I think it does matter that there is a real live shoe leather reporter on the show. It plays well with the higher ups in the company and buys credibility among the people who write about the show in other outlets.

He's goofy and self consciously selling on the overbearing intellectual caricature but when the show is good he does push Bomani to make the best version of his arguments in a way that not many other folks on TV can do. The best example of that is the conversation they had about race and the sports analytics movement.