For some on the internet, the death of Grantland was devastating. Poor Bill Simmons, where would he go! Well, the answer, as quickly became apparent, was HBO, where he signed a deal for a talk show. This was before the announcement of The Ringer, a kind of Grantland 2.0 that now exists as a newsletter but will later exist as an actual website. Anyway, that HBO show, which was recently a giant question mark, now has a title, and a release date, and, one would hope, a suitable premise.
The show will be called Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons, and will premiere at 10 p.m. on June 22. It will not, as the title implies, be exclusively about sports, as Deadline reports. “It will touch on everything from sports and entertainment to arts and technology. It will feature guests, field segments and ‘Simmons’ signature commentary on current events.'” So, then, it will be kind of like a different Bill’s HBO show, only without the politics?
Simmons added, “I’m excited about the show, I’m excited about the title and I’m really, really excited to drop my first F-bomb on TV. We are going to figure out nudity down the road, as long as it’s tasteful.” Keep it tasty, Bill! The first season will have 20 30-minute episodes.
Simmons’ deal with HBO has ties to the development to his new website, as well as to the new post-Game of Thrones talk show, After the Thrones, which features writers Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald. You can watch that below, because June is a long way away.