Courtesy the Arizona Republic

(September 20, 2010) They say if you plan to open up your own business, you know you've got a great chance for success if you're able to stay afloat for the first year.

It's the same thing in television when a new show hits the air and after a little more than a year, there can be no doubt about the success of the ESPN show "SportsNation."

The innovative, fan-friendly program, hosted by ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd and the irreverent and incredibly cute Michelle Beadle, is one of the fastest-growing shows in the past decade. It has the ratings on ESPN2 to back it up.

We reached Cowherd just after he finished his daily radio show in Hartford, Conn., and then tracked down Beadle as she was sipping Piña Coladas on the beach in Naples, Fla.

"We're having so much fun with the show. It's been great," Beadle said. "We've got a fantastic group of young people that haven't been trained to speak a certain way and they haven't been ESPN-ized, so it's fresh.

"We bring you in, we rip you and if you can't hang, you might take it personally. It's not always mainstream, but the humor runs the gamut and people seem to really love it."

"SportsNation" is kind of like your overzealous neighbor's front yard at Christmastime: It's full of flashing lights and gizmos and moving parts.

From zany fan polls to crazy sound bites and video clips, not to mention Cowherd and Beadle's chemistry, you couldn't pack much more fun into one hour.

ESPN producers approached Cowherd about the project two years ago and he helped shape the content and packaging.

"I told them I'd be willing to do it, but it's got to be something out of the box," he said. "I don't want to do the interview with a jock. Put a beautiful, fun woman next to me, give me some digital, give me polls. I don't want any scripts, I don't want to wear a tie and I don't want management hanging all over it.

"I want it to be almost inappropriate, have a studio audience and they just created it. It's been a huge hit without even being heavily promoted, so to me the future is very, very strong."

All the bells and whistles are great, but it's the synchronicity between Cowherd and Beadle that draws in the viewer and keeps them there.

"I always felt from the beginning it would be about chemistry," says Cowherd, who can be a relentless, tyrannical bulldog on his radio show. "It was crucial to find the right partner. I wanted someone that wasn't impressed or intimidated. I wanted someone that would fire back and wasn't afraid to knock me off my pedestal.

"I also wanted a big thinker and somebody who likes sports but had a life. We interviewed seven people and within 30 seconds, I knew Michelle was the one. She was so good, so confident, so funny. It had to be her."

Beadle has done it all in a very short time. She's covered the NBA, Major League Baseball, bull riding and college sports. She's also hosted multiple entertainment-themed and reality-based shows for every network from Animal Planet to the Discovery Channel.

And yes, one of Beadle's favorite parts of the show is when she gets a chance to beat up on Cowherd.

"Oh, I love that," she said. "So does my dad. Every time I see him or talk to my dad on the phone, he's like, 'You tell Colin he's growing on me.' A group of my dad's friends watch us in the clubhouse after golf and when we rip Colin, they just love it.

"I feel like I'm doing it for the good of the group."

Beadle's on-screen roughhousing of Cowherd makes Cowherd more likable and not the know-it-all grouch he plays on radio.

"Yeah," Cowherd agrees, "people get to see a side of me that isn't so serious or dogmatic. Radio is a different medium. What works in radio is arguing, conflict, strong stands, opinion. That's what Rush (Limbaugh) did. That's what Howard (Stern) did. That's how you make it work.

"What works on TV is that when you turn it on, it makes you feel comfortable. With TV, you want to like people and laugh."

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