Don Ohlmeyer, the longtime television producer who was, at various times, the brains behind Wide World of Sports, Monday Night Football, and ABC's coverage of the Olympic Games, has agreed to join ESPN as the Worldwide Leader's ombudsman.
The news was first broken by Sports Illustrated sports media reporter Richard Deitsch, on his Twitter feed.
Ohlmeyer, who has been an executive at both ABC and NBC and has overseen entertainment programming as well as sports, is taking on a job that ESPN describes as "the public's representative to ESPN, offering independent examination and analysis of ESPN's media outlets." He replaces Le Anne Schreiber, who wrote her last column as ombudsman in March.
Although Ohlmeyer is known to many as the man who was savaged by Norm MacDonald and David Letterman during a hilarious Late Show interview (Letterman said Ohlmeyer "couldn't create gas if he ate a bean dinner"), he's also well respected in the sports media world. His regular columns at ESPN.com will be essential reading for people who care about sports media.
UPDATE: A.J. Daulerio of Deadspin reported on June 15 that Ohlmeyer was the leading candidate for the job.
ESPN Hires Don Ohlmeyer, Sports Media Legend, as Ombudsman
Jul 14, 2009 – 9:40 AM
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