the screen,’” he said. “‘If they want stats, they can Google those things, but give us that inside edge: What are you guys talking about? What are your thoughts? Point out things that we don’t see.”
Rollins and his team on MLB Tuesday are making these observations at an interesting time in baseball, when league efforts behind the pitch clock, larger bases, youth sports, and “let them play” elements like celebrations and colorful mitts and cleats are bringing new, younger fans to the game. With MLB Tuesday producer Daniel Eisner’s blessing, Rollins is increasingly meeting that demand by joining Hall of Famer Martinez and fellow 2007 20-20-20 (20 doubles, triples, and home runs) hitter Curtis Granderson in getting out from behind the desk and filming more hitting and pitching demos that live on as social media clips.
“Baseball has always been the laggard—basketball leading always in the social area and in the community, and then football, then baseball follows,” Rollins said. “Everybody doesn’t have 60 minutes total or 30 minutes to dedicate to a pregame, but if they can click on 15 minutes if they have to run, find a demo they missed on the show, and there’s a place for them to live, let’s give them what they want.”
Paul Bissonnette, NHL on TNT
Known as Biz to colleagues and BizNasty to trolls on social media, Paul Bissonnette spent 12 years playing professional hockey and six seasons in the NHL between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Phoenix Coyotes.
After his career ended in 2017, he did some radio work for the Coyotes but made a name for himself both on social media and on the Barstool Sports hockey podcast Spittin’ Chiclets. Reflecting on when he received an email from TNT Sports in 2021 asking him to join NHL on TNT, he told ADWEEK, “I thought I was being pranked”—considering the show’s reserved tone compared to the podcast.
He wasn’t, and was immediately placed on a desk with 11-season NHL veteran Anson Carter, three-time Stanley Cup champion player and coach Rick Tocchet, and hockey icon Wayne Gretzky. But TNT Sports gave him rides to where he needed to be, while his new teammates on the desk went bowling with him before NHL playoff coverage began. As Bissonnette observed, TNT Sports “makes your job very easy in terms of little detail,” and “they don’t take the traditional broadcasting to heart… they want it to be fun.”
