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Intentional Talk is an hour long (during the regular season) and a 30-minute-long (during the offseason) talk show shown live Monday-Friday at 5:00 ET (during the regular season) or at 3:30 ET (during the offseason) on MLB Network. Hosts Siera Santos, Kevin Millar, and Ryan Dempster talk about the major events in baseball.[1]
| Intentional Talk | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Talk Comedy |
| Starring | Chris Rose Kevin Millar Stephen Nelson Siera Santos Ryan Dempster |
| Opening theme | "How You Like Me Now?" by The Heavy (April 4, 2011-April 1, 2016) "Ladies and Gentlemen" by Saliva (April 4, 2016-March 26, 2019) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 575+ |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Secaucus, New Jersey Austin, Texas (select shows) |
| Running time | 60 minutes (regular season) 30 minutes (off season) |
| Production company | MLB Network |
| Original release | |
| Network | MLB Network (2011–present) ESPN2 (2017–2018) |
| Release | April 4, 2011 – present |
The show is filmed from Studio 42 of the MLB Network facility in Secaucus, New Jersey. Most times, when they are not in the studio, they will film the show from the hosts' homes. When this happens, the show is shown as a split-screen, using Cisco TelePresence, in which Kevin hosts from his house in Austin, Texas (also known as "Studio 1-5").
History
editDuring the 2011 season, MLB Network started showing a special one-hour, recorded Best of Intentional Talk each weekend, showcasing the best segments of the show from the past week to be topped off with the weekly, "This Week in MLB Network" segment.
On the Friday, January 25, 2013, show, the hosts allowed viewers to call the shots. Everything on the show that day was fan-based, including "Ask Kevin", "Five for Friday", the Got HEEEEM and HELLOOOOO introduction. On Twitter, they asked for YouTube videos for segments, such as "What just Happened?" and "That was Awkward". The IT Fan Show returned for the July 24, 2013 show.
On March 13, 2013, the show announced it was getting a new introduction for the 2013 season, as seen here. This was the show's first introduction change, as the older version was with the show since the start. The new introduction seems to take place in a pinball machine with slots, bumpers and a pinball going around signs, such as "Got HEEEEM" and "Outta Here", ending off with the ball hitting the word "grand slam". The intro debuted on Opening Day 2013 (April 1, 2013). The intro and theme song changed starting with the April 4, 2016 episode to a circus-themed intro with Rose and Millar as ringmasters and the theme song changed to "Ladies and Gentlemen" by Saliva. For the ESPN2 airings, some MLB Network logos are replaced by the ESPN logo.
Each episode is uploaded to podcast applications the morning after each airing.
The show was added to the ESPN2 weekday afternoon lineup from 4-5 PM eastern starting May 1, 2017, and the show continues to air on MLB Network in its current timeslot.[2][3] In December 2018, four months before the deal to air Intentional Talk was to end in April 2019, the show stopped airing on ESPN2, with airings on MLB Network being unaffected.[4]
Nelson was named the new co-host of IT in 2021 after former co-host Chris Rose left the show at the end of 2020 because MLB Network was unable to renew his contract. Nelson left the show at the end of January 2023 to join the Dodgers broadcast team. In March 2023 Siera Santos and Ryan Dempster were named Millar's new co-hosts.
Personalities
editHosts
edit- Chris Rose (2011–2020)
- Kevin Millar (2011–present)
- Stephen Nelson (2021–2023)
- Siera Santos (2023–present)
- Ryan Dempster (2023–present)
Reporters
edit- Hazel Mae (2011)
- Alanna Rizzo (2012–2013)
- Kristina Fitzpatrick (2014)
- Heidi Watney (2015–2021)
- Scott Braun (2017–2022)
References
edit- ^ "Intentional Talk". MLB. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
- ^ "ESPN Adds MLB Network's Intentional Talk To Afternoon Lineup In New Content Collaboration". ESPN Media Zone. 27 April 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
- ^ Shaikin, Bill (2017-04-27). "ESPN's dropping of 'Baseball Tonight' most nights is a loss for independent sports journalism". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
- ^ Marchand, Andrew (2018-12-06). "A-Rod and ESPN went all-in on show that disappeared". New York Post. Retrieved 2019-12-28.