Transcript of Dan Directly Asks, "ESPN Is Dead?" | Hour 1 (feat. Nick Wright)

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Nick Wright going to join us here, host of FS1's First Things First and What's Right with Nick Wright, the podcast. I mean, what are your thoughts on what Kevin Durant is doing, the known and sworn enemy of Nick Wright? What is Kevin Durant doing, saying, that the 76ers are better than his Warriors.

He's not saying that. He's just comparing the idea of adding a great scorer, a great player, to an already great collection of players. And he's trying to like kind of tie in and loop in what happened to him in Golden State. Kevin Durant's thing seems to be— and I know he doesn't like it when we psychoanalyze— but it seems to be like, why did everyone make it a big deal when I do something, but now it's not a big deal when LeBron does something? Of equal stature. But of course, we all understand the argument might be a little disingenuous because LeBron is 41 years old versus Kevin Durant, who is a couple years removed from being an MVP when he joined the Warriors.

And the Sixers haven't been out of the second round, and the Warriors had won the championship and 73 games. Yeah, uh, Nick Wright is with us now. Uh, Nick, what—

what—

hello, what are your thoughts on, uh, recent—

I disagree with Amin entirely. I think Amin is being far too— I think Amin is saying what he wishes Kevin Durant was saying rather than what Kevin Durant flatly said himself.

His—

Kevin Durant's last word on this issue was, quote, "I don't get how the Warriors team is better on paper." He's, he's not making a soft, "Well, when you think about it," he is in it. He is fighting a war from 10 years ago, and he is, he is Not only saying Joel Embiid, his MVP in 2026 is no different than Steph Curry's in 2016, he's also trashing his teammates. He said, and I quote, Klay Thompson, never MVP candidate in nothing. In nothing. Not even like the, you know, family reunion pickup games. Nope, Michael got that one. Draymond, 14-7-6. Steph, an MVP just like Joel was. Like, um, and I don't— listen, I like Durant, and Durant says we're not cool. I actually think Durant likes me too. I think we just, you know, got him on the wrong day when he memed me. That's fine. But this is ludicrous. I do think Draymond had the best analysis of this when Draymond— when Durant first opened this can of worms. Said that Durant looks at basketball like Uncle Drew. It's just about getting buckets, and this Sixers team has a bunch of bucket getters. But Dan, I have a galaxy brain— not conspiracy theory, but a galaxy brain theory about this that I would like to run by you.

Okay.

So when people are knocking this down, what they're, you know, a lot of them are saying what Amin was getting ready to say, or kind of said at the end, which is, but ultimately the biggest difference among all the differences between the 2016-17 Warriors and the 2026-27 Sixers is Kevin Durant at 28 is so much better than LeBron James at 41. And I think Kevin Durant's just waited for people to say Kevin Durant's better than LeBron James. He'll take it even if he has to just force the conversation. He like, I think he wants to be wrong just so everyone's like, no, you're wrong because you're better than LeBron. He's like, finally! I went to the whole team so people would say I'm better than LeBron. It's kind of a roundabout way, but they're finally saying it. So I think we might be, you know, he might be playing us like a fool. He's crazy like a fox.

Nick, you landed the plane that I was flying. This is, that was my whole point. This is all designed so that everyone could say, wait a second, and he says, oh, oh, is that right? I'm, I'm okay.

Yeah.

Oh, then we're on the same page.

Yes, absolutely.

I'm glad I interrupted so you can't say I stole it from you like Club Superstar.

I mean, that would have been a big bummer if you would have—

if you would have said that first. But so, okay, so we're on the same.

So if we do it by position, right, Steph is better than Maxi, Klay is better than Edgecombe, Draymond is more available than Joel Embiid. You match up Kevin Durant against Jaylen Brown and— well, against— well, yeah. And so LeBron's your— Whoever, you know, Kevin Looney, whoever's the fifth starter for— come on, that's fun.

I know, how about, um, how about Andre Iguodala? I mean, Andre Iguodala, pretty important guy. Yeah, that Warriors team had Andre Iguodala. Um, yeah, and, and so, I mean, it's just the, the Warriors in the 2 years leading up to Durant joining them won 171 games, a championship, and lost in Game 7 of the other Finals. The Sixers in the last few years have won 68 games, not total, but per season, and won one round of the playoffs. I mean, it's an absurdity. Everyone knows it's an absurdity. The thing is, I am fascinated that Kevin Durant wants to keep having this fight, that KD is still fighting this war. It's a really— and I think the comments this last Instagram post, like, really bothered Klay. I don't know if it really bothered Klay, seems pretty chill, but it was a real insult to Klay, and Draymond didn't seem too pleased about it. And like, he's really, via social media, you know, once unintentionally with the Rockets tweets, DMs, whatever, they got leaked, and now this intentionally torched a bit Steph, Draymond, and Klay. It's all very odd.

Nick, you brought up the, the DMs that we still don't know that that was him, and I don't—

Yes, we do. I do, I do. I can— Yes.

How do you know? I know, like, you have confirmed sources saying that was him? Or are you doing, like, Kevin Durant? Are you doing circumstantial evidence?

I am. Here's what I'm doing. I am doing far more than circumstantial evidence, but because I haven't paid the $799 to take Pablo Torres' How to Be a Journalist class, I'm not sure exactly if I can say I'm reporting it.

Well, let me ask you this question, because I will tell the people that Nick Wright has information. It's not just gasbagging. He's got sources. No, you've got sources. You do. No, I— and so how do you talk about this? You're, you're saying something is so that I have not heard confirmed and have thought is unfair to Kevin Durant without the confirmation, these burners and everything else. What do you know is true and how can you talk around reporting it while understanding that you're not quite a journalist but you're not just a gasbag either? You, you get information.

So this is on First Things First. This is when I say I'm putting on the fake— my fake news hat. The hat is fake, the news is real. So I'll put on my fake news hat. That was Kevin Durant in those DMs. It just— first of all, it obviously was. Second of all, I'm telling you it was.

See, I don't like the first of all, because the first of all— I, I got this theory, Nick. I call it the, the X-Files theory. There's an X-Files movie where it's called I want to believe. And that is where we are right now as a society. Everyone wants to run with the thing that confirms how they feel about things. Doesn't matter if it's real or not, right? Aaron Rodgers is a great example. He wants to believe that Dr. Fauci is full of shit and COVID was just some hoax, uh, when obviously it wasn't. Millions of people died worldwide, and you know, the, the, the things that— the steps that we took stem the tide of that thing. So it's the same thing. It's like because Kevin Durant has had this thing in the past. Everyone wants to believe, of course Kevin Durant would do this. I'm here to say that I hadn't heard, not at the time and not since then, a single person go on the record and say, I have either proof or reporting or something that this isn't just us wanting this to be true, that it's actually him.

So this is—

so I really didn't mean— so for— I mean, I— what I just said here So, you know, again, 3 to 5 PM Eastern, it's on most cable providers, linear television. It's still live, America. I've said repeatedly on the TV show, I mean, must have missed those episodes, sadly. But this— I, I— gosh darn it. I was told by someone who absolutely would know, OK, about the— about the— what I would call the crisis, the brief crisis management of how to deal with this and what You know, those, those things that went— and now he's really going to be mad.

Now I am so unaccustomed to you being tongue-tied when we're just trying—

because I'm not really— because, because you're right, because I'm not— I, I, this is— I, I, I do a, you know, a vice-riddled, you know, gambling problem version of Wendy sometimes. Where there's things I know that I have no interest in talking about because I'm not really that— I'm more interested in gathering some information and being in the, the, the, you know, being in the circle of trust of things or whatever. But when occasionally I hope the discerning viewer or listener or consumer of my content can tell when I am going way further out than I normally would on things that aren't just like, who's going to win a game that no one can see in the future. Rather than that, what I'm doing is saying things that have happened or things that I have very good reason to believe will happen. And that's— so I try to kind of— yeah, there you go. But Wendy's like— Wendy knows everything. Brian Windhorst knows every single thing that's happening about the NBA, shares 2% of them with us. I know a handful of random things. And when I think it's either relevant to the audience or helpful, I try to make it very clear.

This is not just, you know, me guessing. This is what I would call very informed speculation. I didn't think— again, we spent more time on this than I thought we would. I didn't— I thought everyone— I thought that was resolved fact essentially about that Durant torched the locker room by destroying all his teammates.

But this is what bothers me though, that things become fact without anyone confirming it in a way that's verifiable. Like that's To me, it doesn't feel fair regardless. I want, at the risk of getting you in trouble again with Kevin Durant—

you're fine—

when Chris Whittingham says that the version of Kevin Durant's career that has played out— I want to place this hypothetical in front of you— is the version of Kevin Durant's career that has played out the worst version that could have played out given his skill set?

No, that's, that's too far. But it's certainly not the best. And I— listen, I find— I am going to— and I'm not trying to be tongue-tied, and I'm not trying to hedge it, but I am trying to just reiterate what I've said before. I find Durant fascinating. I think he's the only athlete in my lifetime, in any sport, but certainly in the NBA, that has handled his career the way he has as far as interactions with fans, media, and his utter transparency that he just wants to ball. He wants to get better every day, get buckets and ball. I find admirable. I also find incredibly admirable, and now it's been a decade, so it— almost a decade, so we paper over it— that this guy's career, even though he stayed a great player, his career took a, a second fork in the road when he played a game on a bum Achilles because everyone in the— within the Warriors organization and some media were like, hmm, he sure has been out a long time with a calf strain. Don't you think he should be back? Then he comes back for 11 minutes, pops his Achilles, and, and so I empathize with him there.

With that said, to Witty's point, this is a player who by 20 years old and year 2 was arguably a top 5 player in the league. By 21 years old and year 3 was inarguably a top 3 player in the league and spent the entire first decade of his career in the Conference Finals or NBA Finals. Every single healthy year with a healthy team, he was in round 3 or later. And since, since that day he popped his Achilles, even though his play has been superb, he has played, I think the number is 13 games past round 1, 0 games past round 2. A guy who lived in late May and early June has, hasn't played a super— he's played arguably 2 super relevant basketball games, and they were games 6 and 7 of round 2 against Milwaukee 5 years ago. That's a huge bummer. And what I do think is also, if we're gonna, you know, psych— not psychoanalyze, but basketball analyze, uh, Durant, Dan, I do think a bit of a window into his, his comping the Sixers-Warriors gives us a little bit of insight as to why he's been bad at figuring out which teams would actually work on the court.

Like, the fact that he thinks the Sixers are a Warriors comp kind of explains why he might think him, Harden, and Kyrie can't miss, why him, Booker, and Beal make a lot of sense. Like, those things. And so I, I don't think it's the worst version of his career. He's, you know, the 17th greatest player of all time, but There's a lot of better versions of it.

Dan Levitar. Hello, this is not Greg Cody.

Greg Cody.

That kind of thing. And you know it. This is the Dan Levitar Show. Are you aware that when you did the comping the Sixers-Warriors hand gestures that you were doing the Trump masturbating elephants dance? Did you realize that?

I didn't know that was a dance.

Yeah, you were doing that. Also, Greg Cody asked you a question that kind of got lost. He asked you, when you put on your fake press hat, does it have the word press in the fedora? Yes, of course.

Of course. Yeah.

A little— yeah. In big black marker, handwritten, a little smaller than a 3x5 note card, and it's askew. And it's not a hat like— what Roy's wearing. It's like, you know, it's an old— I don't know.

Yeah, yeah. A bit of a fedora. Like, yeah. Like, yeah.

I don't know. Hat, bowler, maybe.

I don't—

I don't—

I don't— again, I don't know. I know it. I know it's not a baseball cap and I know it's not a sombrero, but I don't know what it's—

right.

I don't know what it is. But you can visualize it again. Fake news.

The one that— the one that Bert Sugar wears.

I'm not that familiar with Burt Sugar's work either with respect to the Sugar family. But yeah, that sounds right.

All right, Nick. So also earlier, a few minutes ago, you said the phrase gosh darn it. Is that a phrase that's common to you? Because I'd never heard you say it. Gosh darn it.

Yeah.

So I, I, I curse in my daily life. And there's— there's— I try not to say God. Out of respect. That for a lot of people is like a, like a super bad curse. And but I used to say gee dee a lot. And so I've just replaced it with gosh darn it.

Well, out of respect to people, I have, I have a number of questions and we've got a limited amount of time here. So I'm going to try and keep you— and I don't think this is possible, but we're going to try and keep you to 30 to 45 seconds on each topic. Yeah.

The only way I can do that is if I have soundtrack behind it and there's a whistle. I need like NFL Films music and then 45 seconds of whistle, then I can do it. I got it. It tricks my brain.

Roy, get to work.

All right, Roy is getting to work right now.

John Fasenda music and a whistle at 45.

Yes. Okay, well, you're going to have to give us a second because you're bossing Roy around and he wasn't prepared for this. So the first one's going to have to be a cappella. I hope that's okay.

Anyone got a whistle? We don't have a whistle yet.

We're going to get all of the stuff. See if you can find all the stuff he's requested.

What's the temperature? Hold on, let me see.

No, let Amin do a manual whistle like this. And all that'll be good.

It's 83 degrees. I don't know if I can whistle.

Who is the best? Who's got the best referee whistle among us? I am not a whistler. I cannot whistle.

So who can't— I guess Greg Cody can do a good old-timey.

I can.

I've always said, I've always said you can't trust someone who can whistle with their fingers in their mouth.

How about this?

Great.

All right, all right, we've got a song. 45 seconds, Nick Wright on Scooble to the Dodgers.

Oh, hey, this is a very fascinating one because people are using this story to have an argument that is nothing about this story. You can hate the Dodgers' financial advantage. You can feel like baseball needs to change. I'm a Royals fan. I, I understand the bother of that. But anybody could have gotten Schubel. They're gonna pay him like a total of $2 million over the rest of the year. The Dodgers did not get Schubel because of their massive financial advantage. But it doesn't really matter that that's the facts of the case there. This seems to be the tipping point in people being mad at the Dodgers. I didn't even need the whistle. Oh wow, I have extra time. I'm chillin'. Okay, thank you.

We do have the whistle here. LeBron to the Sixers. We haven't had John since it happened. Your thoughts?

I know.

I mean, he's gonna do what he's done in every place every time he's ever changed teams, which is by year 2 deliver a championship. Also, um, it confirms to me that Rich Paul was being 100% earnest, that if the Knicks hadn't won the title he was going to New York. And the moment Rich said that, we all should have given more and more credit to Philly. Because East Coast, that means he's willing to go to the East Coast. It means he's valuing, super valuing a chance to win a title and historic franchise that is in a long championship drought. New York, Philly, and Portland oddly are the 3 that check that box. He's not going to Portland. New York was off the table. Philadelphia, and I'm trying— I, I have a call for season tickets this week.

Any bonus LeBron thoughts you want to give us? Because 45 seconds wasn't a lot of time for you.

Yeah, of course I would. You guys spend 10 minutes on Kevin Durant's obvious burner and the memes like, do you have the login info? Have you seen the IP addresses? Come on, bro. Yes, I would rather spend time talking about LeBron to the Sixers. Um, Mike Ryan's gonna lose that bet. All-Star at 50. We thought it was just gonna be hypothetical. Mike, keep going. I would— I have gotten one thing wrong in my LeBron commentary, which was I've been saying for the last 2 years, guys, it's— he is going to play 25 years.

He—

don't think about this year as his last year or next year's last year. He's gonna play 25 years. Addendum. At a minimum, the guy just loves the game, loves the game, and he's going to win another ring. It's—

and it's going to be—

it's an hour and 42-minute drive from my front door. Next.

I got to say, I mean, given that you found a referee's whistle, I really thought you'd be better at it. Like, I need some louder, louder whistle from you.

He can't— I hear it great. Okay, maybe it's your— maybe it's those headphones that I got, that I got in my first radio studio in 2003 that you're still wearing, that when you take them off, they leave the little black things on your ear.

Oh, I hate those.

You're like, wait, you're like, what happened here?

Am I—

and it's like, oh, these headphones.

My goddamn.

You said that Kevin Durant, uh, was fascinating. The most fascinating athlete going right now for Nick Wright is blank, and why?

Oh God, I, I don't— on-court fascinating, on-field fascinating. The, the most fascinating story is— I'm sorry, but it's true. Is Patrick Mahomes' ACL recovery and how the— how fast it was and how that impacts the season as a whole. As far as the most fascinating kind of person, I— come on guys, it's unnecessary. By the way, I've even in the short time since that picture was taken, a little bit of a glow up from your guy Nick. Little teeth whitening, the hair, I've really figured it out. Um, fuck, but um Probably Wimby. Nice jacket. Probably Wimby. Thank you.

And last question before we get you out of here. Top 5 television theme songs of all time.

Okay, I'm— can I— I'm not equipped for that. But when you said Kevin Durant, what I thought you were going to do, Dan, was I had called him the 17th greatest player. I thought you were going to say, who are the 16 ahead of him? Can you do that instead and see if I can do it in order off the top of my head?

We could, but it's not at all answering my question in any way. Why are you—

I don't know television theme songs, bro. I grew up listening to Ron Barr's Sports Overnight America. I didn't hear a Prince song till I was driving from Houston to LA when I was 30 years old, right after he passed. I have giant gaps of pop culture knowledge because I've spent my entire life practicing for this moment.

Get out of here! All right, go ahead. Oh, that's great!

I didn't even see the picture. I do look great.

Wow.

Go ahead, do the 16. You want to— you want to do the 16? Go ahead.

I don't want to get it wrong. In order, 1 through 17. And this is not just the last 50 years, this is all time. Let's see if Durant actually is 17. LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain. Take a breath. Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Steph Curry. Take a breath. Dr. J, Nikola Jokic, Moses Malone.

Did I do it?

Jerry West. And now we have a question. Oh, I gave a little thumbs up there. Is it Durant or is Isaiah Thomas? I don't know. Maybe he's 18.

What a hit. Thank you, Nick. He's the host of FS1's First Things First. What's Right with Nick Wright is the podcast he does with his son. You can get that. It's more available and it's more readily available on your internet streaming services than the more mainstream stuff he does on linear—

linear cable. Linear cable is still alive. Linear cable is not dead yet. Not dead yet, still alive. Throw it on, then watch a good Friends rerun. Did it yesterday, nice little night with the fam.

So you do watch— so that— there's a TV theme song that you had, but you wanted to do Kevin Durant top 10.

I don't know the theme song. I know the show. See ya, I gotta go.

See you later, goodbye. Uh, thank you, uh, I appreciate the applause for how well that segment went. Oh, you were doing the Friends theme song. Down Levitar! I do agree with Greg that— Why are you talking so slow? The Dolphins need to win this opener!

It's because you can hear yourself. It's kind of awkward.

What do you mean? Greg, do you have a Back in My Day? A what?

Greg Cody!

I stand behind Greg for not doing Back in My Days anymore. Y'all have him singing songs and doing so many ancillary things that it's ridiculous. Ridiculous, and you know it.

Talk faster.

Why are you talking so slow? I'm talking at my normal speed. This is, uh, yeah, my wife loves this deep, sexy voice, I'll tell you that. There you go.

How would you talk to her with it?

Yeah, baby. This is the Dan Levitar Show.

Biggest lie or most troubling thing that he said, that he watches Friends and he doesn't know the Friends theme song.

That's what he just said.

Yeah, or, or that he had never heard a Prince song until Prince died. I remember the day we were here And Dave Dameshek said he had never heard a Mariah Carey song. He couldn't name a single Mariah Carey song other than the Christmas one. And we were all like, how? How do you live in America and just not encounter that at all?

That's weird, right?

Very weird.

Well done. But for him to say he'd never heard of Prince— Greg Cody, I wouldn't have you in the school of, hey, a very avant-garde music listening type, right? You've got your stuff that you listen to. No, he's got his stuff that he listens to. Can you name a Prince song?

Sure. Purple Rain.

There you go.

Little Red Corvette.

There you go.

Yeah, big Prince fan.

He's actually a music guy though.

You kind of— my bad—

his credentials.

He did a, he did a collaboration with one of my all-time heroes, Mavis Staples of the Staples Singers.

You run her fan club, don't you?

I do. I do run her fan club on, uh, on X. I used to. They took it away from me. Right now all I have is, uh, my own Twitter feed and Carly Ostremsky.

They took it away from you?

Yeah, they took— Brendan Benson stole it from me. His people stole it from me. And Mavis Staple— I can't get— now I can't sign on.

I just forgot the password.

Well, you know, that kind of thing.

Well, was it stolen from you or did you just forget the password? Those are two very different things.

No, I— you know what, I tried to reactivate my— I reactivated my Karl Jastremski X Twitter site very easily. Worked like a charm, and it's now active and updated and running again. I tried to do the same with my Mavis Staples fan account, and I couldn't do it. I don't know why.

I want to ask the group here a question about how I'm supposed to feel about something done by our exceptional social media department, okay? Because I found myself getting mad yesterday, and I found myself getting mad and feeling a bit like Charles Barkley felt when he claimed to have been misquoted in his autobiography. Okay. It's our show and it's my show. And so when something goes out with my name on it, it's got my responsibility around it. And the people who run our social media account have figured out that any time that I'm talking about sports media in any way, it's something that pops a little bit. And so what they did to me yesterday is I see my face scroll across my YouTube channel in horror because it says in front of my face ESPN is dead. And I'm like, I've not said that. I've not said that in private. I've not said that in public. Why is it just my face on ESPN is dead with a question mark? Yeah, with a, with a question mark.

Then it's okay. Well, that's not—

but that's not— it's okay. See, you could say anything, Dan, as long as we put a question mark at the end because we ask the question and then the answer is no, and that's fine. But ESPN dead is how you should have worded it. Your tone was all the way off. You said ESPN dead in my face. No, no, they said ESPN dead.

I didn't say either one.

Well, we're asking the question. Well, clearly you did.

No, no, I was—

no, it's your channel.

Why'd you say that?

Would you ask that?

Why would you put that up there?

Would you ask that up there?

Who would you fire? Well, a lot of unanswered questions.

Another question.

Would you— I did not say that, and I want it taken down.

Wow.

I can take it down.

What do you mean?

I didn't say—

It's doing numbies.

No, but here— No, but I— No, I don't—

Take one for the team.

You want to give up numbies? Yes. Yes.

No.

Yes. You don't give up numbies. That's too far. No, no, no, no, no.

That's too far. We've had a lot of meetings about not giving up numbies.

No, I want— No, I want to give up these numbers. I want it taken down. I don't want that on my face. Here's the thing that keeps happening, okay? The way things get aggregated today and the way that people consume things in just snippets, it looks and sounds to people like I am both not supporting in any way Pat McAfee, against Pat McAfee, and anytime I talk about ESPN, even though while I was there I was a self-appointed ombudsman who annoyed everybody with my criticisms while I was there, doing so, talking about ESPN, which does do numbers, when I do it having left ESPN, it always gets interpreted as bitterness because I can be critical. And being critical after you've left is different than being critical while you're there. Now, I was more critical when I was there because I'm aware and have an antenna up for how it is that this stuff gets received, but it gets aggregated so much more now and so differently that I don't want my name on ESPN is dead because I'm not thinking that publicly or privately. That's not, that's not right. They, whether they're diminished or not, they are still the American leader in sports.

I don't know worldwide, I don't know if they've ever been the worldwide leader in sports, but they still are the American leader in sports coverage. And I just don't want my name on what seems like ESPN hatred when it's not what I feel.

Well, It's not ESPN hatred. It's a question about ESPN.

Question. And Dan, 10 times the numbies. We're looking at— we're looking at yesterday's—

times the numbies.

10 times the numbies. 10 times the numbies.

It's good you said that.

Take it down.

Okay, I'll tell them to take it down.

Take it down. Whoever's in charge of it, take it down. Or, you know what? You don't have to take it down. Just don't put ESPN is dead in the front of it. Put something else there.

They didn't put that. They put ESPN is Dead?

Can we keep McAfee and Rodgers' faces though?

But I love ESPN.

Actually, do that. Cross out— do that. Do—

may contain errors instead.

No, no, I love— make it I will always love ESPN instead of ESPN.

Why don't we just name this episode that and see what the numbies do? That's all.

I'll do that.

I'll do that on the podcast.

Yeah, do it for science. I don't like the way that our social media team is jerry-rigging the numbers. I want the number to say numbies on fun. I want— put it on the poll at Levitar Show: douche or no douche? Guy who says numbies instead of numbers. You're in a big hurry, are you? You can't say the hard R. Oh!

Whoa! Hey!

Come on now.

Same number of syllables.

Can I bring us back to what we were talking about earlier?

No.

Oh, come on. We were talking best reality shows ever. We left one out. Cops.

Bad boys!

We also left out the TV theme songs one.

Is that the original? That's an early reality show. Cops.

The original— I think of Real World as the original reality show. Do I have it wrong? Cops was before Real World. Cops before that? So is Cops the original television show? Cops is problematic for a lot of different reasons. I was telling you guys yesterday, having watched some of these documentaries on on, for example, it's not just Jerry Springer, but it's, uh, that, that show America's Biggest Loser, and, and as well a documentary done on To Catch a Predator, which I think most of us would say To Catch a Predator, that's a good public service, but Chris Hansen has reasons to feel, uh, a little bit bad about what happened to the people working on those shows because of the, uh, subject matter and the difficulty of televising something like catching, uh, you know, people who are pedophiles.

Candid Camera.

Okay, but wait a minute, that's a prank show. That's the first one. That's not a real— no, that's not a reality show. Candid— put her on the poll at Le Batard Show. Is Candid Camera, uh, a reality show? We're in the Greg Cody wheelhouse right now. Put it on the poll as well. Have you ever heard of Candid Camera?

Hell yes. Well, Alan Funt.

That's a great name.

It is a great name.

Funt.

Funt. It's not F-U-N-T, it's F-U-N-D-T. See if you guys do me a favor as we continue to skew older and older on Greg Cody Days.

Actually, I don't think there is a D in there. Uh, no, I think it's F-U-N-T.

I thought it was, uh, D-T. We will find out together. Do me a favor, video team, please get the Burt Sugar photo I was asking for during the Nick Wright interview because—

yeah, no D, no D on them.

Yeah, uh, well done, Greg Cody.

You're welcome.

And get me a photo as well as of Alan Font, which I don't believe you'll be able to find in color.

No, it's not the color.

We don't, we don't make Burt Sugars anymore, right? Like, or do we do it and just not recognize it? Who's the Burt Sugar of the modern sports media? Guy with a lot of personality comes in, always has the hat, got the cigar and asking the question. Remember, Burt Sugar was in Great White Hype along with Tim Kawakami.

Put it on the poll at @LebatardShow. Are we still making Burt Sugars? Because it's a great question. By Amin. So this is an old-timey boxing writer. He wore the old kind of press hat and also was always wandering around with an unlit cigar, uh, which is a real showpiece.

It's a great look.

Was he chewing on it? Like, a lot of people chew on it.

He's a showman.

You're the closest one to that that we have in the media.

Just a cigar smoker.

Yeah, but halfway there.

Dan's birthed lots of sugar, consumes a lot of sugar.

Look at this guy. I don't know how much he's burned. Dad, do you remember the reality show An American Family in the '70s?

I don't.

It's claiming to be the first one that like just followed a family around, because the one you guys were talking about before was more of like a, like a prank show, and this one was really just a following of— in the '70s called An American Family.

It sounds like the premise of 1440. Okay, uh, the story of an American home, which follows one house and all of the families that parade in and out of it. Oh boy.

I found the, uh, first reality show. It was called Familienkraken in Eiben mit Hans und Geli, and it was Nazi propaganda.

Ah, shit.

What was the show about?

Who starred in it?

Stage show in which a young couple acted as model Aryans and presented everyday lives without a script to the camera. Even though it was clearly Nazi propaganda and the episodes were affected by censorship, in recent years the show has been presented more frequently as the oldest reality TV show in the world. Minor penalty, 2 minutes. Dumpster juice takes.

You're gonna have to leave, Jeremy. I don't have one here that says bringing up Nazi propaganda.

Just be careful.

That's what I'd be hitting.

Wow, what are you doing?

Dan, you don't want to see the thumbnail for this hour because Dan kicks out the Jew for bringing up Nazis.

All right.

Out.

Oh boy.

All right.

I thought you were gonna say ouch. No.

The ultimate, or the first of the reality shows cannot be a German one. I'm doing American pop culture show. I'm not looking for the internet, uh, answer to my question. What is making it into the mainstream before Cops? Uh, what, what year did Cops debut?

'89.

And Real World was '92.

So what would be before Cops on a reality television show? Reality TV, obviously famously cheap. When television wants to go cheap, it goes reality shows and game shows. Those are always cheaper programming than, than most. Would you guys off of the top of your head think that there's anything before Cops? Or do you think— also put this on the poll as well, @LebatardShow— is Cops the first reality show that you remember, yes or no? Because I don't have another one. Go ahead and put up Alan Funt there on the screen as well. So what I expect you can enjoy— is that Alan Funt? I think that's a younger Alan Funt.

That's younger.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Like the old time TV shows. He's 29.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's like, yeah, it's like Bill Snyder. Bill Snyder as a young man, as a boy coach, was still someone who looked like he was 74 years old. That's the way He stayed looking so young is he started incredibly old.