The race to land Bill Simmons and his huge following, may start to heat up soon. According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO is in discussions with Bill Simmons, to provide him a TV platform on their network.
n June 21, HBO will add a pair of testosterone-fueled new editions — Dwayne Johnson’s sports dramedy Ballers and the Jack Black-Tim Robbins political half-hour The Brink — along with a second installment of the drama juggernaut True Detective. And the network will ramp up from there, with plans for more of the addictive Robert Durst docuseries, a not-yet-announced 1970s porn drama from The Wire’s David Simon and, if all goes as planned, a platform for ESPN cast-off Bill Simmons. While HBO executives are staying mum, multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the network is in talks for a major multipart deal with the biggest media personality in sports (more on that later).
Simmons could take his documentary model to HBO and have a huge backing. Simmons for his part, didn’t invent sports documentaries, he just helped ESPN produce great ones.
Could Simmons add to HBO’s Real Sports, or have his own weekly hour-long telecast, similar to what Jim Rome has with Showtime?