Club Random/YouTube
Former ESPN anchor Sage Steele made her official return to media on Wednesday with The Sage Steele Show, the first podcast on Bill Maher’s newly launched Club Random Studios.
On this weekly show, Steele will have conversations with guests covering a wide variety of topics. One of the biggest appeals of the show, she said in an interview with Mediaite, is the fact that it’s simply a conversation.
“The ‘conversation’ word is everything to me,” she said ahead of her show’s debut. “It’s not an interview. It’s not a back-and-forth — like question, answer, question. It’s a true conversation, and that’s something I’ve always tried to do throughout my career, even if I only had four minutes to do a quick live hit on SportsCenter with a guest. I’ve always tried to make it conversational. That’s how I’ve always enjoyed watching and consuming things as a viewer.”
Sage spent 16 years with ESPN. In 2021, she came under fire for comments made about the Covid-19 vaccine and former President Barack Obama on a podcast hosted by retired NFL quarterback Jay Cutler. Following an on-air absence, Steele accused ESPN of suspending her for the comments. The network said she was recovering from the coronavirus at the time.
Then, Steele filed a lawsuit against ESPN and Disney in April 2022, claiming she was retaliated against. In August 2023, she announced on social media that a settlement had been reached and her time with the network had come to an end.
Six weeks later, a producer reached out and pitched the idea of her joining Maher’s upcoming podcast network, which was set to grow out of Maher’s own podcast, which features lengthy conversations with big names. A few weeks after that, she was on a flight to Los Angeles to appear on Maher’s podcast Club Random.
“I had never met Bill Maher in my life,” Steele said. “Never thought I would. Wasn’t even sure I wanted to. And when he had me on, it was just so much fun.”
What drew Steele to the network, she said, was the fact that she and Maher hit it off so well despite their differences, noting that while she’s a Catholic mother with conservative views, Maher “thinks marriage is stupid, kids are annoying, and he’s an atheist.”
“We could not be more different,” she said, “and we love each and respect each other. And that is proof that we all can be better in this country, and that’s why I’m so excited because, of all people to hire me, Bill Maher?”
Club Random producer Chris Case had been a fan of Steele long before she left ESPN. When she did, he thought she’d be a good fit for Maher’s project.
“I thought the conversation was lively,” Case said of Maher’s interview with Steele. “I thought there was a spirited give-and-take. I was interested that the two of them didn’t agree on everything but also got along well. I was just really impressed with how she held her ground and defended what she believed in, and also was open to hearing other things on topics that she and Bill don’t always see eye-to-eye on.”
Shortly after Steele left ESPN, there were rumblings that some in Washington urged her to run for office. Though she did confirm there conversations about a pivot to politics — and a “very flattering push” to run in Connecticut — she chose to stay in media.
She told Mediaite that a big reason she chose to remain in the media industry was the fact that Maher and Club Random’s producers simply made her feel wanted after she felt “betrayed” by ESPN.
“It was a two-way street for a long time,” Steele said of ESPN, “and then when I was shut down and punished and made an example out of by the company that I loved — it was my dream job since I was a little girl — I thought about that and how that felt, and then for this man and the incredible team that he has for this project, for him to choose me after others decided that I wasn’t worth it anymore, hit hard.
“And for them to agree with my priority in my life, other than my children, is to push back on those people who preach diversity of thought but don’t practice it. I knew that I could no longer be silent about that hypocrisy.”
New episodes of The Sage Steele Show will premiere every Wednesday. Some of the first guests include UFC President Dana White, comedian Howie Mandel, and actress Drea de Matteo. Additionally, Club Random Studios is working on several other shows — including a conspiracy theory-focused podcast hosted by Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst.
“From the very beginning, our idea was, ‘You know what? We collectively know so many interesting people,’” Case said, “‘and so many people come through and will come through Club Random that it would only make sense that we find talent and other people who wanna do this in this style that we’re doing it.’”
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