An announcement has been posted regarding the debut episode of Bill Simmons’ HBO talk show which debuts 06.22 at 10:00pm. There are a few different ways to watch Any Given Wednesday online. But before you commit to this show instead of streaming an NBA game online, here’s the release in its entirety:
ANY GIVEN WEDNESDAY WITH BILL SIMMONS, WEEKLY TALK SHOW SPANNING POP CULTURE AND SPORTS, DEBUTS JUNE 22, EXCLUSIVELY ON HBO; GUESTS INCLUDE BEN AFFLECK AND CHARLES BARKLEY
ANY GIVEN WEDNESDAY WITH BILL SIMMONS, a weekly talk show hosted by one of the most influential figures in contemporary sports media, kicks off its 20-show season WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22 (10:00-10:30 p.m. ET/PT), followed by other new editions subsequent Wednesdays at the same time, exclusively on HBO. Spanning pop culture and touching on everything from sports and entertainment to arts and technology, the show will feature intimate conversations with compelling guests each week, while also including field segments and Simmons’ signature commentary on current events. Guests on the first show include actor Ben Affleck and NBA commentator and hall of famer Charles Barkley.
ANY GIVEN WEDNESDAY WITH BILL SIMMONS will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO and HBO On Demand, as well as other affiliate portals. The show is part of a major exclusive multi-year, multi-platform agreement with HBO that was announced in 2015. Making HBO Simmons’ exclusive television home, the ANY GIVEN WEDNESDAY WITH BILL SIMMONS deal provides for a comprehensive partnership on a variety of platforms between the network and Simmons, the founding editor of Grantland.com and the creator of the new content site The Ringer. ANY GIVEN WEDNESDAY WITH BILL SIMMONS is executive produced by Bill Simmons, Eric Weinberger and Stuart Miller.
In addition to that press release The Hollywood Reporter has details on the format the show will take, at least initially. Here are highlights from that:
The plan at launch is to open with Simmons offering a hard angle on an of-the-moment sports or pop culture subject before moving on to the two interviews and a sign-off that he’s keeping under wraps.
The show’s first interview segment will feature two guests on a given topic — he’s been toying with such pairings as Mark Cuban and Vice’s Shane Smith on how successful people become overextended, or Tony Romo and Aaron Rodgers on the degree of difficulty of the quarterback position — while the second will focus on just one guest, ideally from the world of sports, tech or Hollywood. Simmons envisions running each at about 10 to 12 minutes, though he intends to tape them much longer the day before in a bid to get the most out of his guests.
Simmons had to convince HBO to let him do the show taped rather than run it live and not in front of a studio audience. His argument was simple: He’s not a performer or a stand-up, and he’ll be considerably more comfortable if it’s just him and his guests. Simmons says. “That’s one of the things that we’ve tried to figure out with this show: how to take advantage of things I’m good at and avoid things I’m not.”
Only you can tell if achieves that goal by watching ANY GIVEN WEDNESDAY With BILL SIMMONS. Anyone willing to give it a look Wednesday nights?
Watch Bill Simmons HBO Show Online with HBO Go or HBO Now
The easiest way to stream Any Given Wednesday online is to sign up for HBO Now online. What’s the difference between Now and Go? Well you can stream Any Given Wednesday for free with subscriptions to either but the difference is that Go is for those of you with a cable package already (you use your current login) and Now is for those without cable. Learn more about them both here.
Add HBO to Your Sling TV Package
Sling already gives you access to ESPN and ESPN 2 as well as some Fox Sports stations. But what better way to supplement that then with some HBO quality reporting on sports from Bill Simmons. It’s the same price as HBO is normally but you’ll have everything in one place.
You can sign up or explore the service more here. There’s a 7-Day free trial so this might be a nice alternative if you just want to give it a chance.
