Q&A Liam McHugh on TNT, AppleTV, and journalism
Q&A Liam McHugh on TNT, AppleTV, and journalism
The NHL on TNT host joins me for the first part of a new feature here at Shap Shots
It’s a really weird time for sports media.
And so I’m playing around with a new concept at Shap Shots, where I’ll try to do an interview with someone else from the sports media world, primarily hockey, but also the occasional branch out. We’ll talk about what’s going on in their world, sports media in general, and maybe a bit of why or how they got into this.
First up, TNT studio host Liam McHugh. McHugh is in his second season at Turner after prior serving in that same role with NBC Sports.
This interview was conducted last week and has beed edited for length and clarity.
I’ll ask this like I ask an NHL team at the All-Star Break. How do you assess the broadcast team, and particularly the panel, at the midpoint?
It’s obviously been an interesting week with Rick Tocchet getting the job in Vancouver. I think it’s all bitter sweet for all of us because we all knew how much Rick wanted to get back into coaching, but he was a fantastic teammate.
He was someone that taught all of us, especially me a lot about the game when he played and the modern game.
I think we’re really gonna miss the chemistry that we really developed on the show with him.
That is part of the job. And, you know, now it's about moving on with his team and some new pieces and making sure that chemistry is still there, and making sure that we're still delivering the type of show we want to deliver, which shows that passion and joy and spontaneity.
It's funny, one of the conversations I had about this at the beginning, and that we always reiterated was the idea that you want to have all that. But first and foremost, you want a smart show, you want people to be able to learn something and get something from the show. And if you don't have that, then a lot of the other stuff becomes white noise. And I think that's something we really want to push going forward, especially with the Stanley Cup final this year.
We want it to be a smart and entertaining show. And I think that's the balance that we strive for. And I think our show is at its best when someone says something, and it sparks a conversation, and we're able to step aside from what was planned, have that conversation thoroughly, you know, take as much time hopefully as we possibly can on it, to really see that conversation through. And hopefully, our audience takes something away from that.
On Tocchet’s last appearance on the panel you leaned into it hard that he was there. With the rumors circulating — and maybe you even knew — he was headed to Vancouver already, how did you want to handle that?
The term we use all the time, is just being self aware. You know, we know what everyone else at home is talking about. And to sit there and avoid it. Or ignore, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And frankly, it makes the rest of us tend feel uneasy.
Anyway, you'll see it on our show, if someone makes a mistake, they usually get called out. And the truth is, it was a feeling better when you get called out a little bit. Because if you've made the mistake, and you know it, and everyone's just sort of staring at you and the silence is uncomfortable for everyone.
It's sort of like taking your job seriously, but not taking yourself that seriously. And I think if we can stick to that, we're usually in a pretty good place, but I love the idea that this is a show that is you know many ways, just honest, it's tries to be genuine and that felt like a very genuine way to start it (with Tocchet still there).
But it was organic. We didn't have a “listen, we're gonna address this and then you will talk and then you will talk,” we just came on and said, “alright, here we go. You know, there's an elephant in the room. Let's get to it.” And and I think it's better off that way. Some things maybe you don't want to overthink.
How’d you get into this studio hosting space? Was this the plan?
Yeah, I didn't expect this at all.
You know, I had been a sports writer for a few years before I went back to school for broadcasting. And I think I felt that once I was out in the world and trying to climb the ladder, I probably wanted to be more of an a on-air sports reporter and back then everyone wanted to be a SportsCenter anchor.
So start doing local (broadcast) jobs. And one thing you do in local is you have to learn to do everything. Every little thing from, you know, writing, to editing, to shooting, and I think part of it was just, you know, reps and reps and reps of getting comfortable hosting and anchoring.
But even when I climbed the ladder, I don’t think I expected to be someone who hosted panel shows, or someone who did, for that matter, live-event television, like pre-games and post-game. I think I saw myself as one of those where it was like a little bit more scripted. And because I had a writing background, and you know, it would sort of have a flow from top to bottom, and it would follow the format.
So this is very, very different. But now, it's really all I know, and I love it. The live event hosting is really all I want to do, because I love the idea. There is a format, and you know, we'll stick to it as needed. But there's also this idea that people are people. They're gonna say things that are interesting, they're gonna say things that are gonna change the conversation. And I love the idea of being able to just twist and turn with it.
You’ll be joining the Apple TV broadcasts in a similar role for the MLS as studio host.
My first commitment is going to be to TNT and to doing hockey.
But I love soccer. I grew up playing the game. I played for a couple years, pretty badly, in college, but you know, it's something I'm that's really meaningful in my life. I've played it since I was a kid. I watched it constantly as a fan.
At NBC, I had an opportunity to do quite a bit of Premier League hosting and I really adored it. I was kind of surprised at how much I liked it. And I think part of it was just a very different type of show. It was definitely a bit more buttoned up but it was still like a conversational atmosphere and a discussion and I learned so much from the analysts there — Robbie Mustoe and Robbie Earle and Tim Howard, and Danny Higginbotham. It's a delight to be able to get back into soccer.
The cool thing now is I'm a dad and my kids play. And my older boy loves soccer. And we talked about all the time and we watch a lot together. So to now be able to have that bond is something that's really means a lot.
What type of studio show will you be building at Apple TV?
It's very difficult to stay at this point. I think everything's so fresh and so new.
I've heard Taylor Twellman say this as well, I think it's one of those things where it's a build for the long haul. In other words, that what you see at the beginning is certainly not what you're gonna see a year from now, certainly, from what you're gonna see a few months.
And in some ways, that's nice. There’s a loose outline or format, or blueprint for what you want. And let's figure out as we go. What works, what doesn't? What inspires people to tune in? And I think it's kind of a learning process as we go. But I'm interested in new things, different things, challenges, this is all of that. I'm excited for a bit of an adventure.
It doesn’t change your job much, but have you thought much about being in a role that’s streaming only?
It's so dramatically different than when I first started this.
When I first started, we didn't have HDTV. And now we're on streaming.
If you're a little bit older, and you've established yourself in something that was the norm for a long time, it's a little nerve wracking to have this kind of change. But I definitely lived through it a bit with NBC. And when they were starting to move things over to Peacock, and it's funny, I did quite a bit of Premier League at the beginning, when that shift started to take place. And just the basic stuff was a little frightening.
You know, you're you're going on and I think our first show, we had literally no commercial breaks for an hour, and you don't think about how much you rely on them. Until all of a sudden you don't have any. And I remember the analysts are like, wait, what?
You're not going to catch your breath. Like we're just going to keep going, keep talking. And then the funny thing is by like halfway through the show, you forgot about it.
In some ways, it becomes better because, you tell an analyst, “hey, you got a little more time to talk, get your opinion out there.” And many of the analysts took that and ran with it, which was fantastic. But it's just the way it goes and there's there's a certain there's a whole lot of uncertainty with this
And I think it's the nature of broadcasting. It's the nature of journalism now. And it's, I don't know, if it's something I'll ever really get used to the fact that all of this is up in the air and uncertain.
My dad was a public school teacher. You know, he was a great teacher, he got tenure, and he would, you know, he was going to be in that job right until he retired. And then he'd have his pension, and he’d enjoy retirement.
And, you know, after a while, you’ve got to realize this job, media, this is just not that.
And, you know, there's a lot of positives to this job. And there's, there's a lot of things about it that's, you know, can make you anxious, and you try to balance it as best you can.
I unfortunately know a bit about figuring out that balance and some of those nerves.
Yeah, it's a difficult thing. You went through this, and I've been through it, you know, as well. It's a difficult thing to go through, figuring out this business and not having long-term certainity. And, you know, most people don't want to hear it from people in the media, and I get it. But it's, you know, it's real.