The 2025 ESPYs featured some highlight moments from host comedian Shane Gillis, with the opening monologue jumping into jokes about President Donald Trump and the hot-topic Epstein files. One Trump joke involved New York Yankees star Juan Soto, who is from the Dominican Republic, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.

The ESPYs are the biggest sports award show that isn't focused on just one sport. They're basically the Oscars, but all about sports. Similar to the Oscars, a host is tasked with presenting an opening monologue that introduces everyone to the show and then guides the program through the rest of the night.

Gillis, a standup comedian and the co-creator and star of Netflix’s Tires, is probably best known for lasting like four hours at Saturday Night Live — Lorne Michaels felt compelled to fire Gillis after some non-PC clips of a 2018 episode of Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast were resurfaced — though he has gone on to host the show, twice.