HBO Cancels Major Sports Show

HBO is ending a popular sports show. According to OutKick, Game Theory with Bomani Jones has been canceled by the network after being on air for two seasons. The show debuted in 2022, and OutKick says each season lost on average over 80 percent lead-in viewership. The show aired after Last Week Tonight with John Oliver during the first season and then followed Real Time with Bill Maher for the second season. TNT, HBO’s sister station, re-aired episodes of the second season the following week ahead of its NBA doubleheader. 

As the official synopsis states, Game Theory “discusses timely issues that transcend the world of sports.” The Season 2 finale premiered on March 31 and featured Jones interviewing hip-hop artist Cam’ron. Some of the other guests to appear on Game Theory are FS1 host Nick Wright, sports journalist Taylor Rooks and former NFL cornerback and ESPN contributor Dominique Foxworth. 

Jones, 42, is a host and commentator at ESPN. He hosted a daily show on ESPN called High Noon with Pablo Torre from 2018 to 2020 and hosted a radio show called The Right Time with Bomani Jones starting in 2015. Jones was also a co-host on Highly Questionable from 2013 to 2017 and has been a contributor to ESPN as a writer and commentator since 2004. 

Earlier this year, Jones talked to GQ about the areas he wanted Game Theory to improve on during Season 2. “Oh, we wanted to improve upon everything, if we’re being honest,” Jones revealed. “I don’t think there’s anything that we did in season one that did not work. But I also didn’t think there was anything in season one that could not be better. The biggest thing is that I wanted it to feel more natural and more like me. The version of me that’s going off the top of my head is the best version of me, but that’s not possible on television.”

Jones also talked about Game Theory airing on Friday nights for Season 2 instead of Sundays for Season 1. “I wanted it. Because if we kept doing the show on Sunday, we could never air during football season,” Jones explained. “You can’t talk about the games of the day because they haven’t happened yet. You can’t talk about the games last week because they’re too old. And you can’t talk about the games next week because they’re too far away.”