Bill Simmons will start the next chapter of his career at HBO with a multi-platform deal that will see him present a talk show as well as produce video podcasts and features.
“We have been fans of Bill Simmons and his work for a very long time,” said Michael Lombardo, HBO’s president of programming. “His intelligence, talent and insights are without precedent in the areas he covers. We could not be more thrilled for him to bring those talents to HBO and to become a signature voice at the network, spanning the sports and pop culture landscapes.”
Simmons’s current deal with ESPN officially ends when his contract expires in September but he has been on hiatus since the move was announced earlier this year. During his time at ESPN, Simmons was behind such wildly successful projects as the 30 for 30 documentary film series, the B.S. Report podcast and the long-form sports and pop-culture website Grantland.com.
Simmons said HBO was a logical home. “It’s no secret that HBO is the single best place for creative people in the entire media landscape,” Simmons said. “From the moment I started talking to Michael and Richard [Plepler, HBO chairman and CEO], it was hard to imagine being anywhere else.”
In a statement, HBO suggested Simmons’ show would concentrate on the mix of sports and culture that has made him famous. HBO said the show will be “topical and spontaneous [and] will feature stories and guests from across the sports and cultural landscapes.”
