former mlb/nhl player working as tv analysts. how many hours do they work a week? is it a full time job or do they come to the tv studio to perform and go home?

10 comments

1. Just a talking head or someone that’s doing play-by-play or color analysis?

   Depends on what you mean by “analyst”.

2. There’s a lot of prep work that goes into being an analyst like that. It’s not just a 4 hour day of sitting in a studio, watching the game, then talking about it. For a 7pm game, you’re in the office early afternoon, researching info that’s already available and being on standby for anything new that comes in. There’s meetings about storylines and storyboarding (scheduling segments) the show. Then there’s the in-game segments and post-game analysis show. In all, you’re looking at a 10 hour day.

3. Well, their job is to “perform” so to speak.

   Most of them are doing more than just showing up at the start of the game then leaving afterward though. Typically they’re getting to the stadium an hour or two before a game starts to do some pre-game interviews then stay an hour or so after to do some post-game interviews and film some promos. If you’re Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling who work for a baseball team’s official network then they’re probably in stadium for 6 or 7 hours a game 81 times a year. They’re also doing research on top of that though – albeit research in this case is watching baseball and keeping up with what’s going on around the league.

4. It depends. Sometimes it feels like Charles Barkley strolls in after dinner and starts shooting from the hip. If you are the national tv studio show, typically you are in the building for several hours and that doesn’t count any prep time you do alone. For a regular season NBA night, you are on tv intermittently for 5/6 hours, plus pre show meetings and make up.

   I only now realized you mentioned two other sports, but I imagine the hours are similar for an individual day. Idk how many days the national tv people are on for those sports, but for basketball it’s like 2 days a week in the regular season.

5. Being on camera *is* a full time job in many situations.

6. I’m familiar with the NHL side, but only in Canada, and only because I met Kelly Hrudey drunken at the Calgary Stampede back in like 2011. He is an ex LA Kings / NY Islanders goalie. He’s from Alberta, currently lives in Calgary, and is an analyst on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada along with covering the Calgary Flames all season.

   He made it sound like it was definitely a full time gig that involves even more travel than the team he covers. All year he is back and forth between Toronto and Calgary, and then he usually follows the Flames around to wherever they go. So LOTS of travel, and lots of late night hours.

   He was a really friendly guy actually, and very personable. It was funny because at first I thought it was Kurt Russell and said that to him – he laughed. He actually does look alot like Kurt Russell.

7. My cousin is a golf commentator outside of the USA.

   In short, it’s a full time job. They compile notes on all golfers so they have them ready. They get the press guides which have bios on most if not all golfers.

   Clearly they won’t start Day 1 knowing everything about those at age bottom but at night will recalibrate based on who’s on top as they tend to get the most air time after the big golf names.

   Truth is that I’m sure someone like Charles Barkley wakes up, sits in front of NBA TV and gets the skinny on anything of note. But most of the time the commentators do research and have staff to help get them prepared.

8. r/baseball

9. I work in (major college) sports in media and work alongside the TV broadcast talent for games.

   It takes them a lot of prep time. They rely on team notes and interactions/interviews with the coaches and players so they can know what to talk about.

   If they want to be taken seriously, they have to put in tons of time beforehand. For my in-season sport, they’ll talk with my coaches on Tuesday ahead of a weekend series.

10. I used to work at MLB Network, and it varies WIDELY. The guys you see regularly are also working more hours typically, generally in line with the other employees. The ones you see every once in a while? Their days can be much shorter.

    The HoF types can really write their own ticket, working as much or as little as they want. When I was there we saw John Smoltz most days, and he’d be in meetings and around for the full day. Pedro Martinez was usually in the DR, but he’d pop in for a couple days every once in a while, often for the playoffs or big events. They both did excellent work, but had very different schedules.