Tony Reali Reflects on ESPN’s “Around the Horn” After Program’s 23-Year Run: ‘This Show Was a Show About Feeling’ (Exclusive)

For Tony Reali, sports has never been about the numbers.

It’s an ironic realization for the 46-year-old talk show host, who rose to prominence on ESPN as the know-it-all “Stat Boy” on Pardon the Interruption before taking over in 2004 as the host of Around the Horn, a sports talk program predicated on awarding points to the panelists who make the best arguments.

Winners of every program earn 30 seconds of their own airtime at the end of every show to highlight an issue or give a shoutout to something important to them. But in recent weeks, as Around the Horn approaches its final episode on Friday, May 23 after 23 years on the air, an increasing number of those moments have been used to shed light on what Reali has meant to the sports media world, and the careers Around the Horn has helped jumpstart.

“In the end, this was a show about sports debate and about voices and about the experts who cover games and about a mute button and points. But for me, this was a show about feeling,” Reali tells PEOPLE. “Sports are a conduit for feelings.”

Reali has been admittedly sentimental while reflecting on the program’s historic 4,953-episode run. ESPN announced its plans in early March to cancel Around the Horn despite what it called an “incredibly rare” and “remarkable” run on its network. Reali was “certainly surprised” when he got the news, but appears to have come to terms with saying goodbye.

“Twenty three years and 4,953 episodes is a success story no matter how it ends,” he says. “You can tell me the show is ending, and you can use any word you want for it. For me, it’s being sunset, and that’s a wonderful thing. It’s literally returning back to the dock after going around the horn, and I’m proud of that.”

The New York City native’s contract with the network is up in August, and he’s been told ESPN is open to hearing ideas for other programs.

“I’d love to have those conversations, and I’m trying to have those conversations, but that’s where it is,” Reali says. “I haven’t had the conversations about what could be next at my network, but I’ve certainly heard amazing things from so many other places. And I certainly know how rare it is for someone to have a 23-year show of success like that.”

Reali’s own success started back at Fordham University where he worked for the school’s local WFUV radio station, doing play-by-play for the men’s football and basketball teams. Later, he’d take beat reporting jobs covering the New York Yankees, Mets, Giants and Jets before joining ESPN in 2000 as a researcher and writer for the Two Minute Drill, the network’s precursor game show hosted by Kenny Mayne.

He was deeply obsessed with sports. At some point, Reali recalls, it became his entire life. “I used to go into the office just to watch sports on eight different TVs in the dark on the nicest Sunday of the year in September,” he laughs.

Even the serendipitous meeting between Reali and his wife Samiya happened because of sports. After he noticed a flag football team at the park was short a member, Reali offered to step in and quickly struck up a friendship with his teammates, who invited him out for dinner afterwards at the restaurant where Samiya worked.

“It was love at first sight,” Reali says. So he seized the moment and asked Samiya out, and they became engaged in 2007 and now share three children, Francesca, Antonella, and Enzo. (The couple lost son Amadeo at birth in 2018, which Reali opened up about during an episode shortly after Father’s Day that year — one of the program’s most emotional segments and one that highlighted its effort to contextualize sports within the rest of the world.)

Soon after meeting his wife, Reali seized the other biggest opportunity of his life when he was asked to officially take over for Around the Horn’s original host Max Kellerman. His first episode was on February 2, 2004, the day after Super Bowl XXXVIII. “I sweated through my clothes,” recalls Reali, who soon began saying a prayer before every show. “I was 25. I had one suit. I wore a second tie the next day, and by Wednesday, I was out of clothes.”

But it didn’t take long for Reali to get comfortable in ESPN’s 5 p.m. ET slot. “I’m someone who is very comfortable in his own skin,” says the host, who also continued his appearances as PTI’s “Stat Boy” until 2014. “I feel like I can connect with anybody instantaneously. I was never worried about sounding stupid or looking stupid on TV. I was most mindful of carrying the weight of a show with incredible people and wanting to do them right.”

Around the Horn was the daily soapbox for some of Reali’s biggest idols in the business, from columnists Woody Paige and Bob Ryan to Bill Plaschke and Tim Cowlishaw. But throughout Reali’s 21 years as the show’s host, the program has evolved from a sportswriter’s showcase to a launching pad for ESPN’s biggest names – helping introduce the likes of Jemele Hill, Bomani Jones, Sarah Spain, Frank Isola and more to national audiences.

By the time Around the Horn hits its final buzzer, ESPN’s airways will be filled with the program’s alumni. Some now even host their own podcasts and shows, including Elle Duncan, Mina Kimes, Pablo Torre and Clinton Yates. Others have become the go-to experts in their sport, from Ramona Shelburne to Monica McNutt, Emily Kaplan, Harry Lyles Jr. and more. Even Lil Wayne and Mark Cuban have joined the show to provide their hottest takes on the day’s sports news.

“That’s what I really found fulfillment in,” Reali says. “It’s about the people we introduced. I hope people recognize that we were a show that welcomed all voices and worked on being true in those voices and not just taking one side of an argument.”

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Come next week, a wide-smiling and energetic Reali will be looking for a full-time job for the first time in more than two decades. Just like the never-ending Google Doc he has for Around the Horn’s final week of shows, Reali has pages of ideas he has for new ones. There’s the idea of going solo and hosting his own show on YouTube, building his own sports website, becoming the “Mr. Rogers” of sports and creating a kids-centric sports program, or following in one of his favorite host’s footsteps and doing an Anthony Bourdain-inspired sports travel program. And, of course, there’s NFL Redzone, which Reali has openly expressed interest in as rumors sizzle about Scott Hanson’s future with the program.

“I have more muscles, I have high desires, and I have more energy than anybody on the planet,” Reali assures. “I am happy, thrilled and hungry to do a new thing, and the landscape and the industry is even so much more welcoming for someone like myself than it has ever been.”

But while Reali is ready to move forward, for the next few days he’ll be looking back. He’s giddy when talking about the show’s finale, which is full of homages, flashbacks and special guest appearances. More panelists than usual will also be on the air this week to bid their farewells – some of whom have already shed tears while expressing to Reali what he and his show have meant for the conversation around sports since Around the Horn first went on air 23 very different years ago.

“People forget what you say, and they forget what you do, but they remember how you make them feel,” Reali says, days away from closing the biggest chapter of his life. “And this show was a tremendous place for people to feel.”

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