HBO Paying ESPN Expat Simmons Up to $9 Million

CNBC: One of the sports world’s most famous fast-pitching muckrakers, Bill Simmons, will launch an HBO talk show on June 22, for which he will apparently be paid between $7 million and $9 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The new show, “Any Given Wednesday With Bill Simmons,” has been a tumultuous year in the making for the sportswriter, who was courted by everyone from Yahoo to CBS after his abrupt departure from ESPN.