Hot mics have embarrassed many a media professional.
Cincinnati Reds longtime broadcaster Thom Brennaman was suspended indefinitely in 2020 after his microphone accidentally picked up him using a three-letter anti-gay slur.
Charles Barkley dropped an uncensored F-bomb during an Inside the NBA on TNT broadcast in 2025 while venting about NBA award voters.
And just two months ago, San Francisco Giants executive Buster Posey trolled radio station KNBR on-air after a behind-the-scenes employee was caught on a hot mic talking trash about him.
Add reporters covering Sacramento Kings media day Monday to the list. At least three were heard in an unvarnished conversation about Kings players Ben Simmons and Zach LaVine that took a personal turn.
A handful of local outlets livestreamed media day interviews. But the mics also picked up reporters chatting, and embarrassing comments went beyond their frequent use of the hyper-localized and outdated NorCal modifier “hella.”
Comments begin about Simmons, a guard on a one-year, non-guaranteed contract after missing last season with injuries. A female says “That’s what comes with being Ben Simmons. He is cringe, cringe,” and another jumps in to say he is “lucky he’s so fine.”
The first media member agrees, saying “He’s a good-looking dude. His skin is, like, so smooth, I was like, damn, no tattoos?”
A male voice joins the conversation, asking, “I thought Jordan Poole was your type.”
A female voice replies, “Allegedly, I like light-skinned, I guess.”
The male voice continues: “What about Zach LaVine, then?”
“Hella fine,” the female voice replies.
“I think his personality annoys the [expletive] out of me, so that’s what makes him less fine,” the first person says. “Zach’s cute but his personality [expletive] annoys me. He just seems like hella like a prick. But he is beautiful.”
“He’s a [expletive] UCLA guy,” replies the third person. “Just all of them are.”
Another voice jumps in, offering that LaVine is “hella fine, too.”
Someone asks how the others would rank Kings players by hotness. One voice votes for Simmons because of “his skincare routine.”
Apparently referring to the team’s woeful 22-60 record last season, the male voice responds by cracking, “Well, Ben wasn’t a King for the last year and a half either,” to which a female voice concedes, “That’s true.”
The reporters involved have not been publicly identified, and none of the players have responded. LaVine’s wife, Hunter, did offer a low-key comment to the Kings Muse recording, writing on X, “a great start to the season!”
The episode called to mind the hot mic that marred the Toronto Raptors’ postseason news conference last April. Two unidentified media members were heard making disparaging comments about players Scottie Barnes and Jonathan Mogbo.
“It’s not just his enunciation, which, like, was super bad, especially last year,” one person said about Barnes. “But even the attitude. Just the attitude — like he’s having fun up there. First year or even before, he just kept getting worse and worse every year.”
Rookie forward Mogbo was the next target. “When I first interviewed Mogbo when he was drafted, I was shocked ’cause he was so dumb,” the person said.
Raptors fans were appalled by the comments, but Barnes responded with humor on social media. It remains to be seen how Simmons and LaVine react.
Hot mic catches Kings media rating players’ looks, criticizing Zach LaVine
Hot mics have embarrassed many a media professional.
Cincinnati Reds longtime broadcaster Thom Brennaman was suspended indefinitely in 2020 after his microphone accidentally picked up him using a three-letter anti-gay slur.
Charles Barkley dropped an uncensored F-bomb during an Inside the NBA on TNT broadcast in 2025 while venting about NBA award voters.
And just two months ago, San Francisco Giants executive Buster Posey trolled radio station KNBR on-air after a behind-the-scenes employee was caught on a hot mic talking trash about him.
Add reporters covering Sacramento Kings media day Monday to the list. At least three were heard in an unvarnished conversation about Kings players Ben Simmons and Zach LaVine that took a personal turn.
A handful of local outlets livestreamed media day interviews. But the mics also picked up reporters chatting, and embarrassing comments went beyond their frequent use of the hyper-localized and outdated NorCal modifier “hella.”
Comments begin about Simmons, a guard on a one-year, non-guaranteed contract after missing last season with injuries. A female says “That’s what comes with being Ben Simmons. He is cringe, cringe,” and another jumps in to say he is “lucky he’s so fine.”
The first media member agrees, saying “He’s a good-looking dude. His skin is, like, so smooth, I was like, damn, no tattoos?”
A male voice joins the conversation, asking, “I thought Jordan Poole was your type.”
A female voice replies, “Allegedly, I like light-skinned, I guess.”
The male voice continues: “What about Zach LaVine, then?”
“Hella fine,” the female voice replies.
“I think his personality annoys the [expletive] out of me, so that’s what makes him less fine,” the first person says. “Zach’s cute but his personality [expletive] annoys me. He just seems like hella like a prick. But he is beautiful.”
“He’s a [expletive] UCLA guy,” replies the third person. “Just all of them are.”
Another voice jumps in, offering that LaVine is “hella fine, too.”
Someone asks how the others would rank Kings players by hotness. One voice votes for Simmons because of “his skincare routine.”
Apparently referring to the team’s woeful 22-60 record last season, the male voice responds by cracking, “Well, Ben wasn’t a King for the last year and a half either,” to which a female voice concedes, “That’s true.”
The reporters involved have not been publicly identified, and none of the players have responded. LaVine’s wife, Hunter, did offer a low-key comment to the Kings Muse recording, writing on X, “a great start to the season!”
The episode called to mind the hot mic that marred the Toronto Raptors’ postseason news conference last April. Two unidentified media members were heard making disparaging comments about players Scottie Barnes and Jonathan Mogbo.
“It’s not just his enunciation, which, like, was super bad, especially last year,” one person said about Barnes. “But even the attitude. Just the attitude — like he’s having fun up there. First year or even before, he just kept getting worse and worse every year.”
Rookie forward Mogbo was the next target. “When I first interviewed Mogbo when he was drafted, I was shocked ’cause he was so dumb,” the person said.
Raptors fans were appalled by the comments, but Barnes responded with humor on social media. It remains to be seen how Simmons and LaVine react.
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Ratings for the Sunday premiere of ’60 Minutes’ see steep drop from last year’s opener
Sunday’s highly anticipated premiere of “60 Minutes” scored 7.9 million viewers according to Nielsen, the lowest for a season opener since 2000.
Nielsen data showed the news magazine was down 21% compared to last year’s opener, which averaged 10.3 million viewers. The premiere was the first ratings report card for the program since a major upheaval that occurred behind the scenes under CBS News Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
The number — which was also below the 2025-26 season average of 9.1 million viewers — has to be a disappointment to CBS News. The episode received a major promotional push in the weeks leading up to the premiere, which featured an exclusive interview with an Air Force officer who was shot down over Iraq.
The story of the pilot’s heroism may not have been enough to overcome the public’s antipathy toward the U.S. military operation which has gone on much longer than President Trump predicted.
The program did suffer from some comparisons to 2025.
The ratings for “60 Minutes” are often tied to the lead-in from the late afternoon NFL game on CBS, which was also off from 2026. Most of the country saw the Minnesota Vikings top the Green Bay Packers by a score of 39-22 which, with 18.4 million viewers, was down 22% compared to a comparable broadcast window last year.
Broadcasters tend to blame Nielsen when there are significant ratings declines. The NFL has already raised concerns to the research company about changes to its methodology in counting viewers, as the first week of games are down significantly compared to a year ago.
This year, CBS did not have the exclusive late Sunday window with its NFL game. Fox carried the Philadelphia Eagles-Washington Redskins contest in the time period. Last year’s “60 Minutes” opener was on Sept. 28, when CBS had the sole game with a Kansas City Chiefs-Baltimore Ravens contest.
CBS News did see “60 Minutes” retain a larger portion of its audience lead-in compared to last year, despite a later start time of 7:48 p.m. Eastern. The delay meant half of “60 Minutes” competed with NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” the most-watched TV program of the week. It dropped to 6 million viewers by the final quarter hour.
While there are plenty of rationales, CBS News will have to be patient and hope that viewers will sample the program, which largely had the same look as last year despite Weiss’ changes.
But personalities matter to TV viewers, and the new “60 Minutes” is without four of its longtime correspondents — Anderson Cooper, Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi. The latter three were fired by Weiss after clashing with her over their belief she is pushing the show to the political right. Weiss — who took over editorial control of CBS News after parent company Paramount acquired her heterodox digital news site the Free Press — also dismissed “60 Minutes” executive producer Tanya Simon and replaced her with screenwriter and documentary filmmaker Nick Bilton, who has no previous experience in TV news.
Viewers on Sunday briefly saw one of Weiss’ new hires, former conservative New York Times opinion writer Ross Douthat, who has no previous experience as a TV presenter.
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