ESPN had three minutes to spend on the people the ESPYs are supposed to be honoring, and it spent them on a man in yellow spandex doing a pirouette. The Savannah Bananas opened the 2026 ESPYs at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater with a full Broadway number called “The Show Starts Now,” backflips, a stilt-walker and all.
Nobody’s mad that Banana Ball is silly. Everyone already knows what Banana Ball is — a barnstorming exhibition act built on trick plays and mascot bits, and that’s exactly why it works as a touring show. The problem is that ESPN spent three minutes of a broadcast built to honor athletes on that exhibition act instead of an athlete, and the audience noticed precisely what got squeezed out to make room for it.
The real complaint is arithmetic: three minutes of stilts and backflips is three minutes somebody who actually accomplished something in 2026 didn’t get to stand on that stage and hear their name.
ESPN handed the Bananas three minutes an athlete tribute needed, and it wasn’t a cheap bit, either. The song came from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the Grammy-winning duo behind “La La Land” and “Dear Evan Hansen,” sung live by Derek Klena, a legitimate Broadway lead who’s apparently also on the Bananas roster now. That’s real production budget going toward a novelty act at a ceremony whose entire premise is celebrating people who play sports for a living.
Dave Portnoy said what everyone watching at home was thinking, just louder. He posted on X mid-number: “GET THE F***ING BANANAS OFF MY TV!!!!” Then came the video, Portnoy sputtering in real time about a guy mid-pirouette, demanding the Bananas get off his television.
https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/2077545632668020742
Portnoy wasn’t manufacturing outrage for engagement here — this is a guy who watches every ESPYs broadcast there’s ever been, reacting like someone personally offended on behalf of the format.
He wasn’t alone, either. The Savannah Bananas ESPYs backlash spread fast across Yahoo Sports’ recap, with fans calling the number “an abomination and blasphemy against baseball” and complaining that ESPN had “turned the ESPYS into a halftime show.” One commenter just went with “cornball,” which might be the most efficient review of the whole night.
Fair enough — the ESPYs stopped being a solemn ceremony a long time ago; some viewers pointed out it’s a Disney-sponsored entertainment special now, and a banana-suit musical number fits that show’s actual DNA better than a highlight reel would. That’s an argument about what the ESPYs are, though, not a reason to spend three of its minutes on a novelty act instead of a person who earned the stage.
OutKick’s Zach Dean called it “one of the worst things ever shown on ESPN airwaves”, and flagged something worse than the number itself: ESPN barely marketed this broadcast beforehand, a quiet rollout for a show that used to be must-see TV. DJ Khaled then had to walk out and physically reset the room before the ceremony could get back to handing out actual awards.
ESPN is the same network that just got dragged over its World Cup coverage, and the Bananas number is the latest evidence it keeps making programming calls with its own entertainment ambitions in mind before the athletes it’s supposedly honoring. Whatever you think of the backlash itself, ESPN chose the bit over the tribute, and it wasn’t close. If you want more of ESPN turning its biggest nights into weird ones, the rest of our culture coverage has plenty of company for this one.
Somewhere, an athlete who actually did something worth honoring this year watched a grown man in a banana suit take a bow.
