Sarah Spain was not a fan of Shane Gillis‘ hosting role at the 2025 ESPY Awards.
The ESPN personality slammed Gillis’ performance via X after the Wednesday, July 16, awards show, particularly criticizing his treatment of female athletes and nominees. “In a year of crazy growth for women’s sports choosing an ESPYs host who doesn’t even try to make clever jokes about women athletes (he at least *attempted* for the men) he goes with hacky ‘no one knows the WNBA’ bits, ‘Pinoe is a bad time’ & repeatedly insults Black women. COOL,” she wrote on Thursday, June 17.
In response to her tweet, one X user wrote, “First 90 minutes was women! In a genre that is dominated by men. Simone, the rugby gal, all gals! The suits needed to feed the actual money. The ladies that won were deserving. But it’s a tv show. Next 10 minutes was Taurasi. Stop complaining people aren’t trying to help you.”
Spain clapped back at the user by replying, “I didn’t say a thing about the awards. Learn how to read.”
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Gillis poked fun at several women athletes in his opening monologue. “Megan Rapinoe could not make it tonight. Nice,” he said, prompting some soft laughter from the audience. “No? We’re gonna pretend she’s a good time? All right,” he added, after which he got more laughs.
He also called out the audience’s apparent lack of knowledge about WNBA athletes. “Four-time WNBA All-Star Brittany Hicks is here. Give it up for Brittany, everybody,” he said as a camera cut to a woman in her seat. “I’m joking around. That’s my friend’s wife. I knew none of you knew WNBA players. That’s crazy, you clapped for that.”
Gillis later took a jab at Olympic gymnast Simone Biles‘ height, stating, “She’s short and has a lot of gold. When she’s not competing, she leads a quiet life at the base of a rainbow. It’s a leprechaun joke. Commenting on WNBA star Caitlin Clark‘s on-court aggressiveness, he added, “When Caitlin Clark retires from the WNBA, she’s going to work at a Waffle House so she can continue doing what she loves most: fist-fighting Black women.”
Gillis’ ESPYs performance sparked mixed reactions from fans. “Shane gillis at the espys doing the best opening ever while everyone is silent,” one person wrote via X on Wednesday. Another added, “I thought Shane Gillis killed his monologue at the ESPYs. And he capped it off with a tribute to Norm Macdonald.”
A third user shared, “Shane Gillis roasting people at the ESPYs is proof everyone is tired of soft and fragile people and that phase of America is fading away and im okay with that.” Sharing an opposing opinion, another user wrote, “Shane Gillis bombing at the Espys just about sums up
how popular the Espys are. F**k you guys that monologue was funny.”
Underneath Spain’s original post, one person posted, “Wow, you must be a lot of fun at parties. He’s a comedian. His job is to offend.” Another called Spain’s reaction to Gillis’ monologue an “incredible response,” adding, “Perfect encapsulation of why ESPN is failing and why it will be so difficult for women’s sports to ever be taken as seriously as men’s.”