Andrew Marchand

Andrew Marchand

Media

The inside story of Michelle Beadle’s exit from ESPN’s ‘Get Up!’

Michelle Beadle never really wanted to do “Get Up!” — ESPN’s morning talk show that so far has been an epic failure.

Former ESPN President John Skipper kept offering Beadle the job to team with Mike Greenberg, and Beadle kept saying no, according to sources. But Skipper continued to up the ante until, at $5 million a year, Beadle couldn’t say no anymore.

Now, five months into the show, Beadle is done at “Get Up!” The network Friday evening announced a shuffle that gives Beadle a nice NBA landing spot and a couple of more years on her deal.

The pairing of Beadle with Greenberg was one of Skipper’s final gifts during his largely regrettable tenure at the network. But anyone who knows anything about Greenberg or Beadle knew it wouldn’t work. They are too different in so many ways. They did not look like they enjoyed being on set together — and it was even less enjoyable to most viewers.

The bottom line, though, is that if Beadle and Greenberg had clicked, this would not be happening.

As it turns out, someone who plans on boycotting watching the NFL and college football — as Beadle announced Thursday she would do — really shouldn’t host a sports talk show that will pretty much be devoted to football in the fall.

Despite Skipper deciding to pay Greenberg, Beadle and former “Fab Fiver” Jalen Rose a combined $14.5 million in yearly salaries to host “Get Up!” the program was never set up properly for this time of year.

Now, Greenberg will fully pilot the show, with Rose hanging on to his seat, at this point. The program will drop from three hours to two and start later, at 8 a.m., making way for “SportsCenter” at 7.

“Get Up!” will also resemble “SportsCenter’ a little more, with Greenberg the clear leader of a program that will have more highlights and scores to go along with analysis.

On Thursday, when Beadle made her comments about not watching football in light of the tone-deafness from suspended Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, the show was at its best, driving a topic without the usual gimmicks that have helped make it a failure so far. Greenberg was the point guard.

ESPN is not replacing Beadle full time. Maria Taylor, Laura Rutledge, Dianna Russini and Jen Lada are all slated to get shots next to Greenberg and Rose.

ESPN, from the inside, is selling the move as more about Beadle moving from New York back to L.A. to amp up the network’s NBA coverage. They also say how “SportsCenter” is again gaining traction and talk up the pluses of adding another hour.

ESPN is trying to double- and triple-down on the NBA, with Beadle the lead host. With a crew of Rose, Chauncey Billups and Paul Pierce, Beadle will host a program called “After the Buzzer” following ESPN NBA games. It is a smart shoulder-programming move to keep the game audience on ESPN longer. It will be cleaner instead of trying to incorporate the NBA show into late night “SportsCenter.’’

“SportsCenter’’ is a little resurgent right now. Ratings are up across the board, earning it the 7 a.m. hour again on main ESPN instead of ESPN2. Under the new leadership of president Jimmy Pitaro, the network wants to infuse that brand instead of discarding it, as Skipper largely did.