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Sarah Spain Blames 1 Word On Popular ESPN Show Getting Canceled

Originally posted on The Spun | By Tzvi Machlin | Last updated May 21, 2025 12:19 PM ET

As we inch closer and closer to the end of ESPN's longtime afternoon show Around The Horn, people are scratching their heads trying to figure out what went wrong. ESPN's Sarah Spain believes that the fall of ATH could come down to fear of one word.

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Spain was one of many people who was left stunned by Around The Horn's impending cancellation. She lamented that the show's removal will remove a lot of the "progressive voices and people of color" that get a spotlight on ESPN.

Spain mused that ESPN could be doing so intentionally and wonders if the network is afraid of being called "woke."

“It confounds me that they are canceling it,” Spain said. “The format allows for a continuous stream of new people, to highlight reporters on your network. I’m admittedly biased, but this is progressive voices and people of color you’re taking off TV. I don’t know for sure that’s their intention, but are you so scared of getting called ‘woke’?”

Sarah Spain questions if ESPN canceled ‘Around the Horn’ because it was scared of being called ‘woke’ https://t.co/IwSaoLmWQM
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 21, 2025

Spain is hardly the first person to suggest this though. Months ago former ATH contributor Jay Mariotti made the exact same suggestion when talking about the show's decline.

"Too woke is correct," Mariotti told Front Office Sports in March. "We went through a difficult time in this country. I did, too, and you did, too. But if there’s one reason why we’re turning on ESPN from 2010 to 2020, in that general range, we’re still looking at sports. Stephen A. [Smith] delves into all sorts of things. He’s even talking about running for president. Well, good for him. The point being, that when you’re turning it on, and he’s on with his partner, they’re going to delve into LeBron [James] playing with Luka [Dončić], they’re going to get into [Jimmy] Butler playing with [Steph] Curry, they’re going to talk about Oklahoma City, they’re going to get into that… Back then I honest to god don’t know what they were getting into half the time."

Indeed, many fans have been openly applauding ESPN's decision to cancel the show specifically because they have deemed the show "woke."

They might all be onto something whether you like that kind of content or not.

Any show that people perceive as "woke" these days will almost always be publicly ridiculed and ESPN's situation right now may not be healthy enough to endure so much vitriol.

Do you agree with Sarah Spain?

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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