Around the Horn

A pathetic attempt to be "in your face" and repeat the success of the far superior Pardon the Interruption, also on ESPN. Max Kellerman, quite possibly the single most annoying host of any show this side of Ryan Seacrest, does his level best to show that the special education programs in this country have him as a success model.

The basic premise of the show, is to have Kellerman score the comments of various newspaper writers from around the country. The more outrageous and annoying, the higher Max scores them. One thing you will learn from watching this show is the reason none of these guys went into television. Some of the ugliest, most poorly spoken humans to ever live on the planet are presented here. It is amazing how these college educated, men (mostly) can be completely devoid of any speaking skills.

It was being on shows like this, that pretty much cost the once great Boston Globe reporter, Bob Ryan any credibility. He got so used to trying to be as obnoxious and stupid as possible, that he made degrading and idiotic comments about a basketball players wife. Mr. Ryan forgot to restart his brain after working on this show.

Around the Horn got some of the worst reviews ever when it first premiered, all of them deserved. ESPN ignored the pleas to remove this abomination, apparently because the ratings were pretty good. What I figure is the show is on late enough in the afternoon that the mouth breathing troglodytes with Neilson boxes are too drunk to bother changing the channel.

Avoid this crap. Dont reward the dumbing down of America by watching this show.

Around the Horn is hilarious. The host does a great job humiliating everyone with the "mute" and a point deduction. It's a comical but informative show. You don't get as much information as if you watched Sportscenter, but it still does a good job and makes me laugh.

I like it better than Pardon the Interruption because it doesn't sound nearly as scripted as PTI does. At least sometimes the "experts" agree on topics on Around the Horn. PTI is just 2 guys showing both sides of all the biggest stories.

Good show to tune in to and get the sports news and some laughs after a day of work.

Around the Horn is a pretty good show on espn. It pits four newspaper writers to try to get as many points as they can by giving good comments about the subject. Bad comments mean they lose points. Good concept but I would rather watch four reporters stay for the whole show, but on this show they get voted off if they don't have enough points. This I don't like. I want to hear their opinions for the whole show. Other than that it's not that bad. The reporters all have their different views and express them different ways. Some are calm and collective and some are yellers and screamers. Another problem I have with this show is that they talk about the same things as Pardon the Interruption does. I would rather watch PTI so when I happen to flip over to Around the Horn I'm spoiled with the headlines.

So in conclusion it's a good show but PTI is still much better

This sports panel-talk show started to go down the tubes when host Max Kellerman left several years ago. His replacement, Tony Reali, is annoying, obnoxious, and irritating. (Other than that, he's all right!)

Everyone has panelists they either like or dislike. I like Kevin Blackistone and usually Tim Cowlishaw (both Texas guys, oddly) and Jackie MacMullen, from Boston. I used to like Michael Holley, but he left awhile ago after Kellerman left. The worst I've seen are Michael Smith and Bill Plaschke. The guys who are always there but are almost cartoon figures, not to be taken seriously, are Woody Paige and Jay Mariotti.

These last two, along with many of the others, have made so many stupid statements and totally wrong predictions the last two years that the show has lost all credibility.

Add to that a host who thinks he's God's gift to TV and Tony Soprano rolled-into- one, and you have a sports talk show that used to be a lot of fun but now is just a sad joke.

Folks, don't take anything seriously on this show. The winners, of course, are determined beforehand and it's really meant to be nothing much more than a half-hour comedy show.

As with almost all of the ESPN TV talk shows, the subject matter also is way out of balance. If ESPN covers the sport or it's politically-correct, the sport or league will get tons of coverage. If the network (including its owner ABC) doesn't cover something, like hockey, the NHL is will be totally ignored while the NBA will be discussed for 20 of the 30 minutes. It's pathetic.

Bring back Max and a new producer who will give all sports fair representation.

This show is probably the best sports show on television. When you get tired of the repetitive Linda Cohn or John Andersen commentary on SportsCenter, or you don't like all of the shouting involved with "Pardon the Interruption," you may want to give this show a shot.

Woody Paige is very funny and has some great banter with Jay Mariotti, Michael Smith, Tim Cowlishaw, and the like. The guys who return day after day are some of the best debaters on television and are very amusing. Even the ones, like Bob Ryan or J.A. Adande, who pop up every once in a while are amusing. The obscure ones like Adam Schefter or Mark Kiszla are not that entertaining, but thankfully, they rarely come up.

Max Keller was borderline annoying, but he is no longer on the show. Although I miss the "Disembodied Voice," the Tony Reali era is more entertaining than the previous one. All in all, this is a very entertaining show. It can hold my attention better than "PTI" because of the scoring, and it is less repetitive than the same old commentary on SportsCenter's top plays. This show is so fast-paced and interesting that, once you become a fan, you find it irresistibly funny and hard to turn away.