NESN – After much speculation, CBS Sports announced Tuesday that they’ll be debuting the first-ever all-female national sports show. “We Need To Talk” will be hosted, produced, and directed by women. Lesley Visser, Amy Trask, Tracy Wolfson, Dana Jacobson and Allie LaForce will host the show, which premieres Tuesday, Sept. 30 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network. “From the moment news of the show spread, the reaction we’ve received has been nothing short of amazing,” CBS Sports president David Berson said in a news release.
“We’ve been inundated with notes from women across the industry requesting to join the extraordinary women at CBS Sports to create a fun, unique and informative show for all sports fans.” “We Need To Talk” also will feature star contributors, including WNBA champions Lisa Leslie and Swin Cash, Olympic medal-winning swimmers Dara Torres and Summer Sanders and NFL Network’s Andrea Kremer.
“This show is intended for all sports fans, men, women everyone,” Berson told For The Win. “The gist of this show, it’s really a sports talk show that features women. It’s not intended to be a women’s sports TV show. And will we discuss social issues and women’s issues? Certainly when warranted, but that’s not the sole focus on the show.”
So we need to talk about “We Need To Talk” because I am giving this show about a 2 month run. It’s not through lack of effort or me being a tremendous sexist, I swear I’m not but that Coffee Talk picture had to be put up there. It’s the crux of any argument involving chicks women in and around male sports. It’s not through lack of effort or lack of credibility, women have been involved in reporting in on sports for many years and for the most part, be it a Katie Nolan, a Michelle Beadle, a Jamie Erdahl, this list goes on with current, up to date women who care about sports and know what they are talking about. More importantly, these are opinions of women who are both credible and that I respect.
Yet, for every one of these up to date female journalists (“We Need To Talk’s” Allie LaForce is one of them), you get 10x as many Erin Andrews types who both men and women can’t stand and are only up there for one thing only. I don’t need to say it. But in a male dominated arena such as professional sports, you can’t put female Ray Ratto’s up there, everyone knows that:
And I’m a pretty forward thinking guy. I mean, if a weekly UFC segment came on “We Need To Talk” and Rhonda Rousey comes on, I’m in. Laila Ali for boxing? In. Paula Kremer for golf? Sure thing. But at a certain point I’m going to turn on NFL Live to hear what Tedy Bruschi has to say about a certain defensive scheme or Herm Edwards about dealing with draft issues. Same goes for every other major 4 sport. Why would I go to “We Need To Talk,” a sports show that just happens to be all women, to hear about inner locker room stuff from someone who has not been on or apart from the team?
Most of all, aside from all the guys in the midwest and south that will not tune in, women hate other women. It’s a fact of life, they love tearing each other down and in the end women (in my XY chromosome opinion) won’t tune in because they don’t want a show about stuff they might not know much about catered to them. Facts of life.
I wish them all the best, but this feels like throwing a lot of shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. If it was me, I’d love a show with a Katie Nolan, Charissa Thompson or Michelle Beadle in a PTI format because they’re hip, funny and can connect with an audience. Hell throw Jackie Mac in there, she’s a long timer who knows her stuff.
But since that isn’t happening and we instead have the horribly titled “We Need To Talk,” which sounds like the title of a pamphlet about having your period, all we’ll be waiting for is one of these moments before the show is cancelled:
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