Why was Bomani Jones' Game Theory cancelled? HBO scraps show ahead of third season

Game Theory with Bomani Jones is off the air.

OutKick’s Bobby Burack reported that HBO decided to cancel the program before its third season, with the show losing an average of 80% of its viewership each season.

HBO debuted the show in 2022 and it first aired after Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

Season one had six episodes, and Bomani Jones tackled topics like Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s impact on college basketball upon retirement. He also discussed cryptocurrency, historically Black colleges and universities, The Masters, NFL coaching nepotism, and the NFL Draft.

Jones had guests like Dawn Staley, Karlous Miller, Tracy Morgan, Roy Wood Jr., Vince Staples, and Stephen A. Smith on the show.

For its second season, Jones’ program was scheduled after Real Time with Bill Maher. It ran for 10 episodes, and topics ranged from player empowerment, Brett Favre, woke NFL, Overtime Elite, sports washing, NIL, and the war on social drugs.

Guests for the second season of Game Theory included Nick Wright, Kyle Brandt, Jake Paul, Gilbert Arenas, J.R. Smith, Domonique Foxworth, Taylor Rooks, and Cam’ron.

TNT re-aired episodes of the second season one week after its original airing, before its live NBA slate. Despite airings on two networks, the episodes didn’t crack the Top 150 on the cable charts.

HBO’s venturing into sports talk has been largely unsuccessful. Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel has been an outlier, considering how their other programs with the same format fared.

Game Theory with Bomani Jones lasted as long as Back on the Record with Bob Costas. Joe Buck Live lasted only three months, while Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons was on air for only one season.

A summary of Bomani Jones’ career in sports

In 2008, Jones started hosting Sports Saturday with Bomani Jones on Raleigh, North Carolina’s 850 The Buzz. Two years later, he appeared on ESPN’s Outside the Lines and Around the Horn.

He also hosted The Evening Jones on the SB Nation YouTube channel until January 2013.

In 2012, Jones started to appear on Dan Le Batard’s Highly Questionable and The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. A year later, he signed a four-year contract with ESPN and became a co-host of Highly Questionable.

He also hosted The Right Time With Bomani Jones on ESPN Radio from March 2015 to December 2017. The show was relaunched as an ESPN podcast in April 2018. Jones also appeared in the series debut of High Noon.

Given ESPN’s recent layoffs of well-known on-cam talents, sources told OutKick that the network wouldn’t renew Jones’ contract in August.