ESPN star Stephen A. Smith and Leisure Tonight co-host Kevin Frazier are taking a private bond as associates for 30-plus years and making it skilled.
Smith has tapped his pal for a “strategic partnership” at his Straight Shooter Media, in a transfer designed to assist the previous “broaden and elevate” the corporate by way of unique content material that helps redefine sports activities and leisure storytelling. “By amplifying various voices and pushing artistic boundaries, this fusion is about to ignite a brand new period of storytelling and redefine how audiences interact with commentary, dialog, and connection throughout tv, digital platforms and streaming,” per official intel.
“Kevin Frazier is a consummate skilled and one of the revered voices in leisure,” praised Smith, who hosts ESPN’s primary morning present, First Take. ”Teaming up with him isn’t only a partnership — it’s an announcement. We’re right here to construct one thing completely different, one thing disruptive and one thing genuine.”
Frazier is greatest often known as a beloved star at Leisure Tonight. He additionally based the digital platform HipHollywood. “Stephen A. is a drive — interval,” stated Frazier. “His imaginative and prescient for Straight Shooter Media is formidable, well timed and precisely what the trade wants proper now. I’m thrilled to construct one thing that not solely entertains but in addition informs and empowers.”
Straight Shooter Media borrowed its identify from Smith’s New York Occasions best-seller, Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Possibilities and First Takes. The corporate, beforehand often known as Mr. SAS Productions, produced ESPN’s Up For Debate: The Evolution of Sports activities Media, and presently shepherds The Stephen A. Smith Present on YouTube.
On the horizon are two unique reveals on SiriusXM, together with a sports activities present on Mad Canine Radio Channel 82 and a political present on POTUS Channel 124, each to be hosted by Smith. There’s a slate in growth that features docuseries, interview-driven codecs and scripted initiatives.