Talk shows with a Black host, especially late night shows, are as rare as Black quarterbacks used to be. Thus Bomani Jones, host of the new Game Theory on HBO, has entered a unique realm. Jones—a longtime commentator for ESPN, where he also hosts a podcast, The Right Time With Bomani Jones—kicked off his late-night duties this past Sunday night. It was a return to the roots on display in his SiriusXM show, The Morning Jones, and his low-key podcast, The Evening Jones.
Among many, Jones, who’s better known by his first name, or simply “Bo,” has been a cutting Black voice throughout the sports world, known for his clarity of insight and thought, often seeing the angles others do not. His brilliance shines through whatever screen or microphone he’s on, and it seems Jones, 41, is finally getting a chance to stretch his legs on HBO, as one of the few Black hosts of a show on late-night TV.
I still vividly recall The Arsenio Hall Show, which ran from 1989 to 1994, with the signature “whoop whoop” and fist wave etched into my mind as a young child. In my childhood memories, the primetime sketch show In Living Color, exists right near Hall’s late night hour.
There have been other Black late-night shows since Hall, but not many. Wanda Sykes had The Wanda Sykes Show on Fox, a panel show covering topical events. The Chris Rock Show on HBO was, in many ways, a precursor to (Dave) Chappelle Show. And in turn, The Chappelle Show, while not precisely late-night, has left its own massive cultural legacy on comedy, sketch, and Black-led primetime shows. Perhaps the best of The Chappelle Show can be found in Game Theory—without the transphobia.
Most recently, Amber Ruffin was brought on by Peacock to host the streamer’s cutting and intelligent The Amber Ruffin Show, making her only the second Black woman, after Sykes, in the genre. And we can’t forget about Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show; since Jon Stewart’s 2015 departure, Noah has increasingly shaped the show’s direction, with it fully being “his show” now. But The Daily Show is still the show Stewart built, and his shadow is still there. What separates the others from The Daily Show is they were created in the host's image.
And so Game Theory is a show built by, for and around Bomani Jones, sprouting from what he does best: telling stories about sports and society in sharp yet inventive and funny ways.
Mixing Bomani’s luminous insights with jokes is a deadly combination. HBO wants Bomani to be Bomani, and Game Theory makes the constraints Jones faces at ESPN apparent. He has space to talk about subjects in a way he doesn’t quite have at ESPN and as well as the resources to execute loftier ideas. It’s hard to know how popular this show will be, but if Twitter is any indication, it’ll be a cornerstone of sports and social commentary.
This is perhaps what's most important about Black late-night shows: They give and take Black culture, like jazz improv. They become a way to process the world, something we turn into to laugh, learn, and understand, not unlike the show that airs just before Game Theory: John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight. It’s notable that, with Oliver as his lead-in, Jones has a chance to bring his unique perspective to different audiences, even if Game Theory seems made with we over-35 Black folks in mind.
The last segment of the premiere episode highlights the best of Bomani, and shows the world why his voice in late-night on a platform like HBO is essential. If you’re familiar with his work, it’s no surprise that Jones took a sports topic and talked in-depth about its intersections with American society—Black America specifically—through cutting commentary and jokes.
It was an extended (over 14 minutes) commentary piece on retiring Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, that begins with deadpan snark, rolls seamlessly into a discussion of “white excellence” and a well-contextualized recap of Coach K’s remarkable and problematic 40-odd-year career, and ended with a comedy sketch (with a very special guest) that would have been right at home on Chappelle’s Show.
Watching it yourself will do far more justice than any words I could write to summarize it. It’s worth the time for any longtime college basketball fan.
Bomani Jones is indeed in rarified air, and this accomplishment speaks so much to who he is. Nowhere else can you find such a unique voice in sports, where even when you disagree with what you hear, you still learn something.
The best part of this has been watching Bo receive and accept the love that so many people throughout the industry and beyond have expressed, and the vulnerability he’s shown while publicly accepting it. And with that in mind, I’ll leave you with this touching moment when his parents surprised him on a recent episode of The Right Time with Bomani Jones.
Game Theory with Bomani Jones airs on HBO every Sunday night at 11:30 pm ET; you can catch it streaming the next day if you’re not quite up to staying up that late.