Jemele Hill taking buyout from ESPN, sources say

Written By Michael McCarthy
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Jemele Hill is out at ESPN, sources told Sporting News on Saturday night.

The former "SportsCenter" anchor will accept a buyout of the remainder of her contract with the network, said sources. Hill's deal with ESPN still has at least two years to run and she stands to walk away with millions of dollars from ESPN parent Disney while she pursues other career opportunities, sources said.

MORE: New ESPN prez Pitaro wants 'fair, balanced' news, not politics

ESPN declined to comment. Hill's agent could not be reached for comment.

Hill sparked a media firestrom last September when she tweeted that President Donald Trump was a "white supremacist" who had surrounded himself with other white supremacists in the White House.

Hill never backed down from those comments.

Trump tweeted back that ESPN's "tanking" ratings were the "talk of the industry." The White House called her comments a fireable offense.

But Hill was not suspended for the Trump comment. A few weeks later, ESPN did suspended Hill for two weeks. But that was after she suggested fans boycott sponsors of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones over his stance that players should stand for the national anthem.

Since then, the president has taken numerous potshots at ESPN. This week, he supported a petition urging the "spineless" network to show the national anthem during "Monday Night Football," although TV networks airing NFL games traditionally don't show the anthem during the regular season.

MORE: ESPN not planning to air anthem before 'MNF' games

The Trump vs. Hill back-and-forth brought to a head the long-running debate over whether a liberal-leaning ESPN was more interested in politics than sports.

Hill's supporters inside and outside ESPN saluted her as a fearless journalist and truthteller. Conservatives said Hill should have been fired for labeling the president a bigot. They argued that conservative ESPN personalities such as Curt Schilling, Mike Ditka and Britt McHenry had been dropped for far lesser offenses.

In February 2017, Hill was elevated to co-anchor of the 6 p.m. "SportsCenter" with Michael Smith, her partner on ESPN's "His & Hers." The two lasted less than a year on the "The Six," the new name for their "SportsCenter" edition. Hill moved to ESPN's The Undefeated site, where she continued to write and tweet about politics. 

New ESPN Jimmy Pitaro wants his often opinionated talents to stop talking about politics. So it seemed inevitable that Hill would hit the road sooner rather than later.

The failure of "The Six" after an expensive monthslong promotional campaign was embarrassing for all sides. ESPN publicly bragged that ratings for the 6 p.m. "SportsCenter" rose after Hill and Smith were replaced by Sage Steele and Kevin Negandhi. 

Hill is the second high-profile ESPN talent in as many days to be involved in a major personnel move. On Friday, ESPN shook up the floundering New York-based "Get Up!" morning show by dumping Michelle Beadle from the cast. Beadle will focus on covering the NBA from Los Angeles.

On Wednesday, Beadle said she "disliked" Patriots quarterback Tom Brady because he had a red Trump "Make America Great Again" hat in his locker three years ago.

"I do dislike Tom Brady though. I think he's a classic example of someone who’s not really willing to take a stand on anything. I’m not going off the sports thing, but he did in fact have a red ‘Make America Great Again' hat in his locker. Then wanted to be coy about it when asked, because he realized that all of a sudden the firing squad was going to get real heated and he wouldn’t answer any questions. I don’t have a lot of respect for grownups who can't face the fire. Especially when they put themselves in said fire. So for me it has nothing to do with football why I don’t like the Patriots. It’s basically everything off the field.”

Beadle also said she will not watch NFL and college football games for a second consecutive season because the football industry has demonstrated it doesn't care about women or people of color.