ESPN, ABC Postpone X Games Apex Legends Broadcast Due to Recent Mass Shootings

ESPN and ABC have decided to postpone the Aug. 11 television broadcast of the XGames Apex Legends EXP Invitational in response to recent mass shootings, according to esports insider Rod Breslau:

Apex Legends is a battle royale shooter game.

Per Breslau, a recap scheduled to air on ESPN2 will no longer be broadcast on the channel, although fans can view the event on ESPN3.

While the broadcast won't air on Aug. 11, the show will air three times in October, with airings on Oct. 6, 15 and 27 on ESPN2, per Steve Gardner of USA Today.

The decision comes after two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday and early Sunday morning took the lives of 31 people. According to Meghan Keneally of ABC News, as of Aug. 5, there have been 17 fatal mass shootings in the United States this year.

As Eli Becht of dexterto.com wrote, ESPN's decision to pull the broadcast comes after the network decided against airing ads for The Hunt, a movie whose plot centers around people hunting other humans for sport.

The network previously has made decisions to pull talent off the air in response to current events as well.

In 2017, ESPN pulled broadcaster Robert Lee off its coverage of the University of Virginia football season opener following the violence that occurred in Charlottesville in response to the city's decision to remove the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Per A.J. Katz of Adweek, ESPN President John Skipper responded to backlash then, citing a production's staff concern that the "assignment might create a distraction, or even worse, expose him to social hectoring and trolling."

Monday Night Football pulled its opening featuring Hank Williams Jr. after the singer used an analogy featuring Adolf Hitler when discussing President Barack Obama's golf outing with then-Speaker of the House John Boehner, per Jordan Zakarin of the Huffington Post.