Half-Baked Ideas With Kevin Wildes. Plus: The Masters, ‘The Pitt’, Coachella, and ‘Love Story’ With Nathan Hubbard and Joanna Robinson.

25:12Bill Simmons:30 years, sometimes it can be 40. And then if you're in Chicago, you learn how to play without the gloves. What? Right? Like in Rob Lowe and About Last Night, they would play the softball, no gloves. That's the Chicago thing. I'm not familiar with Rob. Is that a real thing or is that just in Rob Lowe's About Last Night? No, that's a real Chicago thing, I think. They don't play with... Pretty short. Softball gloves in Chicago? No gloves. There's no clue. I have no clue. I had no idea that was the thing. I've met plenty of people from Chicago. It's never come up. Maybe it was a thing in the 80s and they got rid of it after too many people broke their hands.

25:44Bill Simmons:Yeah, watch it out last night. They're playing softball with no gloves. Hey, where's Brian? Broke his thumb. Oh, yeah. Again? What do you think about these gloves? Yeah. It's the reason we have them. Nope, nope. We're in Chicago. Yeah, Chicago. Men are men. They're eating sausages, drinking heavy beer, and playing softball without gloves. Not even a mitt. No gloves. Go watch the movie. First scene and the end scene are both softball with no gloves. Not even a handball mitt. Nothing. Nothing at all. Oh, not great. All right. I really like that one. I like setting the expectations early and just having lived through it with both of my kids and watching all the parents and how much time and money is spent on these travel teams and all this stuff.

26:30Bill Simmons:And happiness is... Being the champion and being happy is not just for the pros. Someone's got to be the intramural champion. It'll work. Can I give you another half-baked? I've got a very fast one, literally. But go, give me the half-baked one and then I'll go fast. This is almost fully baked, but it's from Marcus Reed and it's about how much time... He listened to the made-up NBA Awards pod Zach and I did last night. and everybody loves awards is the premise. We love MVP. We like Rookie of the Year. We get all this podcast content out of it. He thinks that how we have in the Oscars, lead actor and supporting actor, that there should be a supporting actor MVP, basically the Scottie Pippen Award for the best number two of the season.

27:20Bill Simmons:And I was thinking about this and I was like, well, that's a dumb idea. And then I was thinking, I definitely would have argued about this on seven podcasts that no, no, it's actually Stefan Castle. I love this. I think it's pretty good because the whole point of these awards is you're trying to measure blueprints. So I almost think that's too good of an idea for a half-baked. That's like a fully baked just should be an idea. Yeah. Is it named the Scottie Pippen Award? He named it the Scottie Pippen Award, which would be great because, you know, Scottie, his confidence seems to kind of come and go depending on whether somebody told them that they loved the last dance that week.

27:57Bill Simmons:If he had his own Scottie Pippen award, maybe he could let the last dance go. But we have like, you know, the Kevin McHale worthy Scottie Pippen, people like that. But then you think like this year there would be an also funny outcome of if the Celtics won the title again and it was the finals MVP conversation, but then there's also the Scottie Pippen award and maybe the same guy could win most of the votes for both. I don't know. It just feels like there's a lot going on. Who would win your... The only weird thing about the Scottie Pippen Award is... Like, I would... So I think this year, Jamal Murray would have won.

28:35Okay, but then with Aaron Gore... Okay, then you might as well just go all the way. Just make like a Tony Kukoc third man award. Like the Chris Bosh Award.

28:45Bill Simmons:Honestly, not against it. That sounds like more content for us. Yeah, best third guy. I mean, if you have six. Six? Who's the best fourth guy? Let's keep going. I'm the best fifth guy. Like, look, I always thought six was absurd because like, all right, like, I'm great at five. I'm the best fifth guy. So if I was a little bit worse, I mean, I know it's different what a six man does. I don't love the six because we did, one of the awards we had last night was the 20 minutes a game or less award, which is the true bench guy. I like that. You're basically coming in. You're playing 10 minutes or less each half.

29:27Bill Simmons:And you have to have an impact. So we said it was Jenkins on Detroit because he plays not a lot of minutes. But then if you have to start him for 12 games, he can actually come in. The Vinnie Johnson microwave award. We have to take a quick break and then we're going to come back more after. I like that. The Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel, the most prestigious tournament in golf, you know what it is, is returning to Augusta. You never know how it's going down, but FanDuel has your back with a special mulligan bet back token during the event. Save it until the tournament starts. You can turn any losing bet into a bonus bet.

30:04Bill Simmons:Now you've got a protection to take that sleeper pick or make a bold prediction. I agree with esteemed manager agent James Babydoll Dixon. I like Justin Rose this week. So that's, I'm going to have some Justin Rose action in Augusta, but Hey, anything can happen. Everyone deserves a second chance at glory. Uh, fando.com slash BS to claim your special mulligan bet back token for Augusta 21 plus select states are 18 plus DC, Kentucky, Wyoming restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fando.com game problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat Connecticut. All right, coming back.

30:48Bill Simmons:Half-baked. What else you got? This one's very fast. Had to go get tires for my car. They're like, the car is heavy. I need new tires. I'm like, how much is that? And how long? Like, we got to order the tires. I'm like, I don't know. I see tires all over the place. They're not here. Like, no, you got to get different tires. We got to bring them in. It was like a day and a half process to get these tires. Not the biggest problem in the world. That being said. Especially with phones, you can just sit in those uncomfortable chairs, do some text. it off. That being said, then we also went to Daytona for the show.

31:24And a lot of it is the pit stop. And in 10 seconds, a NASCAR will get four new tires and a tank of gas in 10 seconds. And I'm not saying you would do this all the time, but it would be a fun option to have a NASCAR mechanic shop, just even for the experience. Oh, you need new, oh, like, oh yeah, I need new tires and a tank of gas. And you pull off and you're done in 10 seconds. But you're paying five times as much money. Whatever. But it's a great experience. It's a great experience. And you've got the person with the flag and they wave it and there's enough of a runway that you can just speed out with four new tires.

32:04It's like, it's not, you're like, well, it's going to be too popular with 10 seconds. It's six cars. I mean, I have to get it. It's six cars a minute. So we're doing 360 cars in an hour. You, how long can you possibly wait? You get, you put it, uh, you're on the app for the NASCAR pit stop. Oh, honey, where's my time for the car? Oh, I've got to bring it in at nine, uh, 10 and 40 seconds is when my time is you're there and then speed out.

32:33Bill Simmons:Yeah. So you'd You have to pay way more for the mechanics, but the flip side would be you're destroying every other tire changer place. You just have all the business. And look, I don't think this idea would land on deaf ears at the NASCAR executive offices as just a marketing - Sponsored content. Oh, where are you going? NASCAR, yeah. Oh my gosh. How important are the new tires? That's really good. Maybe. And look, we're not getting the best of the best because obviously those guys will be at NASCAR. So it might take 14 seconds. But if it's over 18 seconds, you get your money back. You know what the name of the place is?

33:15Bill Simmons:Pit Stop. Yeah, that works. So you going to Pit Stop later? Yeah, I'm going at 9.13 and 32 seconds. Oh, that's great. I'll see. Oh, I just missed you. I'm going at 58 seconds. I'm there at 9.12. Almost exactly the same time. All right, what's next?

33:34uh let's do this one okay well you're gonna want to you want a food one or do you want a sports one i want both let's let's do let's do the food one did the easter egg hunt i have a food one that i

33:49Bill Simmons:can follow up your food one with okay the easter egg hunt we did the easter egg hunt yesterday yeah the kids are a little bit older but it's just still fun so they ran around they found the eggs in the house and they're like, all right. They were a little bit mad that the kids don't like change anymore. Yeah. I was a huge fan. I found a quarter and egg. I was thrilled. Found a starburst in the egg. Great. We didn't, they don't want change. So I threw a silver dollar on one of the eggs. That wasn't even a big hit. We didn't have any$1 bills. We had a few starbursts. There was a handful of empty eggs and they were mad about it.

34:28So they were like, you wouldn't like finding empty eggs. I'm like, I would. So then they hid the eggs for me and Libby and then we went around and hunted the eggs and we had a blast. And it was one part, they wanted to go get the eggs to find the food. And I think it hits on some very primal hunter-gatherer part of our brain. Oh, I actually want to go find the food. Even a big shopping, a big grocery store. Oh, I got to go all the way over there. I like it. I don't need everything delivered to me. So it's a restaurant in a large park. And you get a plate like a buffet plate, but it looks like you're just in a park.

35:13And of course, there's natural things you can forage. There's lettuce planted and stuff like that. But there'll also be some just real dishes out there if you want, but there's only one or two of them. Like, oh, you want the, you want the filet? Like, okay, there's, there's one out there. Oh, do you want the Caesar salad? And it's either, there's two ways it goes. It's like Survivor. Yeah. So it's, so you're, but it's either, I can't tell if it's better if it's just like golfing and we're just, it's a buffet in, you know, Central Park. Oh, look at that. You want to grab that? And we're just walking around with our plates or it's more hunger.

35:51Holy shit. It's called Hunger Games. Hunger Games. You did it. You walked right into it. Or we're just like we're in three-point stances and we're screaming out of the gates to try to find the shrimp cocktail.

36:05Bill Simmons:Then you take it to another level. It's televised and you also have celebrity chefs. Yeah. So it's like, oh my god. Dave Chang made his slow-roasted whatever? Where's that? I gotta find that. You're just running around. Yeah. And he's, but he's all Dave Chang's in camouflage. He's in like one of those hunting blinds. Like, Oh, it's like a little bit of like paintball. And I think it would be fun. That's really good. I feel like, I feel like people between ages 15 and 18 would go to that as like the same way they go to escape rooms. You know, it was, Oh, we're going to the hunger games today. Oh my God.

36:45Bill Simmons:It's pizza night. All kinds of pizzas. Oh, he found a pizza. It was so good. this uh this food one is from a listener named brian angel who wants uh basically uber eats for your emotional sports state for example you're a boston fan you sign up for the service the pats win the afc championship game doorbell rings right after the clock hits zero you open the door sitting on your porch, a bottle of champagne and some cigars. Or they lose like in the Super Bowl. I don't know if you remember when we lost the Super Bowl and the game was over in like five minutes. Doorbell rings. On your porch is a bottle of tequila, ice cream and the 2018 Patriots Championship DVD.

37:36Bill Simmons:And then during the summer, like with the shitty Red Sox season like we have now, it's a monthly delivery. Almost like when you join a wine club. It's just more beer. It's booze and sadness. So anyway, half-baked is his thing. Uber eats for your emotional state. There's something there. It's not bad. I think it's a solid idea. You could probably get the algorithms to start following people's Facebook feeds too and just let it open up beyond sports as well. The problem is, well, if you're in Buffalo and Cleveland, places like that, that you know there's going to be sadness, it would be way easier to stock up on the sad items.

38:15Bill Simmons:when we get to like a Josh Allen playoff game? So the caveat, the only thing I would add, and as long as this is an option, I would like to select sometimes in these Patriots losses, do you want to feel better or worse? I would click worse a few times. I want to just wallow in it a little bit. Yeah. It's like, oh my, if we lose to the bills, like I'd like to, I feel worse. Uh-oh. here comes a plate of buffalo wings fresh from the famous buffalo wings place. So you can have a good experience with buffalo. But it opens it up and it's like, ah, you stink. And like your table breaks somehow. I'd like to wallow in it a little bit more.

39:01Bill Simmons:All right, what's your next one? I don't know. Oh, this one's not bad. Did you? No. So OBJ had a great catch in the flag football fanatics fest where the pros lost to our USA flag team. And the same as the elderly have to retake their driver's test, or at least they should have to, some of the older veterans have to go to the combine to just show what actual pros look like in the combine. So I'll see not just a pro day, not just a private workout with OBJ, but like, hey, oh, wow, this wide receiver looks good. We're like, well, how does OBJ, who is supposedly washed, air quotes, how does he look?

39:52Wow, look at Fernando Mendoza. He completed 35 of 37 passes. Like, all right, but how does Spencer Rattler throw the ball? How does, who's I'm trying to think of? Kenny Pickett. Does he look like Kenny Pickett? I need some sort of baseline for veterans in the combine. But I don't have a real twist on that. That's just a normal idea. No one's not that fun. Just veteran combine.

40:19Bill Simmons:I'm trying to figure out how to twist that, and I can't. I don't think there's a twist to it. I think it's just a practical idea snuck in there, and I don't think it should really be there. So I'll switch it. I'll just move forward to this next one. We went out to a restaurant, and Russell... says, the waiter comes over, a great guy. He's just very evocative. And he was, the kids loved him. And Russell's like, man, the waiter smells great. I was like, oh, I didn't notice he was over by you guys. He's like, yeah, I think it's his mouthwash. I'm like, it definitely wasn't his mouthwash. I think it was just his cologne that you're responding to.

41:00But that being said, mouthwash flavored cologne. No, the other way around. Cologne flavor. They're sensing stuff via... My kids think everything is mouthwash.

41:17Bill Simmons:So mouthwash that actually serves the purpose of cologne. Yes. When people are like, oh, nice cologne. You smell freshly groomed, but it's actually coming out of my mouth. I add a piece of cinnamon gum. My kids might have very sensitive nasal passages. I was eating cinnamon - Do they have bad eyesight? No. Is that a thing? Yeah. The worse your eyesight is, the other sense is heightened. That's why I have good smell and good hearing because I can't see. I didn't know that. Yeah. I was having cinnamon gum and they're like, are you wearing cologne? I'm like, no, they don't make cinnamon cologne. This is cinnamon.

41:58I'm having the cinnamon gum. They're like, oh, it stinks. if they're experiencing mouthwash again, I don't think you want to switch around some sort of a leather tasting cologne.

42:08Bill Simmons:Yeah, I don't know how that would it's a really good half-bake because I don't know if you'd want a cologne taste in your mouth but leaving your mouth you'd want it. That's all I'm saying. I don't want to always smell like mint no one's like, wow, that guy smells great smells like mint. No one likes that oh wow, he smells like leathery tobacco I have two I have two small half-bakes, family-related, not from listeners, from me, since you're talking family. One, do you do the thing where you take a picture of you and your wife or your wife, and you mail it to somebody, and then they get mad that you didn't clear sending the picture out with them in it first?

42:49Bill Simmons:Does your wife do that? It may have happened to me once a decade ago, so I don't have any recent experience with that. I know to always clear it. but that's kind of annoying, right? That every time you just be like, is this okay? Can I send this to dad? I do an automatic delete on stuff. That's I'll send a picture where I look bad and my wife looks great as. Well, how about this? Can we take it out of both of your hands? Could there be a third party photo clearance where you just send it to somebody and somebody gives you immediate 10 seconds later, like that one's good. you both look great and now it's like well we're paying the service they told me the photo look good and they're just constantly green stamping everything and now it's out of your hands because sometimes you'll be like i don't like that photo and it's like well i look really good in that photo and you look okay yeah can't that can't that you know but you're always going to like down the photo that you don't look perfect then so now we have a third party yeah it's like an Arbitrator, basically.

43:54Bill Simmons:Yeah, photo arbitrator. That's one. Then the other one, my daughter went out for Easter lunch yesterday with my dad who drove. And on the way home, my dad started driving down a one-way street because he's 78 for a split second and then realized and had to back up. And I was thinking, we all have these stories about our parents as they get older and soon we'll be those parents. Is there some sort of race that could happen? like what's that what's that race in the streets Le Mans when they're going through like Paris could would you watch old people racing with each other if they were like heavily protected are they in vehicles yeah they're in vehicles it's everybody's 78 years old and up just like a senior tour of senior it's really a senior tour it's a senior tour with people like and if you can't win you don't get to keep your license.

44:52Bill Simmons:Gee whiz. There's some real stakes. This is the race you have to win to keep your driver's license for two more years. But the cars are heavily protected. They're like, even if there's an accident, nobody's going to get hurt. Flip it, of course. It's got a roll cage on it and everything. They're really in there. That's why it's a half-baked. I didn't figure out the part if there's a bad accident. What would happen? Anyway. There's a few one-way streets near me where it's not one way, but it's like when you get on a highway and it's like a curving highway and the sign screams wrong way, but it's for the other lane.

45:31And I have a moment of like, ah! And I'm like looking around.

45:36Bill Simmons:Connecticut's really bad with that, especially at night. And then Boston will just have these one-way streets out of nowhere. Like where you're going down a street and all of a sudden, that's it. You can't keep going. No, you gotta put those spikes up. Yeah. Those rental car spikes so you can only go one way. All right. Mouthwash colognes we did. Casual Friday. That's a stupid idea. All right. This one is that's not stupid too.

46:05I need a title for this one. I'm calling it Lifetime Learner. So my kids are in going into high school, middle school. They feel a certain amount of pressure to do well on their tests. And occasionally they'll have the classic youthful breakdown of why do I even need to know this stuff? And I remember saying that and you come up with some convoluted answer like, well, if you ever want to be a businessman or... Then sometimes I go the other way and it was abstractly like, well, actually learning is part of is the destination, not the journey. Yes. It's just, so then they'll start telling me about stuff that they're learning out of the blue.

46:58And I'm like, this is actually fascinating what you're learning, like either, either parts of American history or parts of global history that I currently am not learning. I'm sort of locked in the sports world. And then I'm also just following my own interests. Yeah. But maybe I want new interests. And I'm like, well, you can sign up for any class, but I don't know what classes I want. I'm kind of a fully formed person. I want the pressure. Right. So I want someone to come in with real stakes. Like if Russell doesn't do well on a test, it's not probably the healthiest thing in the world. So we try to balance it.

47:38But he starts thinking about like, you know, my grades and college. and we try to balance it. But I need those stakes on me. So if we're out to eat, you're like, hey, you want to go to the bar? I'm like, Bill, I got to go, dude. I got to study about the pyramids or my tax rate goes up. My tax is going to, I'm going to lose a bunch of money. I need real stakes to force me to learn something I'm not currently interested in.

48:05Bill Simmons:But you already have, oh yeah, because you have those stakes doing a daily show. that you don't want to seem like an asshole because you didn't know what's going on with football. No, but I like sports. I want to learn about, I would like someone to come in and be like, you know what? We got to learn about grasshoppers. I'm like, oh, why do we got to learn about this? And test on grass. You better know what these things are. You better know about their mating habits. So like art history. I'll never learn it. I will never learn it. I need someone like we'll sign up for a class. I won't go to the class.

48:42Bill Simmons:I need the stakes of the class. So what would the stakes actually be to get you to care? Financial punishment. I mean I think physical punishment is too weird. But it's got to be the care in this. Physical punishment? What the hell? Well that's what I'm saying. It has to be a financial has to be a financial punishment. You have to lose something that you care about that you currently own. It's like oh my Tom Brady 2000 rookie football card. If I don't get a B plus in this class, I have to give that card to somebody else. It has to force me to study. And at the end of three months, I'll be like, oh, yeah.

49:20I know all about art history. I know all about erosion. I don't even know what I want to learn about. But I don't want to learn what I think I need to learn. I want to learn something random.

49:31Bill Simmons:You have to sacrifice something, but then if you get a B plus, A minus, or above, you actually get something. Like you're like, I love cards. No, I think you get a prize too. Yeah, we're a prize driven country right now. We hear about prizes all the time. A prize.

49:52Bill Simmons:You want to do a couple of listener ones really fast? Yeah, go. Nick from Chicago is really encouraged by Nathan for you. Nathan, when he does something, he's all in rehearsing every single aspect of it and he wants to know what would happen if Steve Ballmer before the playoffs he took all the people that were going to go to the Clippers game and they secretly rehearsed all these different chants and things they were going to do during the game nobody knew it was happening and then the Spurs come in for game three and the game is about to start and the Clipper fans are all aligned doing some sort of crazy fan thing and try to mess with this.

50:33Bill Simmons:They've studied the Spurs. They have chants for individual guys. All things that would fuck with the Spurs in a gentlemanly way, not in a harassing way. Sure. Half-baked idea. I just like the idea of an owner trying to orchestrate that somehow in silence. Because Nathan Fielder learned how to fly a commercial jet in silence. It doesn't seem to be that he could do it with that wall thing he has but I don't feel like that could affect the game that much anyway that was one it's really more are we willing to have flares for some reason and this goes back to the first half-baked idea about what's going on in Europe and different rules they're big on flares I don't understand that I'm anti-flares I am too in general yeah you look in a stadium it's like it's like a huge sparkler i guess as long as no one gets hurt jordan that's jordan g wants to know um why speech karaoke can't be a thing instead of giving yeah instead of giving a song have you had this one i i've done uh i think i did like stand-up comedy cover songs but this is close that you just like everybody goes up and they give, he's like, I'm going to give the Gettysburg address now in front of their friends.

51:56You give the Miracle on Ice karaoke.

51:59Bill Simmons:I'm not, I didn't like that one. I like that one. He had a better one. Okay. It's an eating competition. Like we have the 4th of July hot dog contest, but everyone's on a Zempik and they've been taking a Zempik for two months and then they have to eat hot dogs, but they're not hungry. Because they're taking a Zepic. No. What happens? How many could they get to? I thought speech karaoke was much better. All right, speech karaoke. And then I did this one with House. I don't know if you heard, but we had a listener talking about anesthesiology and anesthesiology bars. Yeah. I don't know if you had a take on that.

52:46Well, outside of horribly dangerous. Yeah.

52:51Bill Simmons:but you go totally under. And you can do it for as long as you want. So the idea was, all right, I'm going to get to the airport five hours early for my flight to get through TSA. And then I'll have three hours to kill. I'll just go to the anesthesiology bar and get knocked out.

53:14Bill Simmons:Because the theory... It's just like, it just... I mean... and then you could just do this and House was all in it because House said there's nothing that's made him happier than getting knocked out for his colonoscopy that he went into this dreamlike state and he loved it and he would do it again yes that was the other half-baked idea but I don't think doing it for three hours did you watch did you see Hail Mary? I didn't see it oh it's good yeah it's good but you know the premise like Ryan Gosling wakes up after yeah you know he's been out for a while that's the these movies. It always comes out great for the person who wakes up.

53:53Yeah, they always have like a long beard. That's always one of the first things. Like, I gotta get rid of this beard. Ryan got too handsome. Any last half-bakes? Are we done? I'll just fly. I'll just I'll go. These are the three quick ones. Ready? Rapid fire.

54:10Bill Simmons:Rapid fire. Half-baked. Yeah. Rapid fire. One. Casual Friday in the NBA. Look, everybody's got uniforms on. Casual Friday. Just wear a pair shorts and a t-shirt. It's like casual Friday. Watch the games. Hey, you guys wear just kind of lightly colored t-shirts where we're darker colored t-shirts, but just your own shorts, whatever you want. It feels more pickup. I think they should do that for the tanking games. When, when the season's over for both teams, like just make it a casual Friday, just wear any t-shirts that you find. Number two, another karaoke thing. I was in a trying to listen to Bob Seger.

54:44I didn't to really sing. Just like how there's warnings on your car, the words are right there on your screen so you can sing along to a song that you don't know while you're in the car by yourself. Finally,

54:57Bill Simmons:wild bird. That sounds more dangerous than my senior citizen. No, it's just but it's in the windshield? Yeah, it's transparent. Okay. Wild bird mix. Can I attract other animals other than just specific types of birds? Hawks, coyotes, fox? I wouldn't mind a mountain lion. What do I need to put out there? Finally, this is a little bit of your sports are classic. The, you know, the, the godfather of, of half-baked ideas where you just wanted to be a government official in charge of all sports. Yeah. This is a little bit of, and this is a little bit you used to talk about your wife, how she would pick up on, um, you know, emotional social cues from teams while you guys were watching the game about the Lucas injury.

55:43and Austin Reeves injury, where JJ is now saying, oh, you know what? They were, we had talked to the medical experts. They were cleared. You know, Austin, he was cleared too. Just a regular guy who's barely paying attention is on the staff. You're like, nah, I don't know, man. We're down 30.

56:03Bill Simmons:The VP of common sense. That's it. Get him out. Okay. He's going to kill us. We're down 30, bro like he i saw him grab his hamstring he heard it earlier so like he shouldn't play and austin he said it was his back but like nah dude we're down 30 let bronnie get some run that's it the whole season it's a billion dollar franchise like well the doctors cleared him too much there's a guy when i walk when i walk my dog walk around and they have a big screen tv whatever that person is watching is the number one show in America. They'll watch football, basketball. I'm like that, the State of the Union, that is the number one hit.

56:44I don't know what the person does. They should be hired by, they should be a media executive. Just like, yeah, I like that. That'll work. Common sense. That's all that. This is great. How are we feeling about the Pats? The Patriots, I feel great. The Red Sox, I feel terrible. UConn, even though we're taping this on Monday, I feel great. And Celtics, I feel great. So I don't follow hockey.

57:10Bill Simmons:The Celtics thing has been amazing. It's been amazing. It's been like a gift from the gods. I was so nervous about Tatum because I think I'm a bit of a Achilles baby. But he's just great. I'm happy for him. And Jalen's playing great. So I'm just thrilled. I'm happy for everybody. I really like watching the team. I like the coach. I like all the guys on it. It's been a home run. I give this season an A+. Yes. It's been an A-plus season. They're going to win like 56, 57 games. Tatum looks like Tatum again. It's like whatever happened at MSG almost a year ago, it's like just this ugly, blurry memory that almost feels like it didn't happen now.

57:50Bill Simmons:It's great. Are you in bonus territory? I felt like I was in bonus territory with the Patriots. Yeah, because they weren't a Super Bowl team. It was amazing they made the Super Bowl. Right? I think all of us were like, wow, this is amazing. But you're not there with the Celtics. I think Celtics can win the title. Okay. I'm in a little bit of bonus territory with the Celtics. Like Jalen tweeted like 50 wins in a gap year or an off year or whatever he tweeted. I think I'm in bonus territory. Like this would be a championship you steal. The thing is, I wouldn't have totally believed if it wasn't for those games in San Antonio and OKC that week, where in one of the games, they didn't have Tatum.

58:32Bill Simmons:And then the other one, Jalen, got thrown out. But I felt like they handled the speed and the athleticism of both of those teams in a way that I don't think a lot of teams can. I think really only Denver can. Maybe Minnesota. But I just felt they seemed comfortable in those games. That would also be the reason if you're a Knicks fan, you beat the Spurs and you hung with OKC twice when you played them. It's like at least at least we seem like we belong in games like this. I think that's how you have to think. The Celtics belong in games like that. That's right. I believe in the Knicks. I believe in playoff Jalen Brunson.

59:08I feel like they're sleeping.

59:11Bill Simmons:I'm not as much of a believer. No one believes in them. They haven't really given anyone a reason though. I just believe I think it's a little bit of a flip the switch team. what's Nick Wright's chief state of mind right now very good two first round picks shore up the defense Patrick Mahomes posting videos of him running around he's ahead of schedule Kelsey back has anyone been behind schedule after a major surgery in the last six years only Brandon Ayuk he's the only one everyone is ahead of schedule everyone's like feeling great and way ahead and wow we can't believe the progress except for him.

59:51I think the medical community with athletes did something like the airlines are like, you know what? We're tired of being late. Just say every flight that takes five hours, six, five and a half hours. Like, hey, good news. An early arrival is going to get you there. We're actually 25 minutes late.

1:00:09Bill Simmons:We never did a Masters half-bake, by the way, but I guess we just forgot. Do we usually do that? No, it's just the Masters over this week. The only half-bake with that is It's just the best part of the masters is you have to give away your phone and have human interactions with people. And maybe that's just an event that people should just do. It's like a festival. Like instead of fanatics fest, it's just like give up your phone and talk to human beings, make some new friends fest. Kevin Wilds, I think my favorite was the, was you tapping into the embassies. I think you really cracked something with that.

1:00:43Bill Simmons:I want to find out more. I'm going to Google it tonight. Great to see you. You can watch Kevin on first things first. Just say hi to the gang for me. Great to see you, my buddy. Seeing you. All right. As you know, I love betting golf majors on FanDuel. FanDuel, a brand I trust. Easy to build. Buy bet. You know you're going to get your winnings instantly. And the NBA last week. And for my Wednesday bet, we rode Victor Weminyama to a massive, almost nine to one same game parlay. 35 plus points, 14 plus rebounds, Spurs to win. It hit. So this is gravy. Maybe I'm on a hot streak, but we came through last week, maybe to keep going.

1:01:22Bill Simmons:I think in Augusta, I'm looking at Justin Rose, 27 to one, following the advice of esteemed Hollywood agent, James Babydoll Dixon. We both like Justin Rose. Something about it. If he's ever going to win at Augusta ever again, it's got to be right around now because he's getting older. So there you go. Be sure to check out all the ringer specials from House and Nathan and everybody else on the FanDuel Sportsbook app prior to the tournament. Don't forget to use your Mulligan Boost token so you have a chance to take another swing. If your bet's not looking good, FanDuel, play your game. Nathan Hubbard is here.

1:01:56Bill Simmons:He hosts Fairway Rolling with Joe House. He also hosts every single album of fantastic pop culture music podcast. We went to the masters three of the last four years. We didn't go this year. I didn't care that I didn't go, but now it's Tuesday and I feel sad. I do too. I wish we, I do too. I, I, I miss the eating. I miss the not sleeping. I miss not having my phone for three days. I miss the walking. Um, and I miss some of the storylines and there are some good ones this year, even though we don't have Tiger. Scottie Sheffler, people, there's no conversations left to be had. Rory already won the Masters.

1:02:33Bill Simmons:So we have the biggest one. What's the biggest story left for you? What's the biggest Masters story we have right now? I think it's what you just said, which is that since 2022, coming into the Masters, we've had a dominant player who kicked ass in the first three months of the year and walked into the Masters and won it. In 22, it was Scottie. Then Rom walked in in 23 and took finally the Masters as a Spaniard. Scottie again in 24. And last year, Rory won the players. He won at Pebble and came in and broke through. This year, we just don't have a dominant player. There have been classy winners.

1:03:09We've had Morikawa. Scottie's got one. Justin Rose has won. Cam Young has won. Statistically, we have more elite players entering this tournament than at any time since 2004. And so when you couple that with the fact that a bunch of the best guys are coming in on more rest than ever, all 11 of the last 11 Masters winners have not had more than one week of rest. And there's guys coming in with two, three, even four weeks of rest. Scotty, we haven't seen since the players. He's got a new baby. So all of that together. Good timing, Scotty. Way to go. Yeah, great job. Way to look at the calendar. The kid's nine days old.

1:03:46Yeah, I think he did look at the calendar because he managed to sneak it in with 10 days to spare. But I think the story is that with no Tiger and no Phil for the first time since 1994, there's a possibility that we get one of those randoms this year. We get a Charles Schwartzel or a Danny Willett because we just don't have a dominant, he's the man going to come grab the crown this year.

1:04:09Bill Simmons:That's a really professional answer. There's a lot of podcast reps for you. I felt like I was hosting SportsCenter. I mean, we got to deliver something on Fairway Rollins. But what's the sexy story that's left? Because I have an idea for one, but I want to see if you had the same idea. You tell me. I mean, there's one... No, just give me one. Just give me what you think is the one that would get the gallery the most intrigued. It's Bryson DeChambeau winning. He's the most popular golfer on the planet. He's finished two top tens here. He's got second places at the last two PGAs. but he's secretly really struggled in final rounds.

1:04:54Even that 2024 US Open that he won, that's part of the Rory McIlroy narrative arc. Like, Rory gave him that. And he's won the last two Live events, walking off that green on the last Live event where he beat Jon Rahm, who statistically has been the best player over the last three months. He was in tears. Something's going on in Bryson's personal life that he doesn't want to talk about publicly. but for all of his sort of head games and most of golf is like 90 % between the ears. If Bryson has something going on outside that sort of focuses him as the most popular golfer on the course and really candidly on the planet, Bryson coming in and actually getting this win, he kind of belongs in that player's dinner room, doesn't he?

1:05:38Bill Simmons:He's more popular than Rory. Like for these next four days, I think I just think Rory's still, even though he won, Rory's still the most popular. Rory going back to back, I think people would root for that over Bryson. Yeah, it's only happened three times. And in fact, like in the last 20 years, like only like three guys have finished in the top 10 while defending. It's just so hard. Rory's already on site. I think, you know, you listen to him. He's still processing last year. It was definitely, it goes down as one of the all-time classics, right? That Tiger in 2019, Tiger in 97, Jack in 86, I think are the four biggest Masters moments, certainly of our generation.

1:06:16And so it's just a lot of work to defend and host. And it's hard to go back to back.

1:06:23Bill Simmons:I put Norman in there too, even though he lost. For sure. I don't have Rory on my list. Okay. So the two, I think Rory going back to back and Bryson winning are the two biggest possible outcomes for Sunday. Yeah. Sneaky one is Fleetwood, who if you're just talking about somebody who's been in the WWE for 15 years, but never actually got to hold the belt. He's never really held the belt. What does he have? He has eight top tens in majors. Even last year when he was trying to get off the hump of PGA titles, I forget what city that was, but he finally - Yeah, he won in Atlanta. Yeah, he seemed like he was going to choke and then in the last couple of holes rallied back and that was fun.

1:07:08Bill Simmons:But to me, he's like the most talented. And again, this is casual golf fan, Bill. But the most talented guy who doesn't seem like he has one of these. So that was one. But we know he's going to choke. So it's not what we're talking about. I know he's not going to come through. Only five guys have ever won the Masters with one or fewer PGA Tour wins. He's coming in with top tens in four of his last five starts. He's still playing well after he won the Tour Championship. It seemed like it took him to the next level. Problem for Tommy is that his putting numbers right now are not awesome. He's 120th on tour and putting.

1:07:43and they're talking this week because, I mean, the last couple of years you and I have been down there, you remember the weather that we've had. We've had a lot of rain. And I think that secretly made the course a little bit easier for some guys. This year, the weather's perfect. They've had a dry winter and spring. Sounds like the Green Jackets are tired of nine straight years of double-digit below-par victories and that they might flex the muscle of the course and make it a little bit faster this year. So for putters who aren't putting well, could be a little bit of a struggle this year.

1:08:13Bill Simmons:so uh ludwig yeah second in 2024 seventh last year him him winning and putting himself on the map i think would be interesting but he seems like too sexy of a pick that's the one a lot of people are pointing to he doesn't have the best odds but he's like in the top eight for odds and it's just fun to be like, it's his time. So I almost am automatically disqualifying him. There's no doubt that he's going to win one of these. But he's shown us some colors over the last month and even last year. So he's coming in with a T3, a T5, and a T5. He had the Players' Championship in his hands and he choked it on the back nine.

1:08:57There's just no denying it. On Sunday this past week in San Antonio, he had a real opportunity to go win. and he had another mediocre Sunday. And when you rewind to last year, you sort of forget it. He was briefly tied with Rose and Rory on the back last year. He finished bogey, triple bogey. And ended up falling down. So there is, when we talk about a little bit of that scar tissue, he's got quietly a little bit of that scar tissue, but you're exactly right. He's 26 years old of the generation that's just a shade below 32-year-old Bryson, 31-year-old Rom, 29-year-old Scotty. That's the guy. And it's just a question of when, not if.

1:09:40Bill Simmons:Morikawa, a little bit, 31-to-1 on FanDuel, but a little bit somewhere like kind of needs a moment. We've been waiting, we've been waiting. I don't trust him either. I wouldn't bet that. Well, you shouldn't right now because he was the consensus guy at the players. And he had the best iron play on tour in the first start of the year. and Augusta is the second shot golf course on tour, right? You've got to be able to hit your irons well. He takes a practice swing on his second hole. He's got all of the handle on him at the players. Takes a practice swing on his second hole and throws out his back.

1:10:16He hasn't played since and we've gotten some intel on the ground that he did a practice round yesterday with Scheffler and a couple of other guys, but he was mostly just chipping and putting. He's withdrawn from the last couple of events. He's not healthy. you should not trust Morikawa this week.

1:10:32Bill Simmons:And Patrick Reed, 43-1. Hometown kid. Already has one. It's always fun when he's involved because it's like you get a little mini-villain coming in. Yeah. And coming back from Liv, I don't know. 43-1 seemed like decent odds. I wouldn't bet it because it's not fun to root for him. No, but I like him as a first-round leader. I mean, there is a real redemption arc with Patrick Reed coming back now. he left Liv, ripped off a couple of wins and a second place on the Euro Tour. And suddenly, you forget last year, he statistically was second in ball striking at the Masters behind Rory McIlroy. So he's actually sneaky playing very, very well.

1:11:15And that dovetails into... I mean, you tell me...

1:11:19Bill Simmons:30 to 1 for first round leader. I don't hate it in the same way that Brooks Koepka, I bet you get better odds there. Koepke, his fellow sort of live defector, was second on the PGA Tour in approach play up until Houston. Yeah, I mean, Brooks' problem has been the putter, but he came back specifically to prep for these events. I think when Rory won last year, it really triggered a lot of those live guys to consider what was happening. At that point, you had sort of the undisputed best players in the world were Scotty and Rory, right? Scotty won two majors last year. I think for these guys who really all that's left in their 30s is to win majors, they decided that the PGA Tour was the place to be.

1:12:03And both of those guys quietly have been playing really, really great golf.

1:12:08Bill Simmons:Here's who I'm picking and betting on. Okay. He's 45 years old. Oh, my goodness. It's his 21st Masters. He's a three-time runner-up. Yep. He won the 2025 U.S. Open. he won in Torrey Pines in February yes he finished 13th at the Players he won the 2013 US Open he is the most fun he didn't win the 25, I'm blanking he won the 2013 US Open I don't know why I wrote down 2025 most fun he's the most fun old guy story left you need the old guy, mid 40s, 45 I can identify with this I'm old and you're old. It's like, look at this old guy battling these young pups. 35 to one odds for Justin Rose. I mean, it jumped out at me.

1:13:05Bill Simmons:Babydoll, esteemed agent slash manager, James Babydoll Dixon. Also old guy. This is the one he targeted as well. And I like the 45, 46 range as like, this is my last stand. If it doesn't happen now, once I hit 47, 48, 49, The math is just against me. But 45-46, still doable. So I think Eye of the Tiger, I have to do it this year. It's wide open. There's no awesome golfer right now. This is a wide open field. I have some confidence. I'm in the mix with some of these things. Why not? I think it's a great call out. I mean, he is now averaging the most strokes gained approach. More strokes gained approach than at any other time in his career.

1:13:50more than when he won the U.S. Open in 2013. And we've just watched him make putts so many times in so many clutch situations at the Ryder Cup. He was dominant at Torrey Pines this year. Now, he's missed a fair number of cuts, but I think to your point, he doesn't give a shit about the week-in, week-out tournament. All he's trying to do is go win a major. And he handled the loss in the playoff last year with so much class that it does feel like he's due. It's a little bit like when Sergio won in 2017, right? It just felt like it was his time and maybe he was due. So the thinking is, it's a now or never tournament for him.

1:14:31Bill Simmons:Yeah. We know he's clutch because we see it in the rider. Absolutely. Like he has it in him. I don't have to worry about like a Tommy Fleetwood situation where I'm up three in the 12th hole and then all of a sudden something's going in the water. No. And I also don't, who is he fearing if there's anyone out there? I like 45. That's right where, like when Nicholas won in the Masters in 86. I think he was 46. Yeah, correct. And that seemed ancient. But now 45 is like 39 in 1986. I feel like that's like late 30s, 40 years ago. Yeah. And the only comparable potential old guy would be an Adam Scott.

1:15:10But Justin Rose is playing better golf. I have him down too.

1:15:11Bill Simmons:Adam Scott, 70 to 1, 45 years old. and apparently second best guy with the irons in 2026 so far. Need the irons at Augusta. That's what you need. He finished fourth at Riviera, and there's a lot of similarities between guys who win at Riviera and guys who win at the Masters. Now, Tiger obviously never won at Riviera, but Scott showing his stuff at Riviera made our eyebrows go up. I like him actually as a potential first-round leader just because he's had those moments on this course. And it's him or Angel Cabrera, fresh out of the slammer. 75-year-old Angel? Or Vijay. Vijay actually showed out in Hawaii at the beginning of the year and played decently well.

1:15:59So I could see Vijay as a make-the-cut bet this year.

1:16:04Bill Simmons:I like the Adam Scott-Justin Rose battling in the finals. Two old guys as the announcers just go nuts. One other one that jumped out to me just because of the odds. Harris English is 100 to 1 yeah he's been really struggling with both his approach play and his putting this year but where's he from he's from yeah okay fair Georgia had success last year but because he's been struggling the odds are crazy 100 to 1 but I don't know I like when the people are from Georgia I always do feel like that's like a little bit of a something Like if you're ever going to get your shit together, it would be in your home state course, you know?

1:16:46Yeah. Well, with that in mind, you might look at Jacob Bridgman, who won a golf tournament earlier this year and has actually been at the top of the FedEx Cup standings in the beginning part of the year. He's kind of an unknown, but who has just surged to a ton of success, basically because he's the best putter on the PGA Tour, went to Clemson. So he's not far from Georgia and certainly from a regional perspective understands that golf. Now, first-time winners, you know, the last 16, we haven't had a first-time winner since Fuzzy Zeller. So these guys don't tend to win. But, you know, from a top 10, top 20 standpoint, Jacob Bridgman is just that guy right now and worth taking a look at.

1:17:2780 to 1. Yeah. Pretty good. I mean, there's a couple other guys that you got to pay attention to. And you talked about Harris English. My concern for Harris is that he had like a Jordan Spieth 2016 at the Masters moment, except his was at Bethpage at the Ryder Cup, where he just really, really struggled. He and Morikawa were a pairing that fans got down on and they didn't play well. And it sort of started the unraveling of the U.S. team. Not clear to me that he's recovered from that. But the guy who was sort of the dog at Bethpage for the U.S. was Cam Young, right? He got that breakthrough win in the last regular season event.

1:18:05He really is. And he's tied for fifth in most top tens at majors. He's got six top tens since 2022. That's only behind Scottie, Rory, Xander, Bryson, and Rom, all of whom have won. So he's finished T9. He's finished T7 here. He's shown that he can do it. He's 20-1. The last time we saw him was at the Players' Championship. In the last two years, Rory and Scottie both won the Players and then went on to win the Masters. Cam Young just won the Players. So he's a very interesting pick this week.

1:18:37Bill Simmons:I'm like a six on the Masters this year. Really? I mean, I love the Masters every year. I'm just saying there. Like, no, I really had my hopes up for Tiger. House and I talked about it last week. Yeah. All the little smoke signals that were coming out that he was going to play. I really, like, to the point where we were like, should we go? Should we try to rally last minute? that combined with the Rory thing being a year after the Rory thing. I think there's something with golf majors where when there's like a spectacular generational tournament, it always feels like the next year sucks. I don't know why that is.

1:19:15There's a definite letdown possibility here for sure. The weather

1:19:18Bill Simmons:I think is going to be weird. I don't know. I'm glad we're not going. Okay, we've talked ourselves out of it just in the course of 15 minutes. Coachella really quick still happening apparently it is my son is apparently going this year oh boy would you ever go to Coachella you just can't the crowds are too much for you I told you it checks all the boxes I have for things I wouldn't want to do it's a long car ride you have to like plan way ahead on where you're staying It's large groups of people and all kinds of possibilities for getting COVID again, all these different things. Dirty ass kids.

1:20:03Bill Simmons:A lot of walking. I never feel like I'm in the right spot. It just sounds horrible. I don't think I've been to a music. I'm so old. I haven't been to a music festival since like the K-Rock hot dog, whatever the one, what was that? The Weenie Roast? Yes. That was really fun. I saw one of those like in the height of like the comeback of alternative music. I don't know if I can top that. Come on, man. You got the strokes out there this year. you got, I mean, all eyes are on... The show is pretty exciting. Yeah. All eyes, I think, are on Justin Bieber. Because what's not clear is, you know, let's say he's had a lot of struggles, right?

1:20:37He's maybe the tiger of the music business. And the question is, you know, can he pull off an entire show? Because he has not been able to tour for a long time because of a bunch of issues. And so he walked out on stage in the Grammys in only his boxers and played what people thought was a pretty compelling set until he walked off and left his loop machine going and then walked back on to turn it off. So he had sort of a double leave, which made people a little bit unsure. But look, Bieber secretly put out a really great album. And the only question is, I think, whether he can deliver a full show.

1:21:16If he does that for two weekends in a row, his career is back.

1:21:19Bill Simmons:and then Sabrina Carpenter you're compromised on the Sabrina Carpenter question because of business interests but it seems like she is the biggest star at Coachella yeah correct it's a big one yeah she is nobody works harder than her and she's just she's sort of been able to stay above all of the messiness that a bunch of these pop stars get into and just deliver and it's because she just she just she's got a bunch of hits and she gets up there she's got she's cornered you know smart cute, dirty Lane. And she's kind of more clever than anybody else. How's this cornered out for us at the Ringer?

1:21:58I guess he has.

1:21:59Bill Simmons:Just the dirty part. I was going to say. Not really cute, dirty, though. Dirty he has. And Taylor Swift is just, we're going to get the, she's having a kid announcement anytime and taking two years off. We're just headed that way? We're definitely headed for a wedding. The thing that I don't know is she just never stops working, man. And I think even though by the sort of streaming numbers and the statistics, this last album was technically her biggest in terms of the way that it pierced culture or didn't pierce culture, I think it probably feels like a little bit of a disappointment. And her history is not to then go away.

1:22:41Her history is to keep going and lean into it. So, you know, it's now been a couple of years since she wrote all these songs. There could be more coming.

1:22:50Bill Simmons:Well, the issue for her is once you start skewing a little older and then younger people want their own version of you. And it's really hard to win that group when they just like, I like this person. They're closer to my age and that you belong to this other generation and I want one for myself. And now you're battling against that, which is. She's 36. You got a whole generation. It's just like, you know, in golf, there's this whole new generation of Ludvigs coming up who are staking their own claim and who young people seem to identify with. Again, statistically, she's still crushing her fan base is massive.

1:23:26But it does make me wonder, you know, the love story like wedding between John Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, like we haven't had one this big for a long time. I wonder if they may just run into a cabin in Georgia, speaking of Georgia, just like they did to get this done, to get it away from where everybody's going to... The prying eyes on this thing are going to be ridiculous. I think it's the opposite.

1:23:47Bill Simmons:I could almost see them pay-per-viewing it. I think it's going to be a big... I think they would want to go Diana Charles, early 80s level. Yeah, I mean, it's coming. We have no details. I think it's going to happen over the summer. So I'm waiting to hear. But if I'm them, man, I think they do it small and get this thing over with. The bigger question to me is, can somebody make influential, awesome music when they're happy with their personal life? Correct. It's a great question. We've been trying to answer it for 70 years. And you go back to all of the best albums by all the best artists for the most part are people who were in pain, upset at somebody, felt betrayed, felt hurt.

1:24:34Bill Simmons:Generational angst. Yeah, felt unwanted, felt misunderstood. And that's what most art comes from. And if you're just like, yeah, this Travis Kelsey guy's great. I'm having a great time. Then what are you singing about? I think that's the concern. We just got two EPs from U2 that we didn't need. We just didn't. It's true. You know, give me the young Bono. U2 is done. And then they came back in the 2001. It was basically, they had already won. They did everything they could possibly do. And it was like, It's a beautiful day! That was their album. They're just happy. It's like, hey, everybody. Yeah.

1:25:12They started forcing their albums onto our iPhones. It was a mess. But I do think you're on to something. By the way, Stevie Nicks, there was like a fake album announcement. Yeah, there was a fake album announcement yesterday that got quickly corrected with People Magazine. But supposedly, I don't know, we still may get a little Lindsey Stevie drama before it's all said and done. Come on. yeah I think there's a little buzz that perhaps there's going to be some more music together

1:25:39Bill Simmons:I don't know man supposedly there's a big documentary coming out about Fleetwood Mac that obviously was devastating to me because that was my all time dream music documentary ever to do somebody pulled it off and got everybody to talk and I'm really interested to see how it plays out as we've discussed many times I know The most interesting band of all the bands. We got to get you on every single album talking about rumors. It's the 50th anniversary. I know. It's my white whale. This is it. All right. Nathan Hubbard, anything else before we go? No, I just wish you did. I mean, come to Coachella weekend too.

1:26:18We'll go to the Sahara tent. You can see weird EDMX.

1:26:22Bill Simmons:There's no scenario where I ever go to Coachella. It's over for you. Plus, it's during the playoffs and stuff. And basketball. like last weekend of basketball I don't see it happening we're too old let's leave Coachella to our children we'll watch the live stream Coachella and we can watch the Masters on the couch this weekend and see if we get a little more drama than it looks like we're going to have going in alright well thanks for coming on and bloviating about the Masters it was great to see you Nathan Hubbard we could see you on fairway rolling at every single album say hi to house will do.

1:26:59Bill Simmons:This segment is brought to you by the all-new Audi Q3 made for the Yes Life. We're talking 0-60 teams, squads that flipped the switch, and now they're looking like legit contenders in the NBA. Which teams hit the accelerator when it mattered the most? Well, first of all, you've got to look at Charlotte, who started out 4-14, and I think they're 27-8 in their last 35, but is looming as an absolute upset team for the 2-7 or 1-8 spot. The Celtics would be the other one. The Celtics, you could see the odds shifting as it became possible that Jason Tatum was coming back. Now he's back. And now they are I think one of the four true contenders.

1:27:44Bill Simmons:And then the last one would be the Atlanta Hawks who seemed like they weren't even going to make the play-in and now they're going to be the 5-seed and they've been one of the hottest teams in the league since the All-Star break. So those would be the big three. The all-new Audi Q3 has more power than ever before. It's quick and ready to move when you are. Add in standard quattro all-wheel drive, more cargo space than ever before in legendary Audi performance. And you've got an SUV ready to make some moves. The Audi Q3, made for the S-life. Visit AudiUSA.com. All right, our friend Joanna Robinson is here.

1:28:20Bill Simmons:It's been a while. It's time to talk TV. You can hear her on the Prestige TV podcast. with Rob Mahoney and others. And you can also hear her on the House of Art podcast. But I caught up on the pit. It's a big thing. You and Rob, a bunch of people in my life have been pushing me. And I was like, I don't know. And then last week, my wife was just like, all right, I'm just going to start watching. I was working on a podcast and kind of like half watching on the couch. And then now I'm like three-fourths watching. And then I'm in. And then we ended up watching 28 episodes in four days.

1:28:53Joanna Robinson:So how long do you think it took you to hook you all the way in?

1:28:58Bill Simmons:Probably around episode three, four range. Okay. Once you have a feel for it, I don't know what took me so long. I knew I'd like it because I really liked ER the first five, six seasons.

1:29:08Joanna Robinson:Yeah.

1:29:10Bill Simmons:But the premise of it is just so smart where they're basically looking at ER from a million years ago. Like that was the biggest show we had. Medical shows always work. And then it's like, you know what else is a big show? 24. That show crushed in the 2000s. What if those two shows just merged together and we had Noah Wiley on it? I wonder if this will work. And we'll put it on HBO and we'll be able to push the envelope with some of the stuff you see in the ER. And I mean, of course, this worked. This must have been the easiest pitch of all time.

1:29:43Joanna Robinson:What do you what do you make of the idea that initially rumor has it that initially they wanted to make it an actual like Dr. John Carter spinoff show, like Noah Wiley still playing John Carter just this many years later. So I don't feel like I just feel like he's Noah Wiley with

1:29:59Bill Simmons:both characters. I don't even really remember John Carter enough to know what the differences are, but it's basically the same guy. They tried to give this guy a little bit of a backstory, but it's I still feel like it's John Carter. They're just calling him Dr. Robbie.

1:30:12Joanna Robinson:Yeah, it's basically the same guy. The story purportedly is that the Michael Creighton estate was like, give me that money if you're going to make it off of ER. And they were like, never mind. It's Dr. Robbie. He has nothing to do with John Carter. It's a completely different city. It's a completely different hospital. By the way, smart decision.

1:30:31Bill Simmons:They didn't need John Wells or any of those people for this. Why would they have to pay them for?

1:30:36Joanna Robinson:Yeah, John Wells is working on this. I mean, not John Wells, Michael Creighton. Yeah, the Creighton estate. Yeah, I mean, I think that, I think this show is an absolute smash. And obviously it's winning awards. It's hugely popular. But yeah, it's so addictive. And there's something about, there's something so old school, of course, about just spending all this time with characters that you're interested in. And that's what season two has really become. Like you and I were talking a little bit earlier today about the differences between season one and season two. And season two is just so much more, hey, do you like these people?

1:31:08Joanna Robinson:Or are you at the very least interested in these people? Then you're just gonna spend time with them, not do that big like mass shooting premise that they did in season one. Yeah.

1:31:17Bill Simmons:I gave you my theory that season one felt like the kitchen sink. We have no idea if we're even going to get a second season. Let's go all in. We have 15 episodes. We'll throw everything into this and we'll make this like the craziest day an ER could ever have on 15 hours. And then season two is like, hey, we want the show to go on for six, seven, eight, nine years. We can't do the kitchen sink thing again. Let's let's take our time. because I thought season one was better, but I understand why they played season two the way they did.

1:31:50Joanna Robinson:I also think season one is better just because it was so unexpected. Like we just didn't see the show coming at all. It absolutely swept everyone up. But I mostly agree with you, but I also think it's a, you know, they were insecure in their first season because they're like, we're not sure that people are going to emotionally latch onto these characters, that they'll even be able to tell what's going on. There's so many characters they're introducing. In season two, they have the luxury of were already invested in Frank Langdon. How is he going to come back to the ED? Or like, you know, all these other characters were already in the middle of their story.

1:32:21Joanna Robinson:So I feel like they don't, it's a little bit more self-confident in that they don't feel like they need a big event in the second season to get us in. Do you know what I mean?

1:32:29Bill Simmons:Yeah, that's a good point. And also you're discovering a show as season one is always going to be a more fun show. It's a whole new world. I think one of the things I really like about it is sometimes we don't get resolution with some of the stuff that happened. In the first season, you have that lady comes in who's clearly probably being sex trafficked with the pregnant lady.

1:32:52Joanna Robinson:Yeah.

1:32:53Bill Simmons:And we're there with them for maybe three episodes. And then they just kind of leave. And you're like, I wonder what happened. And you just don't know because that's probably what it's like to work with an ER. You're constantly probably asking like little questions to yourself. Like what's going on with that family? What's going on with these people?

1:33:10Joanna Robinson:Right. And they're not trying to make a documentary. They're not trying to be extremely realistic with the show. But they are trying to show you people who are, in the span of the same episode, right and wrong. There's no character on the show, maybe, no, not even Mel King this season. There's no character on the show who's always right and always gets it right and is always correct in their opinions. And there's no, most of the cases aren't clean like that either. You know, the mistakes are made. Things are missed. You lose patience. So you win with the patience, but you never know how it's going to turn out inside of the pit.

1:33:45Joanna Robinson:I think the one thing you can always rely on is that they're going to try to really challenge your expectations about something. They like to show you a character and ask you to assume something, assume you know who they are, and then turn the tables on you at some point. And so that might get tired around season three or season four. I don't know. But for right now, that formula is really working.

1:34:06Bill Simmons:Well, they also have, if you're going to extend the tail of the show, you can always just get rid of doctors.

1:34:13Joanna Robinson:Which is what they're doing. They had a big announcement this week that they're getting rid of a main character and they got rid of one in season one as well. Dr. Collins, right? Dr. Collins left after season one and they've got another casting announcement this season. So yeah, you can rotate the cast in and out. How are you feeling about, there's so much excitement around the Night Shift crew. How do you feel about the Night Shift crew as they're sort of clocking into the ED at the end of season two here?

1:34:38Bill Simmons:it's a new wrinkle. I mean, I'm a, as you know, I own a lot of Sean Hattese stock.

1:34:44Joanna Robinson:Dr. Abbott, you love him.

1:34:45Bill Simmons:I do. Good tennis player. I played tennis with him a bunch of times, but it was funny knowing him before he got this show. Cause you know, everybody out here, it's like, I'm trying to grab this job. You grab that job. And then you end up on this show, which is like, like one of the phenomenon shows of this decade. So I want more of him and, And just in general, like, I'm starting to get a little tired of some of the people that have been on a lot. And I want new people.

1:35:15Joanna Robinson:Ciara and I were talking about this on The Watch last week, this idea of maybe in the second season they could, instead of showing us a whole day shift, they could show us sort of half a day shift, half a night shift. You know, like move the night shift in even a little earlier onto the roster. That could be interesting. But yeah, I'm curious to see who they bring in, who's new next season. I really, what did you make of the new med students we got? We got Joy and Ogilvie this season. Like, did that, did those additions work for you? How did you feel about that? Okay. I don't think there's been, like, who's your favorite of all the side?

1:35:46Bill Simmons:I mean, everybody, it's so funny. I went through all the phases of this show and clearly my favorite character was going to be Dana. Like, there's just no question. Of course. And so, right, and it's like, well, that's Ciara's favorite character. It's like, of course, should have guessed. Yeah. Of course, she gets punched having a cigarette, which I thought was a tough one. Tough one for cigarettes break lovers. because I was like so excited she was having a cigarette break. I was like, I couldn't love Dana more. And now she's having a cigarette break. And then boom, some guy seltzer. But yeah, I love Dana.

1:36:17Bill Simmons:But then I probably my other favorite one is the one who didn't have an apartment in the first season.

1:36:23Joanna Robinson:Oh, Whitaker. Whitaker.

1:36:25Bill Simmons:Yeah. And I don't know. I felt like I was like strangely invested in him. And there's a couple I really don't like, but I know I'm also not supposed to like them.

1:36:35Joanna Robinson:Who don't you like that you feel like you're not supposed to like?

1:36:37Bill Simmons:Well, the one that turned in our guy. All he's doing is trying to dip into some pills. Leave the man alone. He's still doing his job.

1:36:47Joanna Robinson:What's wrong with skimming some drugs for people who need it? He's not hurting anybody. He's trying to detox a little bit.

1:36:53Bill Simmons:No, I didn't really like her character. I understand why she did. But I thought in season two, they have really ramped it up with her and made her more Noah Dolly. and like they're clearly trying to make her a little more villainy and it's working for me because I don't like her.

1:37:09Joanna Robinson:Dr. Santos, you're out on Santos. Well, how do you feel about bringing Langdon back the way that they did this season? I'm a huge Franklin Langdon fan, so I'm like glad he's back. But Rob and I have been talking a lot on the prestige show about the fact that, you know, they brought him back without really seemingly to involve HR. And he's, you know, the drawback of we're going to do an entire shift one day in a season is he's just like speed running his 12 steps to just be like amends, amends, amends, amends in one day. Well, what'd they say?

1:37:39Bill Simmons:It's like eight months?

1:37:41Joanna Robinson:Yeah. Between the two, I think eight or 10 months. Yeah.

1:37:45Bill Simmons:So yeah, I had some notes. It felt like they glossed over. It felt like a multi-part crime that he was committing of putting patients in danger, stealing drugs. It doesn't seem like kind of thing where you'd get your license back. And I also understand why Dr. Robbie was upset about it. I thought that was fair. I think he should probably not be too trusting. But yet this is one of the things about the show. I'm rooting for him to get his shit back together. I like the character. I actually thought he was, other than Dana, probably the strongest, most realistic character. I'm interested in him.

1:38:26Joanna Robinson:I'm really invested in Dr. Langdon's redemption arc. It's just funny to watch it try him trying to make it all happen in one day, one shift on the ED. You know what I mean? It's a tough one. One 4th of July. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:38:37Bill Simmons:We've seen this before. I thought the first few years at ER, I still think they hold up. They're really good. But when Anthony Edwards, his character got assaulted and then was dealing with all, basically had PTSD from it, wasn't telling anybody, and was trying to keep working. You're like, holy shit. And he's in charge of these... you know, trying to do the right thing with patients and all this stuff. And this, we're watching this guy unravel like that whole concept is really fun for these hospital dramas. Yeah.

1:39:09Joanna Robinson:And, uh, I don't know if you were still watching the show when it happened, but Carter, Noah Wiley's character had a, had a drug addiction issue on ER. So like,

1:39:17Bill Simmons:I think I was out at that point.

1:39:18Joanna Robinson:Yeah. There's, there's no, uh, when Clooney was out, you were out. You're like, I'm done. Clooney's gone. I'm gone.

1:39:24Bill Simmons:I did a good like six, seven years. I thought, when was the one when he got, him and Kelly Martin both got attacked?

1:39:32Joanna Robinson:What song was that?

1:39:33Bill Simmons:It was like a Nine Inch Nails song. I thought that was one of the best five minutes I've ever seen on television.

1:39:38Joanna Robinson:Some of the most traumatizing things I've ever seen. It was really disturbing.

1:39:42Bill Simmons:Really deeply disturbing.

1:39:44Joanna Robinson:Yeah. That was like, I want to say that was season five, something like that. I think.

1:39:48Bill Simmons:I lasted through Clooney.

1:39:51Joanna Robinson:Yeah. Through Kelly Martin. And then once they once they bump her off, you're done.

1:39:57Bill Simmons:I started watching because Sherry, I told you this, Sherry Stringfield, who I loved on NYPD Blue, was on, also on ER. And then that was like, I'm going to follow her there. And that was it.

1:40:10Joanna Robinson:I don't have the answer to this, but I wonder how much, you know, maybe they've talked about it, but I wonder how much pitching this to Casey Bloys at HBO. I wonder how much they're looking for shows that will also help banks boost some of their library shows. Because if you watch this on, on, you know, Max or whatever. It goes right to ER. And I've, we've heard from so many people who are watching ER for the first time just because they love the pit so much and they want to spend more time with Noah Wiley in the hospital and it's suggested to them on the app. And so they're like, okay, let's go ahead.

1:40:39Joanna Robinson:Well, it's funny.

1:40:39Bill Simmons:If you notice, he's on the screen grab for the show, at least on my TV. It's like ER and it's like a young Noah Wiley who doesn't have 30 years of ER disasters wearing on his face. exactly the first five years of that show are unassailable it was some of the best TV they had the best directors they did a Tarantino episode it was really great

1:40:59Joanna Robinson:Ian McGregor was on

1:41:01Bill Simmons:yeah and also like a really overqualified cast which I think if you're gonna ding this show ER had people especially the first couple years where it was just it was immediately clear Clooney was a major star Edward like it was like this guy's making movies like you could just see it you knew Juliana Margulies she was headed to other things. Sherry Stringfield maybe was like, this is where it's going to end. But Noah Wiley was like, what's going to happen with this guy? I don't know. You could tell me anything.

1:41:34Joanna Robinson:All right. And he was on there for so long. Eric LaSalle, of course, was also huge.

1:41:38Bill Simmons:Eric LaSalle was another one. He was great. And then Gloria Rubin was on that show. She was great. Yeah. I just feel like they brought Linda Cardellini. They brought in.

1:41:46Joanna Robinson:Linda Cardellini, more tyranny. You know, like, yeah, some of the late people were amazing, too. But yeah, you're right that like that the pay other than Noah Wiley and our guy Sean Hadassi, you know, this is a lot of people that we have not seen at all. They're either brand new to the industry or we're working in theater. But I think that's that was a budgetary gamble they made, right, to have this massive cast that they could pay very little money to. And the whole and budgetarily to set it all inside this one set saves them so much. much money. They barely ever leave this one set that they've built.

1:42:22Joanna Robinson:So it's an inexpensive show. It's a huge phenomenon. It's probably going to win the Emmy again this year. So it's just like one of the biggest return on investments. You compare that to a throne show, which is costing them millions and millions upon millions of dollars and is less of a cultural phenomenon than the pit is, at least right now.

1:42:41Bill Simmons:But you know what's funny about ER? Most of those people were nobody's. I didn't know who any of those people were except for Anthony Edwards and Sherry Strinkfield. Those are the only two people I knew. I knew Eric LaSalle from Coming to America. Eric LaSalle had been around.

1:42:54Joanna Robinson:Yeah. Let your soul glow.

1:42:56Bill Simmons:He was at least a little famous. Yeah. The bigger picture to me is like, first of all, are just hospitals, police and fire. These are just the undefeated things that we have for the rest of eternity.

1:43:10Joanna Robinson:Yeah.

1:43:11Bill Simmons:Every 10 years, like just, all right, fuck it. Let's do it again. I was watching General Hospital when I was a kid, when Luca and Laura were on there. And even like hospitals, that wasn't even, there was a hospital show before General Hospital. That was huge. I remember when ER and Chicago Hope were going at each other at the same time. It was like this big, big thing. Then Grey's Anatomy, 10 years later. It feels like every 10 years, there's another one of these.

1:43:37Joanna Robinson:Yeah, I think what's interesting about this show is that they're really trying to beat the Grey's Anatomy allegations. So they've insisted, like, we're not going to do relationships inside the show. We're not going to have people hooking up in exam rooms. That's not the show we're going to do. So that, you know, Shonda Rhimes took the medical template and then made a, you know, just a soap opera about it. She Shonda did it. Yeah, yeah, she Shonda did it. And so they're like, we're not going to do that. I like the 24 comp. We're going to, this is our premise on that framework of a medical show that never, you know, never disappoints.

1:44:09Joanna Robinson:like always comes through.

1:44:11Bill Simmons:Yeah, it'll be interesting if they spin it off and they do about a group of podcasters right before the White Lotus sees the finale. The 10 hours leading up to it with crazy shit happening in the office.

1:44:25Joanna Robinson:They keep trying to make podcasting work on TV, but you can't make it work because they just keep pretending it's radio and it's just not the same thing at all. I'll go further.

1:44:33Bill Simmons:Not only has it not worked, it's been really, truly terrible every time. Embarrassing. There's nothing. and one outcome where it's been awesome. So Noah Wiley. Yeah. Who was, I don't want to say his career was over, but it kind of had hit the end of the line, right? And I think even he talked about that in some of the interviews. Like, yeah, I was probably going to have to start selling my house. And like, my moment had kind of come and gone. I just felt like Noah Wiley was so good in the show. I kind of didn't really totally see it coming in the way he's in. I think the stuff, especially in season one, the stuff he's doing week to week, I was just really impressed.

1:45:14Bill Simmons:I know he won all the awards. I'm not breaking new ground saying this, but it's weird somebody in their fifties to be like, I didn't know you were this good of an actor.

1:45:22Joanna Robinson:I think, I think he's incredible on the show. Like I, I have been talking for last, you know, a couple of weeks or whatever about, should he take a slight backseat in season three, just cause he's doing so much. He's writing, he's directing, he's EP. He's the face of the show on every single interview. That's mainly because I'm concerned about Noah Wiley's mental health. In terms of Robbie being the center of the show, he is incredible. He's so watchable. You find yourself watching his face to see how he's reacting to something. You might not always agree with how he's reacting, but you're always interested in what does Robbie think about this.

1:45:56Joanna Robinson:And there is no show without Noah Wiley here. That might not always be true, but right now there is no show without Noah Wiley. I'm sure they want it to run forever and perhaps eventually he'll Clooney out of there. But like, it's, uh, it's his show and it's like, you love to see it. He, I think he stayed employed since the end of ER, you know, he was making like the librarians movies for TNT and stuff like that. Like he was working, but it wasn't anything like this. And to see him sort of all the way back front and center in the limelight in the biggest thing going on TV right now, he's getting his like walk of fame star, uh, you know, in a couple of weeks, I think.

1:46:32Joanna Robinson:And it's just like, I don't know. You love a comeback story.

1:46:35Bill Simmons:No, I mean, his career was at the point where he would have been like Jon Hamm's buddy and your friends and neighbors who was actually stealing money from his boss. But he would have been like the third or fourth lead.

1:46:47Joanna Robinson:Right. If even that, because he wasn't even getting that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:46:51Bill Simmons:He's carrying the show. And I'm sure like there's so few awesome parts. I'm sure there's other actors in his age range who are like, fuck. what a great part you know and like what you said about how you really he really he's the moral compass of the show but he uses silence really well you know like in the first season when that couple they don't want to take their son off the ventilator and he's trying to get them that way and they're like here's what we want to do and he does that like no wily pause right and just like makes a couple faces it's like okay I get it. All right. I'll come back. But it's just like you can read his face with what he's thinking, which is a really hard thing for an actor, I think.

1:47:36Bill Simmons:I've been really impressed.

1:47:37Joanna Robinson:How do you feel about the season two? Robbie's on the edge. Robbie, you know, might be contemplating suicide. Robbie might not be coming back from his trip. How do you feel about that storyline?

1:47:48Bill Simmons:Well, I thought it was interesting. He rode a motorcycle without a helmet. And lied to everyone. That you're working in an ER and about you're Mr. Safety and you're just flying around Pittsburgh. Uh, no, I know they're trying to drum up this stuff. I, one of the things that's so cool about his character in the show is that, I mean, I don't really know anything about his background with who, who he was with. What's his, what's his type? You know, like what is he going to meet somebody? Is it like, there's no date scene. We don't have to see Dr. Robbie at a bar, like having a drink with somebody you met online like that.

1:48:23Bill Simmons:The show just punts on all of that. And they're all about like the hospital and the work and the relationships and the work and all that other stuff. You know, the closest they'll come is when he's on the roof or, you know, the very last scene of the last episode of the first season. But it's just not interested in that stuff. And I kind of like it.

1:48:41Joanna Robinson:Yeah. I think they're trying to get that a little bit with like bringing in this guy, Duke, who we worked with on the motorcycle. And, you know, they bring in people's family, like Mel's sister, Becca comes in, you know, like the family members come in. And Dr. McKay's dad, played by the great, her own dad, Brad Dourif, comes in in season one. You know, her ex-husband's there. Like, yeah, they have family kind of coming and going a little bit on the edges. But yeah, it's like mainly about the work, which is sort of the whole point of the show, which is about these people have terrible work-life balances and like their lives are their jobs.

1:49:12Joanna Robinson:So they don't have time to have other relationships at all.

1:49:15Bill Simmons:Right. And then you use that as the crutch for why you don't have her because my job. but your job was also like all encompassing.

1:49:22Joanna Robinson:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:49:23Bill Simmons:You know one other thing I love about this show?

1:49:25Joanna Robinson:Tell me.

1:49:27Bill Simmons:Just the random guest actors that pop up where you're like, hey, that guy. It's like the guy from Last Days of Disco. There he is. What's he doing?

1:49:36Joanna Robinson:What a call, what a call. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:49:38Bill Simmons:There's a million of those on this show.

1:49:40Joanna Robinson:Do you want them to keep it like small? Like, hey, it's that guy? Because eventually ER was like, Sally Field's gonna be, you know, like we're gonna have, yeah.

1:49:47Bill Simmons:It was one of the reasons I stopped a lot And I thought it hurt friends too with the cameos. I never understood that. It's like on SNL when they just, they try to write sketches so some celebrity can walk out and the crowd can go nuts. I like when, like they had, this is like the all-time deep cut, but in season one, they had the guy who was in one of my favorite sports movies as a kid, Fast Break, who was in Vision Quest, who was in Officer and a Gentleman as the guy who was roomed with Richard Gere. tall black guy named Harold Sylvester.

1:50:20Joanna Robinson:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:50:21Bill Simmons:And he was the old guy in season one. I was like, Harold Sylvester is back. But they had a bunch of those. I would much rather see that than celebrity cameos.

1:50:30Joanna Robinson:That's really fun. Because every week we hear from listeners on the Prestige feed who are really excited about it. Certainly, you know, they had an actor who was on Law & Order, like all the different Law & Order franchises. So the Law & Order people are chiming in. Or Lou Ferrigno's son, Lou Ferrigno Jr. was on playing the sort of orthopedic guy who comes in and like holds up the severed leg. And our listeners sort of lost their mind. They're like, that's Lou Ferrigno Jr. He's on 911. We love him. And I was like, oh, the Hulk's son is here. That's cool, you know? But yeah, Mary McCormick showing up.

1:51:02Joanna Robinson:I feel like they're bringing in -

1:51:03Bill Simmons:Mary McCormick was a good one. Yeah, they're bringing these people

1:51:05Joanna Robinson:for like one or two episodes. Elvin from The Cosby Show was on this last week. You know, like I think that's really fun. I agree with you.

1:51:12Bill Simmons:Yeah, we need to go a little more 90s, early 2000s. maybe get some sort of random party of five person.

1:51:19Joanna Robinson:It just really keep me on my toes.

1:51:21Bill Simmons:I'm mad that I wasn't watching all the time because I would have loved listening to you and Rob try to break this stuff down over just watching 28 hours of this over four days.

1:51:31Joanna Robinson:Well, did you watch, you and your wife watched it together or did you break off and sort of plow ahead? No, we did no couple,

1:51:36Bill Simmons:we did no streamer cheating.

1:51:39Joanna Robinson:Okay, you stayed faithful. No, we stayed,

1:51:41Bill Simmons:because I was able, because of the setup I have for my job, I was able to keep the basketball on as we had, you know, so I was able to bang it out.

1:51:51Joanna Robinson:Here's the thing I don't know about you. One thing that people really love about the pit is that they get really emotional about it. I don't feel like you're a big TV crier. Do you get emotional about pit storylines? Like the story about that kid who was like brain dead in season one and they did that honor walk for him?

1:52:08Bill Simmons:I'm not a TV crier, but my wife is. and one of my favorite things is when it starts to get emotional and I won't look but I'll sneak over and then I'll look and she's like yep yep it got me so and that happened at least three times in the two seasons like they really kind of go for it a couple of times but then you know you watch these shows and you can't help but think about yourself in these situations or family members who have I don't think it was probably healthy to watch to binge watch this show the other thing is like it showed like the start of a childbirth like it there's a couple times like oh what about a heads up or the guy with the maggots in the cast like they do a good job of jolting you I have such maggot trauma I couldn't handle it

1:52:59Joanna Robinson:yeah it's the degloving for me anytime there's like a degloving where the skin has come off someone I just can't I can't handle it

1:53:06Bill Simmons:so how far are they going to go with this show we have two episodes left season two

1:53:11Joanna Robinson:Mm-hmm.

1:53:12Bill Simmons:There's a lot of cards left to play with some of the doctors and the junior doctors and the nurses, stuff like that. But there's some things they haven't done yet.

1:53:22Joanna Robinson:Well, I mean...

1:53:23Bill Simmons:We don't have like creepy, possibly sexually harassed a patient guy. That's coming, right?

1:53:30Joanna Robinson:There's things they haven't done yet, but all other medical shows have done, but they haven't done it the way that the pit does it. So like, you know, every time you see a storyline, we've been hearing from people who are like, Like, oh, they did on this medical show, they did on that medical show. But that's okay if you recycle things that we've... Obviously, there's only so many medical things that can happen.

1:53:48Bill Simmons:So is this a whole genre where people just watch every one of these shows and know every single thing that's happened?

1:53:53Joanna Robinson:Well, yeah, because people love procedurals. It's a comfort wash for them, right? They love their fire shows, their police shows, and their medical shows. And so you know what to expect every week, and you come in for the comfort. The pit alters that a little bit because they don't wrap up every case at the end of the hour. So you're left hanging, you know, like these cases extend the drama between the people extend a week to week. So it's a slightly different version of that comfort procedural watch. But I think this show could run for 10 years. Honestly, I think it could. If they figured out how to do it.

1:54:27Bill Simmons:HBO Max would love that. I mean, this is... So the question, one of the questions for me is if it had just been on Sunday nights on HBO at nine o 'clock, like they have with some of their signature shows, would it have worked in the same way? or was it actually like, this was the perfect hybrid -

1:54:42Joanna Robinson:Max show.

1:54:43Bill Simmons:Feels HBO, but it's really a Mac, and it's just kind of perfect for where we are in 2026.

1:54:48Joanna Robinson:Well, my understanding is it was part of their previous effort, which I think they've slightly abandoned to try to distinguish between what's on Max and what's on HBO. And this was like, this is a throwback network kind of show that we're going to do on Max. But I don't think they're really that invested in that anymore. And I think it could have worked just as well on Sunday night HBO, for sure.

1:55:13Bill Simmons:HBO is an interesting spot because they're running the Euphoria trailers. And they have this show that now has three of the single biggest stars that we have are all in the show. I don't ever in a million. The only time I can really remember anything like this happening before was Friends. when Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, and Perry were all like headlining movies all at the same time. But I don't even know if they are as famous as the three people on this show. I feel like we've broken new ground with this.

1:55:44Joanna Robinson:Well, that was a different era of television, of course, right? Yeah, they, you know, Aniston certainly crossed. You would do TV to leave movies. Yeah, but like, also the difference with Euphoria is they've been making this show since 2019, so infrequently. I've been re-watching Euphoria season one to prepare for season three. And they're just like such babies. Sidney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi are just absolutely tiny babies on that first season. So their entire career exploding. It is insane to me that they got this cast back together for this season. I don't understand it.

1:56:19Bill Simmons:I don't know how they pulled it off.

1:56:20Joanna Robinson:I don't think we want to know how much money was involved. But what I do know is that I've heard from a ton of people, including our guy Andy Greenwald, who have been out on previous seasons of Euphoria, who are like, I'm in for season three because it's undeniable. You're not going to watch the show with Sidney Sweeney and Zendaya and Jacob Elordi. Zendaya, who's in the biggest movies that are coming out this year, like, of course you're going to watch it.

1:56:43Bill Simmons:I mean, you could argue she's the single biggest under 40 female movie star.

1:56:48Joanna Robinson:I think she is.

1:56:49Bill Simmons:And you could argue Sidney Sweeney's at the top four.

1:56:52Joanna Robinson:I mean, she's up there, man. And Jacob Elordi, Oscar nominated, And, you know, it's just sort of like it's it's wild that all of them are together in a show like that. Yeah, Zendaya this year. This year for Zendaya is absolutely insane. Right. Dune 3, a Spider-Man movie, this Robert Pattinson movie that's, you know, doing more numbers than I think people thought it was going to. And, you know, she's just like the I think she is.

1:57:13Bill Simmons:She's the biggest star that she probably has the highest approval rating of any male or female star. And I think people really like a Lordy. I don't think there's a lot of people like fuck that guy. where Sidney Sweeney is the most polarizing male or female actor or actress we probably have.

1:57:29Joanna Robinson:I will say I had a tough time with Elordi just because his character on Euphoria is so tough, but it's been long enough since season two that I was just like, that he's done enough other stuff. But I was, yeah, when I'm rewatching, I'm like, oh yeah, Nate, Nate on Euphoria is a tough watch. So I'll be curious how the Elordi fans who haven't watched Euphoria, how they feel about him on the show.

1:57:48Bill Simmons:How many Tell Me Lies seasons have we had since Euphoria?

1:57:51Joanna Robinson:Right, five? I don't know. It's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot. It's like a lot of the Euphoria playbook and, you know, although it's hard to outdo Euphoria. I don't think you can outdo Euphoria.

1:58:01Bill Simmons:I don't have a great feeling about the season. I've heard from a couple people that it's really good.

1:58:07Joanna Robinson:I watched, they sent over like three episodes. Oh, you watched? I did watch them. Yeah.

1:58:13Bill Simmons:So were you happy or not happy?

1:58:15Joanna Robinson:I thought they were really good. But again, there's just this like, you're watching these incredible actors, you know? But with, as it's always the case in Euphoria, you kind of feel grimy watching it. Like you don't feel great after watching an episode of Euphoria. You feel grimy. I feel Sam Levinson is like one of the most divisive people making television right now. But Zendaya is incredible in it. And that's just the best thing to watch. The whole cast is really good.

1:58:45Bill Simmons:Are you watching Imperfect Women on Apple? You stayed with that one, right? No? No.

1:58:50Joanna Robinson:Should I be? What do you think?

1:58:52Bill Simmons:Listen, if you put actors that I've seen on an Apple box with some sort of somebody died, I'm probably going to watch. I just am.

1:59:02Joanna Robinson:How often are you looking at your iPad? What's the iPad percentage ratio for that show? Oh my God. I would say 70 % on the iPad doing stuff and then 30 % looking up.

1:59:15Bill Simmons:But I think I know what's happening for the most part. My wife likes it. It's catching three actresses at strange points in their career where all of them were probably bigger stars seven years ago. And they all kind of just combined together for this pretty generic crime. I mean, all these shows seem the same. Like everybody's worried about what AI is going to do for TV shows. It's like, I feel like we're already seeing it. It's like, hey, there's a murder. Whoa, let's go backwards. Oh, I wonder if this person did it.

1:59:45Joanna Robinson:That's the thing you can say about Euphoria is like...

1:59:49Bill Simmons:Yeah, you've never seen a show like this.

1:59:51Joanna Robinson:AI did not write this. Yeah. No, absolutely.

1:59:54Bill Simmons:You know what I enjoyed, though? Was the comeback episode of Your Friends and Neighbors. Okay. I was actually excited to have that one back.

2:00:01Joanna Robinson:Was it Marsters? Was that what did it for you?

2:00:04Bill Simmons:You know, Jimmy Mars came back.

2:00:06Joanna Robinson:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Out of nowhere.

2:00:07Bill Simmons:He's playing a billionaire. He's playing a brash, confident billionaire.

2:00:12Joanna Robinson:and it did it for you and so no looking at the iPad for the Your Friends and Neighbors season 2 premiere no I'm like

2:00:18Bill Simmons:I'm like 70 % watching that one yeah

2:00:21Joanna Robinson:I don't mind that show that one's solid

2:00:24Bill Simmons:trying to think if they're what were the other ones you've been covering on Prestige because some of those some of them I'm not watching right

2:00:31Joanna Robinson:Love Story you were kind of out on at the end right oh I

2:00:34Bill Simmons:I loved Love Story

2:00:35Joanna Robinson:I thought the ending didn't work for you

2:00:38Bill Simmons:I just thought the last three episodes could have yeah I thought the show peaked with the first four or five. I absolutely, I don't think I've talked about it on the podcast. I loved how they recreated a lot of the early 90s stuff. And you and Rob talked a lot about like, they really did take you back with the clothes, the look, the music. They did everything really well. It was like as high end of a version of a crappy show as you're going to get. Because it was pretty crappy.

2:01:07Joanna Robinson:Yeah.

2:01:07Bill Simmons:The second to last episode is them just arguing in a kitchen for 50 minutes. An argument nobody overheard. Yeah.

2:01:15Joanna Robinson:An argument that someone made up and decided it was them. I mean, I thought Sarah Pidgeon, who's the lead actress on that show, was like absolutely phenomenal. I thought she was so good. The other guy was fine. Yeah, he was also there. He was very handsome.

2:01:26Bill Simmons:He was okay. He looked like him, which was really all that you mattered. I don't think the show ever really fully decided on how they felt about JFK Jr. was kind of the flaw of the show. It's like, so is this guy just a moron? Like, walk us through what you want us to think about this guy because you're kind of making it seem like he's an irredeemable moron, but you don't really want to say it.

2:01:50Joanna Robinson:Well, I feel like in the final episode, they tried to make this like, they tried to really pat themselves on the back by saying, you know, having Constance Zimmer who played her mom basically say all the coverage is about, you know, your brother's talking to his sister, your brother. but nobody knew who my daughter was. And so the show's like, well, we cared more about Carolyn than we cared about JFK. Aren't we great? But I just feel like they didn't really, it would have been a much better show if they had a take on him, which they didn't feel like they had. But I think they really created in her an interesting character.

2:02:24Bill Simmons:That's what was so weird about it though. It's like they spent, I thought they really built out an excellent character there.

2:02:30Joanna Robinson:Yeah.

2:02:32Bill Simmons:He was also interesting in his own way because he wasn't really good at anything. And it was just clear we were like, I think he was a little older than me.

2:02:42Joanna Robinson:Yeah.

2:02:42Bill Simmons:It was clear he was just going to go into politics. And it was like, all right, do that. You try to pass the bar. We get it. You're trying to forge your own way. Oh, here's your stupid George magazine, which was a terrible magazine, by the way. And it was just clear. It's like, he's just going to run for senator and it's going to be fine. Like he just doesn't want to admit to himself yet that this is how it's going to play out. And then you, you peel under the other part of this was like, this is the kind of person who ends up becoming like a major person in politics. Like somebody who's clearly like, they just want to like ride their bike and hook up with people.

2:03:16Joanna Robinson:Play flag football. But everybody loved him.

2:03:18Bill Simmons:He, he, he was beloved. It was like, to me, when Diana died and, and he died, it was about the same reaction, at least with everybody I knew.

2:03:27Joanna Robinson:What did you make of them taking us inside of the crash? Like how they handled the whole crash sequence in the finale?

2:03:34Bill Simmons:I actually thought it was pretty fair. I thought it could have been more critical on how stupid it was that he flew. Like really one of the dumbest. I just can't believe he did it. Yeah.

2:03:45Joanna Robinson:Yeah.

2:03:46Bill Simmons:To do that at night. And yeah, it didn't really seem like he had the experience. And I just never really understood that one. But I think that missed opportunity I would have, instead of that second to last episode where they're just fighting, I was so interested in the Kennedy compound. I don't think we could have spent enough time there.

2:04:05Joanna Robinson:I thought that was the single best episode.

2:04:08Bill Simmons:I loved being around the dinner table when she created the podcast, basically going around asking different people what they thought. Just what the compound was like, what they did. I was like, I could have done another hour of it.

2:04:22Joanna Robinson:Why didn't Ethel Kennedy have a podcast? That's a question we'll ask ourselves. She should have.

2:04:26Bill Simmons:She was really good at setting people up.

2:04:28Joanna Robinson:What did you think? They cast Donald Logue as Ted Kennedy and then just like never used him to do anything. It was really strange.

2:04:36Bill Simmons:So my wife, who Love Story was her favorite piece of content that's come out, I think in the 2020s, ends up watching, there's a show on Tubi that's the lost wedding tapes of JFK Jr. and Carolyn. I don't know if you know about this.

2:04:55Joanna Robinson:No. Yeah.

2:04:56Bill Simmons:And it's somebody, one of his buddies videotaped the wedding and it's this whole documentary. So of course, my wife immediately goes from that to this and is watching it. And Ted Kennedy was like a big part of the wedding and just gives this really emotional speech at one point. And it's actually, it's worth, if you like Love Story, it's worth watching this documentary. but I didn't feel that impact at all. I always felt like he was like the man of the family and you didn't feel that from the show. I don't know why.

2:05:25Joanna Robinson:Well, that's what I'm saying. They cast an actor I like and know in that role. And so I'm just wondering if they cut him because it wasn't, you know. But he wasn't good.

2:05:32Bill Simmons:Maybe his accent was bad.

2:05:33Joanna Robinson:I mean, he was doing a hard Kennedy accent swing. So maybe.

2:05:37Bill Simmons:Let's be honest. Just fucking Jason Clarke. He's right there. He already did this to Chappaquiddick. He's available for all of these shows. let's probably wrap it up. Murdoch, like, like, Murdoch, just go.

2:05:50Joanna Robinson:What if that's just what Jason, Jason Clark does with the rest of his career is just Teddy Kennedy. He was an unbelievable Ted Kennedy. Yeah.

2:05:57Bill Simmons:I really liked that movie. Um, but yeah, I thought, I don't know why they punted on Ted. Maybe JFK wasn't that close to him.

2:06:03Joanna Robinson:I don't know. Um, also,

2:06:05Bill Simmons:do we feel like Carolyn, the show makes it seem like she's like, I don't want to like this guy, but there's something about him. And then there's other takes. and there were definitely takes in the 90s that she...

2:06:18Joanna Robinson:That she like... She knew what she was doing the whole time. To get him. She was out to get him.

2:06:22Bill Simmons:Yeah, she landed him.

2:06:24Joanna Robinson:I don't know. I mean, yeah, that's definitely the narrative that was prevalent at the time. And then I think the show is sort of like, what if the story was a little different than that?

2:06:33Bill Simmons:The show tried to zag against that. And it was based on a book that was written, I think, for her side of the story. And it felt like that's what we were getting. but I thought it didn't explore JFK like, was this guy just kind of a dope? And then it didn't explore her. Like how conniving was she with landing this guy?

2:06:54Joanna Robinson:I think the problem is like, if she went out, went like hooked up with him sort of against her will, like she's like, oh, I don't want to be part of this world, but there's something about him. Then there needed to be something about him that was more than just this guy is extremely handsome. Because she was dating an extremely handsome underwear model. So it's not like she couldn't get extremely handsome somewhere. And so what is it about him that was so undeniably alluring that Daryl Hannah and everyone else are throwing themselves at him? Is it just the Kennedy, he reminds us of his dad sort of aura?

2:07:27Joanna Robinson:And if that's true, then Carolyn is, yeah, more schemey than they decided to make her out inside of that show. So they can't have it both ways, I think.

2:07:37Bill Simmons:I think I have an answer.

2:07:38Joanna Robinson:What's that?

2:07:39Bill Simmons:I think he was just tremendously handsome.

2:07:42Joanna Robinson:Yep, he sure was. I mean, he definitely was.

2:07:44Bill Simmons:I knew somebody that was at Brown with him.

2:07:45Joanna Robinson:Yeah.

2:07:46Bill Simmons:I know somebody who was at Brown with him. And so obviously, love story. Everybody who intersected with them that I knew, they're dining on this for nine because everybody's got so many questions. Uh-huh. And he was just like, look, the dude was incredibly handsome.

2:08:03Joanna Robinson:Undeniable.

2:08:03Bill Simmons:And every woman loved him immediately. And that's just how it went. And that was what his life was like. They loved him. Women love this guy. and that was it. So, you know, for her -

2:08:15Joanna Robinson:So you don't have to have much else going for you if that's how you go through life, I guess.

2:08:18Bill Simmons:I don't even know if that's the answer. It was just, that was the appeal. Everybody was like, they just said he just was one of those guys. He'd like stop the room when he walked in and that was it.

2:08:31Joanna Robinson:Where are you on Beef Season 2 is coming out soon. How do you feel about that?

2:08:35Bill Simmons:New cast though, right?

2:08:36Joanna Robinson:Yeah, yeah. Carey Mulligan. I'm in. Oscar Isaac. I'm in. Kaylee Spaney, Charles Melton. Yeah, I'm excited about that.

2:08:42Bill Simmons:So we feel good about this TV year so far, it sounds like, because we're barely in April. I mean, Love Story was a gift. That was two months of content for us.

2:08:52Joanna Robinson:Love Story, The Pit, A Night of the Seven Kingdoms, I thought was a really successful Thrones endeavor early this year. So HBO is really kicking ass this year. Are you a DTF watcher? Are you watching that? I watched it.

2:09:05Bill Simmons:It's done, right?

2:09:06Joanna Robinson:Yeah. How do you feel about it?

2:09:07Bill Simmons:I made the mistake. I watched it early and I binged it.

2:09:10Joanna Robinson:Oh, okay. So you're not keeping up with everything. And I don't think that was the way to watch it because it was a little much

2:09:17Bill Simmons:to bang out in like two nights. I liked it though. I didn't love it, but I liked it. Did you like it?

2:09:25Joanna Robinson:It's not for me. What was your favorite show this year? Was it Love Story or what is it?

2:09:30Bill Simmons:What are my other options? I mean, The Pit, I guess.

2:09:35Joanna Robinson:Or whatever you're watching on Apple. I thought I thought Love Story

2:09:43Bill Simmons:tapped into something that I wish happened more which is that I don't I think it was very well done not that ambitious and was built to kind of cultivate conversation week to week and I don't think it's a show that would have succeeded on Netflix if it was a binge you just dump every episode at once I don't I thought part of the appeal of it and I don't know like to me like the bigger question, which we've talked about a bunch of times is why don't people follow this model more of how to do stuff? Like, is it better to just, cause I know, and I've talked to people at the different streamers, they're like, well, if it's a binge, people stay with it.

2:10:21Bill Simmons:If it's week to week, some of the audience will fall off. Maybe they don't stick with it past four or five weeks. I get it. I just think resonating culturally for that long should, is the ultimate goal of any show. Like Love Story was huge for FX because it felt like people were talking about it for seven straight weeks.

2:10:39Joanna Robinson:Well, it also has a longer term payoff. So something like The Pit, I think if The Pit were a binge, people would watch it. But I don't think it would have grown the way that it did. You know, and so like the long-term investment when you come into season two, the audience is so much bigger and it can only, you know, sort of grow from there. So I think it's a riskier move because if the show's really shitty, yeah, people are going to drop off. But in terms of like really getting people to emotionally buy in, to get your wife crying on the couch. Like you want to be there. I mean, I know you guys binge the pit, but like you want to be there week in, week out and really feel like you know these people and you're spending time with them.

2:11:15Joanna Robinson:And every week you're checking back in with Langdon and Santos and all the rest and how are they doing?

2:11:19Bill Simmons:Well, things like the Ashton Kutcher show that came out that bombed, that was it. Like that's the case for sticking to the binge model because you have a show like that and it bombs and you're releasing it every week and it's like DOA. in week two. Yeah.

2:11:35Joanna Robinson:And then also, you know, for podcasting is better if it's week to week. So think of the podcasters and release your show week to week. That's what I'm saying.

2:11:42Bill Simmons:You joke, but that's a real thing. Because in the old days, it was Think Pieces, but now it's the podcast cross with the Think Pieces. Like there's still, I saw on my Apple News the other day, somebody wrote a Carolyn Bissette piece. That show's been gone for 12 days. Somebody in like the Atlantic or something who's like, here's my Carolyn Bissette Think Piece. And it's like, this thing's still going. That has to matter. See, the bigger thing to me is how many of these are left?

2:12:11Joanna Robinson:Ominous? How many real life stories are left?

2:12:13Bill Simmons:Going backwards with the celebrity story that could do. I feel like we're kind of out at this point. OJ was another great one and we did it.

2:12:20Joanna Robinson:Fantastic.

2:12:22Bill Simmons:But in general, I just don't feel like there's any good ones left.

2:12:25Joanna Robinson:I don't know.

2:12:26Bill Simmons:They've done five Diana movies. How many times have we gone backwards with Princess Diana? We're good.

2:12:31Joanna Robinson:We need to be done with Diana. Yeah, we need to be done. We need a break from Diana.

2:12:34Bill Simmons:I want to honestly, a Meghan and Harry movie I would be in on.

2:12:37Joanna Robinson:It's too, well, they did that on Lifetime and I think it's too early to do a Meghan and Harry. Like we need some distance from this stuff, you know?

2:12:43Bill Simmons:Or is it too early? Like if you just can take liberties and go nuts, like we don't know, we don't know what happened in the jet. Like to have an entire episode of them arguing in the kitchen and having no idea if it didn't happen, that tells me like you can.

2:12:57Joanna Robinson:You can do whatever you want.

2:12:58Bill Simmons:Yeah, you can do whatever you want.

2:12:59Joanna Robinson:And not get sued by Meghan and Harry.

2:13:02Bill Simmons:Oh, true. They are alive. Yeah. Who would sue the love story people? I guess the family.

2:13:07Joanna Robinson:Yeah. Yeah.

2:13:10Bill Simmons:All right. Joanna.

2:13:13Joanna Robinson:Here's what I'm looking for from you in the future. I want you to nail a TV show about podcasting. I think only you can do it, Bill Simmons. So give us that. You know what?

2:13:23Bill Simmons:Honestly, it's like hacking. It's like how there's never been a good show about computer hackers. or even like sneakers, which we did on the Rewatchables. There's very little hacking in the hacking show.

2:13:33Joanna Robinson:What about hackers?

2:13:36Bill Simmons:Hackers. Well, it's just tough though because you can't keep the podcast topical.

2:13:41Joanna Robinson:True. Okay. I'll work on that though. Alternatively, a Harry and Meghan movie and or TV show. No, I want no part of that.

2:13:51Bill Simmons:I just think somebody should -

2:13:53Joanna Robinson:You just want to watch it.

2:13:54Bill Simmons:Yeah, I think that's one of the few ones left. I mean, the Bill Clinton one was a big miss. That just didn't work. They didn't get it. But there's more.

2:14:05Joanna Robinson:I liked the Versace one, though. I thought that was actually pretty cool. That was a great one.

2:14:08Bill Simmons:That was like, what, how many years ago? Like five, six years ago? That was excellent.

2:14:12Joanna Robinson:I think longer than that. It was between OJ and the Clinton one. And I think Versace is a really good example of one that it wouldn't occur to any of us to do the Versace case, I think. So when you're sitting here thinking about the big ones. But I think the best model to go for is like, go for some of the smaller stories that we know less about, you know, like, I think when you give us, OJ was incredible and we all knew so much about OJ and it still taught us things that we didn't know. But Versace, I think was even, like, I think about Versace more because I knew nothing about that story. So like, find us a smaller story that you can sort of teach us everything about.

2:14:49Joanna Robinson:And that's something I would tune in for.

2:14:51Bill Simmons:That's really good advice. What's the big nerd culture movie coming this year?

2:14:55Joanna Robinson:dune part three are you are you excited for dune part three

2:15:00Bill Simmons:tepidly okay very well done those two movies they sold out the 70 millimeter imax

2:15:09Joanna Robinson:screening sold out within a couple hours they put them online today so people are people are excited the spice movies are back we've figured out

2:15:17Bill Simmons:this movie theater thing yeah they tried to do it 12 13 years ago with 3d make 3D events and people just don't like wearing 3D glasses and now they've figured out these IMAX things are now events.

2:15:29Joanna Robinson:Yeah.

2:15:30Bill Simmons:And they've nailed it. Congratulations to everybody. All right, Joanna Robinson. Great to see you as always. Thanks for coming on.

2:15:35Joanna Robinson:Thanks, Bill.

2:15:36Bill Simmons:All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Kevin Wilds and Nathan and Joanna and Gahal and Eduardo as always. Don't forget New Rewatchables was up Monday night. Eddie and the Cruisers. I think we're running basic instinct next week. So that if you want to prepare for next week's rewatchables, that's going to be the one I am going to be back on this feed late Thursday afternoon. And hopefully I have more clarity on, on the MVP. I'm going to really spend a lot of time thinking about this. Enjoy the middle of the week.

2:16:22on the wayside on the first side of the road.

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