AthleticsThe inaugural “Golden Clickers” are designed to highlight the good, the bad and the monumental of 2024 in sports media.
So, without further ado, the first envelope please…
Golden Clicker Sports Media Personality of the Year
Caitlin Clark
There’s a lot of debate about Clark in this age of social media-fueled division. She increased the television popularity of NCAA and WNBA women’s hoops to new heights. As Michael Mulvihill, Fox’s president of insights and analytics, told The Athletic: “There’s Jordan, Tiger and Caitlin.”
She had a generational sports media impact. Two record-breaking data points stand out:
Women’s college basketball: Clark’s appearance at the 2024 women’s college basketball national championship game drew the largest television audience in women’s college basketball history. More than 4 million viewers watched the men’s championship game with 18.9 million viewers – a first in the history of sports television.
WNBA: Clark’s arrival in the WNBA coincided with the league’s biggest television audiences in 2024: a league-record 23 regular-season games topped 1 million viewers, 19 of which featured Clark. According to Nielsen, Clark’s games averaged 1.19 million viewers – WNBA games without Clark averaged 394,000. Competing head-to-head with the NFL on a Sunday afternoon with a WNBA playoff game, Clark’s Indiana fever attracted 1.84 million viewers.
With this, after all his achievements and accolades, Clark now achieves the highest achievement in all sports, a Golden Clicker of Athletics.
Golden Clicker Deal Maker of the Year
Adam Silver, NBA commissioner
THE NBA negotiates $76 billion in 11-year TV deals with ESPN and newcomers Amazon Prime Video and NBC/Peacock were the culmination of years of planning. Silver was able to get more money ($2.45 billion per year) from NBC/Peacock per year than NBC currently pays for the NFL ($2 billion). NBC’s deal with the NFL includes Super Bowls, while its contract with the NBA has no Finals and only six conference finals. Meanwhile, ESPN’s $2.6 billion per season contract is just a bit less than the $2.7 billion it pays per year for the NFL. Additionally, Amazon costs $1.8 billion per season, compared to the $1 billion it pays the NFL.
Besides the money, the structure of the deal is better, as there will be more exposure on network television with ABC and NBC, while still resulting in – so far – the most powerful non-traditional sports streamer from Amazon.
Although TNT Sports has had an incredible run and, in combination with Max, could prove to be big, if you were to rank all four platforms (ESPN/ABC, NBC/Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, TNT) for the future, TNT would be at the back of the line. Add it all up and Silver wins sports media’s equivalent of the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Golden Clicker “Gold Medal” Award
Stephen A. Smith, ESPN
Smith wins this title because he is about to collect the most gold ever for a non-former athlete sportscaster. He is I’m going to soon become a 20 million dollar a year manwhich is frankly crazy. But Smith did it by working hard, being omnipresent and developing a style that was loved and hated. Ultimately, he gets paid for the eyes he brings to his main program, “First Take.” It guarantees that it will be the center of sports media in the 2030s.
Golden Clicker “Dreaded Glitch” Prize
Tony Romo
In honor of legendary USA Today sports media columnist Rudy Martzke, who died this year and whose “Dreaded Glitch” portion of his weekly Monday sports media column caused a stir among television executives, we are awarding this award to CBS’ lead NFL game analyst. .
The end of the Super Bowl was one of the worst performances in sports broadcasting history. THE Chefs had just won the big game, and Romo couldn’t stop talking about Andy Reid’s decision. He and Jim Nantz’s lack of fundamentals showed up at the worst time. They’ve been working on it this season, resulting in a more sober broadcast that could prevent this type of mistake from happening again.
Golden Clicker “Microscope” Award
Tom Brady
Brady is the winner of this one because, well, he is Tom Brady. His Fox debut as a $375 million NFL TV game analyst will always be be a milestone in media history. He improved as the season progressed. Ultimately, he will be judged on his performance on February’s Super Sunday, when he and Kevin Burkhardt will be on the call from New Orleans.
Golden Clicker “Free Fall” Prize
Robert Griffin
The fall of RG3 at ESPN was incredible. Just three years ago, I reported that his auditions for Fox and ESPN were considered perhaps the best of all time. Both wanted it. ESPN won. It started to rave reviews. He was featured on the “Monday Night Football” pregame show. He was considered for the No. 2 college football game analyst position. Then he left, goodbye. It was a simply incredible rise and fall.
Golden Clicker ‘Next Level’ Price
Ian Eagle
Eagle became the ultimate basketball player. Although Eagle probably deserved this title after Marv Albert retired, he now has the assignments to back him up. He took over for Nantz in men’s college basketball’s Final Four, and CBS’ coverage improved. Eagle is expected to become Amazon Prime Video’s #1 play-by-player in the NBA. (Notably, Eagle was also hired as play-by-play announcer for one of Netflix’s two Christmas Day NFL games.) Besides his accurate, enthusiastic and often humorous calls, what sets Eagle apart is the rare quality of actually making his analysts better.
Golden Clicker “Flip-Flopper” Price
Charles Barkley
Barkley is the greatest television studio analyst of all time, but he has done an about-face on his future in NBA TV analysis. He once considered testing free agency he was going to retire. Then he came back with TNT. Finally, ESPN/TNT announced that the iconic “Inside The NBA” would continue on ABC/ESPN. But Barkley then said he still wanted to hear what Amazon and NBC had to say, even though he had seven years left on his current deal, which he said is worth $21 million a year. Is there a final about-face to be made? Two? Three?
Charles Barkley’s future on television is an open question after TNT lost its rights to the NBA in 2024. (Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
Golden Clicker “Merry-Go” Prize
ESPN, best NBA broadcast team
ESPN’s Best NBA Broadcast Team is constantly evolving since the network dropped Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson in the summer of 2023. While Mike Breen remains the play-by-play mainstay, the network has brought in Doc Rivers and JJ Redick to partner with Doris Burke as lead analysts. Rivers left to coach the Milwaukee Bucksthen his replacement Redick left to coach the Los Angeles Lakers. Now Richard Jefferson may be on deck, but it could be a simple one-year replacement before a new group with holdovers. This caused Breen to quickly make his partners moan.
Golden Clicker “On The Way Up” Award
Laura Rutledge
ESPN’s Rutledge has the Bristol DNA that propelled the network to its heights. She works, then works again. She hosts “NFL Live” daily, “SEC Nation” on Saturdays, and then is on the sidelines for many “Monday Night Football” and top college football games.
Golden Clicker Lifetime Achievement Award
Adrien Wojnarowski
The sports media shock of the year was the ultimate “Woj bomb!” ” as Wojnarowski added to his legendary insider career by announcing his retirement at age 55 to become general manager of the men’s basketball team at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure. While there were some hints in hindsight, it was a complete surprise that Woj walked away from the insider games of the NBA.
There are others who have done it at a high level, but Woj, in his heyday at Yahoo Sports!, writing biting columns and breaking almost every story against then-rival ESPN, was the top of the company. ESPN finally had enough and recruited him to his hometown of Bristol, where the network ultimately paid him $7.3 million a year to be available 24/7.
Combined with a prostate cancer diagnosis, revealed in a Sports Illustrated article a few months later, and the constant barrage of texts and news-gathering, Woj felt like it was time to put down his phone.