Emmy-winning football analyst Ryan Clark and longtime baseball commentator Karl Ravech are among eight on-air personalities who have been laid off at ESPN, The Athletic reports. The news comes amid a wave of company-wide layoffs at parent company Disney.
Also leaving the cable sports giant are “SportsCenter” anchor David Lloyd, NFL commentators and former players Cam Newton and Bart Scott, and injury expert Stephania Bell. NFL Network analyst Charles Davis and insider Tom Pelissero were also let go, in the wake of ESPN formally acquiring the NFL Network in January.
Clark’s exit was first reported by The Athletic on Monday, and it was an awkward one: Clark was actually appearing as one of the commentators on ESPN’s daily football news show “NFL Live” when he was told he was being let go. (Executives reportedly feared that news of his exit would leak before they could inform him in person.) He left midway through the show and did not return.
Clark — a former NFL player who won a Super Bowl as a member of the 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers — was one of the most prominent voices on ESPN’s NFL coverage, regularly appearing on “NFL Live” as well as the network’s Monday Night Football broadcasts and sports talk shows like “First Take.” He won an Sports Emmy in 2023 for best personality/studio analyst. Clark first joined ESPN in 2015 and signed a new contract with the network in 2024, reportedly for more than $2 million per year.
Karl Ravech was a familiar face to sports fans
Karl Ravech was one of the longest-tenured on-air personalities at ESPN, joining the network back in 1993 and serving as one of the anchors on the nightly highlights show “SportsCenter.” Ravech specialized in baseball, appearing on “Baseball Tonight” and doing play-by-play commentary on the network’s Sunday Night Baseball coverage. He also was a staple of ESPN’s annual coverage of the Little League World Series, as well as covering golf and college basketball.
ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro addressed the layoffs in a memo to staff obtained by The Hollywood Reporter: “Over the past several months, we’ve made significant progress integrating the NFL assets that we acquired into ESPN. Throughout this process, we have taken the time to carefully evaluate our collective teams, resources and organizational structure to best position us for the future. As a result, we had to make some difficult decisions about job impacts that we will be communicating today. While most of the job impacts are tied to the acquisition, we will also notify colleagues in other parts of the company today that their positions have been impacted. We are committed to treating employees with compassion and respect and to providing support as they navigate this transition.”
Which ESPN on-air personality will you miss most? Let us know in a comment below.
