Pardon the Interruption (abbreviated PTI) is a
sportA Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
s
television showA television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
that airs weekdays on various
ESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
TV channels,
TSNThe Sports Network, commonly abbreviated as TSN, is a Canadian English language Category C specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports TV channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels...
, ESPN America,
XMXM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
, and
SiriusSirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of...
satellite radioSatellite radio is an analogue or digital radio signal that is relayed through one or more satellites and thus can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations...
services, and as a downloadable
podcastA podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
. It is hosted by
Tony KornheiserAnthony Irwin "Tony" Kornheiser is an American sportswriter and former columnist for The Washington Post, as well as a radio and television talk show host...
and
Michael WilbonMichael Ray Wilbon is a former sportswriter and columnist for the Washington Post and current ESPN commentator. He serves as an analyst for ESPN and co-hosts Pardon the Interruption on ESPN with former Post writer Tony Kornheiser, and has been doing so since 2001.-Career:Wilbon began working for...
, who discuss, and frequently argue over, the top stories of the day in "sports... and other stuff" (as Kornheiser put it in the show's original promo). They had previously done this off-air in
The Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
newsroom. Either
Tony RealiAnthony Joseph Paul "Tony" Reali is an American sports personality and television host, and the current host of Around the Horn on ESPN...
(host of ESPN's
Around the HornAround the Horn is a daily, half-hour sports roundtable on ESPN filmed in Washington, D.C. It airs at 5:00 pm ET, as part of a sports talk hour with Pardon the Interruption. The show is currently hosted by Tony Reali.-History:Around the Horn premiered on November 4, 2002, hosted by Max Kellerman...
) or the uncredited "producer over the loudspeaker" serves as moderator for parts of the show, which is filmed in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
;
Around The HornAround the Horn is a daily, half-hour sports roundtable on ESPN filmed in Washington, D.C. It airs at 5:00 pm ET, as part of a sports talk hour with Pardon the Interruption. The show is currently hosted by Tony Reali.-History:Around the Horn premiered on November 4, 2002, hosted by Max Kellerman...
also originates from the same studio.
Similar in format to
Siskel and Ebert,
PTI is known for its humorous and often loud tone, as well as the "rundown" graphic which lists the topics yet to be discussed on the right-hand side of the screen. The show's popularity has led to the creation of similar shows on ESPN, and similar segments on other series, and the rundown graphic has since been implemented on the morning editions of
SportsCenterSportsCenter is a daily sports news television show, and the flagship program of American cable network ESPN since the network launched on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major...
among many imitators. The show won a Sports Emmy Award for best Daily
Outstanding Studio ShowThe Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Studio Show was first awarded in 1988. One sports studio show, whether a pregame or a nightly news show, was honored each year...
for 2009.
PTI debuted on October 22, 2001. The founding production team behind PTI includes Mark Shapiro, Erik Rydholm,
Todd MasonTodd Mason is a digital media executive and entrepreneur based in Washington, DC. He has served as creator, Executive Producer and Executive in Charge of Production for a number of national broadcast series and specials....
, James Cohen and Joseph Maar. The original deal was for two years with an option for a third. It airs daily at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time on ESPN (if not preempted by live events such as
golfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
), and is repeated on numerous ESPN sister outlets (see "Broadcast details" below). The show originally also aired Sunday evening, but this was short-lived.
PTI is produced by
ESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
. The show's production management is led by Executive Producer, Erik Rydholm.
PTI is sponsored by alcoholic beverage company
DiageoDiageo plc is a global alcoholic beverages company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest producer of spirits and a major producer of beer and wine....
, via its brand
Jeremiah Weed- External links :* * *...
. It features the voicetalent of Kat Cressida.
The October 24th, 2011 episode featured a message from president
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
commemorating PTI's tenth anniversary.
Broadcast details
Pardon the Interruption airs live at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time on ESPN. The following outlets carry the show at other times:
- ESPN 2 airs the show at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time, with the TV picks, errors and "Happy time" removed, and adds the SportsCenter segment .
- WTNT
WTNT —branded AM 730 WTNT—is a news/talk radio station licensed to Alexandria, Virginia and serving the Washington metro area. It operates with unlimited hours, with 8,000 watts during the daytime, and 25 watts in the evening hours...
, ESPN RadioESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
affiliate for Washington, DC (where both Kornheiser and Wilbon are based), airs the entire show at 7:05 p.m. Eastern Time and again at 5:30 a.m. the next morning.
- WMVP
WMVP is the callsign of a commercial radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is owned by ABC. Its transmitter is located in Downers Grove. The station broadcasts live sports talk, both locally and nationally. Daily programming consists of talk shows that are both national and local...
, ESPN RadioESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
affiliate in ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
(Wilbon's hometown) airs the show at 7:05 p.m. Central Time.
- The ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
network makes an edited version available to its affiliates, with only a few segments, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time. An ESPN Radio SportsCenterESPN Radio SportsCenter has sports updates two or three times an hour during key time slots, usually by separate anchors. Weekdays from 6am to 4pm Eastern, there are two updates an hour, at the top of the hour and 30 minutes past...
update is inserted at 6:40. (Previously ESPN Radio carried the show at 7 p.m. Eastern)
- TSN
The Sports Network, commonly abbreviated as TSN, is a Canadian English language Category C specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports TV channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels...
airs the show live at 5:30 p.m. In 2011, the SportsCentreSportsCentre is a sports news program airing on the Canadian network TSN. As TSN's flagship program, it airs several times daily, and beginning in the 2008 season it also began to be aired on sister network CTV as its post-game program for early NFL games....
edition following PTI now features the final segment, but previously TSN did not air it. Tony acknowledged this frequently at the end of the show, often signing off while waving a Canadian flagThe national flag of Canada, also known as the Maple Leaf, and , is a red flag with a white square in its centre, featuring a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. Its adoption in 1965 marked the first time a national flag had been officially adopted in Canada to replace the Union Flag...
- Since April 17, 2006, ESPN has also offered a free audio podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
which cuts out commercials and includes all segments.
- ESPN America airs the show across Europe in a late night slot, usually at 11:30pm unless pre-empted by live sports coverage. It is also repeated during the following day at 7:30am.
The set
Pardon the Interruption is unique in its studio layout, featuring a "wall" full of cut-out cardboard heads of athletes and celebrities that have previously been used in the "Role Play" segment,
bobblehead dollA bobblehead doll, also known as a bobbing head doll, nodder, or wobbler, is a type of collectible toy. Its head is often oversized compared to its body...
s of the show's hosts and Reali, Etch-A-Sketch art of Kornheiser and Wilbon, and several other toys and
trinketA trinket is a small showy ornament or something that is a mere trifle. Trinket may also refer to:* Trinket Island, an island of the Nicobar Islands**Trinket , a village on the island...
s they have received, such as Kornheiser's beloved "Leg Lamp" from
A Christmas StoryA Christmas Story is a 1983 American Christmas comedy film based on the short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author and raconteur Jean Shepherd, including material from his books In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, and Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories. It was directed by Bob Clark...
,
Stewie GriffinStewie Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. Once obsessed with world domination and matricide, Stewie is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin, and the brother of Chris and Meg....
and
ElmoElmo is a Muppet character on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is a furry red monster and currently hosts the last full 15 minute segment on Sesame Street, Elmo's World, which is aimed at toddlers. His puppeteer, Kevin Clash, uses falsetto to produce his voice...
.
For different American holidays, the set will also be decorated with other props to match the theme of the day. For example, on Halloween, carved
jack-o'-lanternA jack-o'-lantern is typically a carved pumpkin. It is associated chiefly with the holiday of Halloween and was named after the phenomenon of strange light flickering over peat bogs, called ignis fatuus or jack-o'-lantern...
s of the host's heads are also present. The color of the rundown graphic is also changed to mesh with the holiday theme (e.g. red, white, and blue to represent
Independence DayIndependence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...
, green for St. Patricks Day, red and green for
ChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
).
On September 27, 2010,
Pardon the Interruption and
Around The HornAround the Horn is a daily, half-hour sports roundtable on ESPN filmed in Washington, D.C. It airs at 5:00 pm ET, as part of a sports talk hour with Pardon the Interruption. The show is currently hosted by Tony Reali.-History:Around the Horn premiered on November 4, 2002, hosted by Max Kellerman...
began broadcasting in high definition and moved from the Atlantic Video Washington complex to facilities in the
ABC NewsABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
Washington bureau, where high definition sets were built for both shows.
Segments
PTI is divided into several segments. It is not unusual for the last point or topic in each section to be about a non-sports-related pop-culture event. On rare occasions, the show will stray from its basic format, such as on August 9, 2005, when
baseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
commissioner
Bud SeligAllan Huber "Bud" Selig is the ninth and current Commissioner of Major League Baseball, having served in that capacity since 1992 as the acting commissioner, and as the official commissioner since 1998...
was the guest at the very top of the show for an extended interview.
Other than the pop-culture topics, most topics discussed involve the The Big Four of North American team sports:
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
,
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
,
footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
and
hockeyIce hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
. Both hosts are avid fans of
tennisTennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
,
golfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, and
boxingBoxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
and discuss events in those sports frequently. However, other sports such as soccer,
mixed martial artsMixed Martial Arts is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles. The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be...
and
auto racingAuto racing is a motorsport involving the racing of cars for competition. It is one of the world's most watched televised sports.-The beginning of racing:...
receive much less coverage, and the hosts do little to hide their lack of interest or knowledge on those topics.
Segments included in the vast majority of shows are:
Segment 1: Introduction/Headlines
Kornheiser and Wilbon welcome viewers to the show with opening banter. Wilbon usually opens the show with the line, "Pardon the Interruption... but I'm Mike Wilbon." Wilbon will then put a question to Kornheiser concerning one of the day's sports or pop culture issues (which he answers sarcastically). The two will then continue a conversation while the opening
title cardIn motion pictures, an intertitle is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of the photographed action, at various points, generally to convey character dialogue, or descriptive narrative material related to, but not necessarily covered by, the material photographed.Intertitles...
is shown. The theme song (as well as the commercial outro music) thematically references the song "
Cut Your Hair"Cut Your Hair" is a song by American rock band Pavement from their second album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. It was written by Pavement songwriter and lead singer Stephen Malkmus. The song snidely attacks the importance of image in the music industry...
" by
PavementPavement is an American alternative rock band that formed in Stockton, California in 1989. In their career, they achieved a significant cult following, and they were called the best band of the 1990s by prominent music critics Robert Christgau and Stephen Thomas Erlewine...
.
Kornheiser then says "Welcome to 'PTI', boys and girls," and the hosts usually debate five or six topics. Each issue is listed in chronological order on the right side of the screen, and a countdown timer is shown indicating how much time is allotted to discuss a particular issue. Most topics are less than 1:30, but major news stories can run two or three minutes. If there is no guest for "Five Good Minutes," three or four additional headlines will run during the second segment.
Segment 2: Five Good Minutes
Kornheiser and Wilbon interview a sports figure, writer, or analyst typically for a period of time from three to five and a half minutes. The interview itself is actually recorded prior to the rest of the show and then trimmed down for broadcast. According to
PTIs remoteIn broadcast engineering, a remote broadcast is broadcasting done from a location away from a formal television studio and is considered an electronic field production . A remote pickup unit is usually used to transmit the audio and/or video back to the television station, where it joins the...
producer, with some exceptions, guests are booked the day of the show as they try to obtain the most relevant news of the day. Other times, there are two "Five Good Minutes" segments with two different guests; there are also shows where two related guests appear during one segment, such as Joe BuckJoseph Francis "Joe" Buck is an American sportscaster and the son of legendary sportscaster Jack Buck. He has won numerous Sports Emmy Awards for his play-by-play work with Fox Sports.-Education:...
and Tim McCarverJames Timothy "Tim" McCarver is an American former Major League Baseball catcher, and a current sportscaster in residence for Fox Sports.-Playing career:...
of Major League Baseball on Fox broadcasts. There have also been occasions where Kornheiser or Wilbon, while on vacation or in another city to cover an event and not hosting the show, have been the subject of "Five Good Minutes" themselves.
Guests almost always appear from a separate location, usually the site of an upcoming game or their home city, appearing with the hosts via split screen. On a few occasions, the guest has appeared in studio with Kornheiser and Wilbon. This may be the case if the guest is an athlete or coach in Washington to play a game that night, such as when
New York KnicksThe New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
guard
Chauncey BillupsChauncey Ray Billups is an American professional basketball point guard for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association . He has also played for Team USA. Billups won the NBA Finals MVP in 2004, helping the Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals, and was given the...
appeared on February 6, 2009, prior to the
Denver NuggetsThe Denver Nuggets are a professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. They play in the National Basketball Association . They were founded as the Denver Rockets in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association, and became one of that league's more successful teams...
' (with whom Billups was playing with at the time) game with the
Washington WizardsThe Washington Wizards are a professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C., previously known as Washington Bullets. They play in the National Basketball Association .-Early years:...
. When this happens, the guest will sit on Wilbon's side of the table, sitting diagonally from Kornheiser.
On Mondays during the football season, ESPN analyst
Ron JaworskiRonald Vincent "Ron" Jaworski is a former American football quarterback and currently an NFL analyst on ESPN. He is also CEO of Ron Jaworski Golf Management, Inc., based out of Blackwood, New Jersey, and manages golf courses in southern New Jersey, northeast Pennsylvania, and West Virginia...
, a former
Philadelphia EaglesThe Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
quarterback (a.k.a. "Jaws" and "the Polish Rifle" - the latter usually rendered in a
Howard CosellHoward William Cosell was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these...
-like voice), is usually the guest, to offer analysis of the previous day's games and a prediction for the
Monday Night FootballMonday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
game that night.
On rare occasions, "Five Good Minutes" runs long, such as on June 8, 2005 when
NFLThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
agent
Drew RosenhausDrew Rosenhaus is an American sports agent who represents professional football players. He owns the Miami-based sports agency, Rosenhaus Sports, and is known for using aggressive tactics on behalf of his clients who play in the National Football League.Rosenhaus currently represents approximately...
's interview ran 11 minutes, forcing the cancellation of the following segment (Role Play), on March 23, 2007 when
USCThe University of Southern California Trojans men's basketball program is the college basketball team that competes in the Pacific-12 Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I and represents the University of Southern California on the court.The program began playing...
basketball coach
Tim FloydTim Floyd is an American college basketball coach and the current head coach of the University of Texas at El Paso Miners men's basketball team. He is also a former head coach of several teams in both the NCAA and the NBA, most recently the University of Southern California men's college...
's interview ran 9 minutes as he talked about
O. J. MayoOvinton J'Anthony "O. J." Mayo , is an American basketball player currently playing with the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA. He signed with the team on July 8, 2008. He played college basketball for the University of Southern California...
, and on October 22, 2009, as reporter
Jackie MacMullanJackie "Mac" MacMullan is an American freelance newspaper sportswriter and NBA columnist for the sports website ESPN.com. A graduate of the University of New Hampshire, where she played Division I basketball for the Wildcats, MacMullan was a columnist and associate editor of the Boston Globe...
discussed the
Magic JohnsonEarvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers...
/
Isiah ThomasIsiah Lord Thomas III , nicknamed "Zeke",is the men's basketball coach for the FIU Golden Panthers, and a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association from 1981 until 1994. He led the "Bad Boys" to the NBA...
controversy, forcing the cancellation of the segment Report Card.
On very rare occasions, the second segment will be a bonus "game segment" (i.e. Oddsmakers, Toss Up, etc.), and the third segment will be a game segment as usual.
Segment 3 (various)
After "Five Good Minutes", or after extended "Headlines" if there is no guest, PTI uses a variety of different segments to talk about other sports news and make predictions. These featured segments often end with a pop culture topic.
"Mail Time" and "Toss Up" are featured at least once for every full week of episodes. During Mail Time (in which Wilbon provides the voice of the mailbox) the hosts read and respond to viewer
e-mailElectronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
that they take out of a talking mailbox. Early in PTI
's run, an intern named Josh read the mail to the hosts. When the show changed over to the talking mailbox, Wilbon would express disgust at the mail voice, demanding it be omitted. The mail read on air is no longer written by viewers, but rather staff of the show itself. For Toss Up, the two hosts choose between two sides of a topic announced by the producer, Erik Rydholm, over the loudspeaker, and Kornheiser always claims to be the winner.
Other frequently used segments are "Odds Makers" and "Role Play".
Odds MakersSports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome.-United States of America:Aside from simple wagers such as betting a friend that one's favorite baseball team will win its division or buying a football "square" for the Super Bowl, sports betting is...
is featured weekly and involves the hosts giving their prediction in the form of a percentage about the likeliness of a future event occurring. Reali gives the topics and keeps track of responses on a
chalkboardA chalkboard or blackboard is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulfate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Chalkboards were originally made of smooth, thin sheets of black or dark grey slate stone...
, to which he refers at the end of the segment in order to declare a winner. A selection at either extreme of 100% or 0% is well-respected, with the latter being coined by Reali as "squadoosh". Role Play, featured in almost every week but less so than earlier in PTI
's run, is referred to as "Heads on Sticks" because the hosts alternate speaking as a sports figure with the person's picture on a stick in front of their faces. After a picture is used, it is usually stuck somewhere in the background of the set until it is replaced. Recently, the sexual nature of the title of this segment has been noticed, as a suggestive musical cue leads the segment as well as Kornheiser telling Wilbon on the first Role Play "Wilbon will give, I will receive".
"Psychic Hotline" and "Good Cop, Bad Cop" are segments where the hosts take on different roles to discuss the given topics. The set is decorated with candles and a plasma lamp for
Psychic HotlineFortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...
, the latter of which a host will touch to hear the question in the form of a pre-recorded phone call. The question asks the hosts to predict what will happen in regards to an upcoming sporting event. Kornheiser wears a turban, in the style of
Carnac the MagnificentCarnac the Magnificent was a recurring comedic role played by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. One of Carson's most well known characters, Carnac was a "mystic from the east" who could psychically "divine" unseen answers to unknown questions...
, while Wilbon does not dress up at all. In
Good Cop, Bad CopGood cop/bad cop, known in British military circles as Mutt and Jeff and also called joint questioning and friend and foe, is a psychological tactic used for interrogation....
, however, both hosts dress in police hats and sometimes sunglasses. This segment is featured rarely, and unlike Toss Up, the hosts must take an opposite stand on each topic, saying it is either good or bad. This segment is occasionally renamed "Good Elf, Bad Elf" for the holiday.
"
Over/UnderAn over-under or over/under bet is a wager in which a sportsbook will predict a number for a statistic in a given game , and bettors wager that the actual number in the game will be either higher or lower than that number...
" is a segment that alternated weeks with Odds Makers when they were first introduced, but is now featured only occasionally. The hosts argue over whether a certain sports figure or team will go over or under a certain number (e.g. 40
home runIn baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process...
s, 60 wins). Reali also announces the topics for this segment, holding cards up with the statistic, as well. In order to help prevent a "push" (a Wilbon trademark), a decimal figure is sometimes used (e.g. 2.5 touchdowns). "
Food ChainA food web depicts feeding connections in an ecological community. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one of two categories called trophic levels: 1) the autotrophs, and 2) the heterotrophs...
", where the hosts rank a top five list of teams, returned in December 2008 after a long absence. Kornheiser and Wilbon usually have variations in their lists, with Wilbon posting his as each team is introduced. Wilbon refers to his as "A real man's board!", but when Kornheiser switches to his, he claims, "That's it! That's the list!" A third rare segment is "Fair or Foul". It was introduced on February 28, 2007 after the hosts began repeating the words "fair or foul" for a few episodes because of a viewer email including them earlier in the week. The hosts discuss a variety of topics and decide if each is fair or foul (acceptable or not). If a host believes a topic is "foul", he could threw a yellow football penalty flag and/or blow a whistle.
Additionally, during the early run of PTI, a "
DoctorsSurgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
" segment was featured occasionally, in which the hosts had to choose which head to cut off and throw in the trash out of two that were stuck together. The hosts dressed up as doctors for this segment, using coats and assorted accessories. Finally, a "time-machine" game was played once in 2005 and never returned.
Another early segment was called "Love Em or Leave Em" where a female voice cooing "Ooo La-La!" was played before the hosts discussed an individual (whose head was on a stick) they were either "leaving" or "loving" and keeping on their side.
On July 28, 2009, a segment called "What's the Word" was introduced. It consists of Reali reading a partial sentence and the hosts using a word(s) to fill the blank(s) in the sentence. On July 30, 2009 another new segment debuted called "Report Card", in which the hosts assign letter grades to various events suggested by Reali. Usually, Kornheiser's name is spelled "Tiny" instead of "Tony" on the Report Card board. Another recent game was debuted called "Too Soon?" where Reali asks the hosts if it's too soon for a certain sports situation to possibly occur.
In November of 2010, a new game entitled "'Something or Nothing?"' was created. In this game, Reali asked Tony and Mike if a recent sports event was significant (Something) or insignificant (Nothing). After both hosts gave their answers, Reali, through uncertain logic, determined who was correct. This game has yet to be repeated, likely as it's rather similar to "Odds Makers".
On the last show before Thanksgiving, the third segment is usually reserved for the hosts to reveal their choices for Turkeys of the Year, usually people during the last year that have usually done notably stupid acts un-befitting of sport (funny or unfunny). As noted by Wilbon at the beginning of the segment, there is no criteria for the selection process, meaning anyone they see fit is eligible. Over the years, the list has vastly expanded from five to numerous candidates being named during the segment.
Segment 4: Happy Happy Time, et al.
This segment usually starts with Kornheiser saying, "Happy Time, people." Occasionally, the segment starts with Kornheiser talking gossip with Wilbon, someone yells that they are on, and then Kornheiser acts surprised. The hosts send out a "Happy Birthday", a "Happy Anniversary" (generally something that happened on the same date in the past rather than an anniversary), and a "Happy Trails" (a departure of some sort, such as a firing, injury, retirement, or death. In the case of a death, the hosts referred to this as a "melancholy Happy Trails" and the background music was silenced in respect of the deceased).
If time allows, Reali (nicknamed "Stat Boy") corrects any factual errors that Kornheiser and Wilbon may have made. From the time of the show's expansion in July 2005 until August 2009, Kornheiser and Wilbon would then give their recommendations for television viewing for the night as the last discussion segment of the show before SportsCenter
. Wilbon usually chooses a sporting event, while Kornheiser will often opt for pop-culture based programming; most notably, he is a huge fan of American IdolAmerican Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
and former fan of 2424 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
, which he says
jumped the sharkJumping the shark is an idiom used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery....
in Season 6. He rarely states that he will watch a sporting event, saying that they are on past his bedtime. Since September 2009, they use the ending of the half-hour broadcast to give shoutouts to whoever they deem worthy of one.
This concludes the half-hour broadcast of the show, where Kornheiser bids farewell to Canadian viewers. During the first season Tony made a playful, but very sarcastic quip about Canada and was forced to apologize. He did sincerely apologize and swore to make it up to all Canadians by forever waving their flag at the end of every episode. The segment during
SportsCenterSportsCenter is a daily sports news television show, and the flagship program of American cable network ESPN since the network launched on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major...
was not initially shown in CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, where the program airs on TSNThe Sports Network, commonly abbreviated as TSN, is a Canadian English language Category C specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports TV channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels...
, so when Wilbon makes the toss to Bristol, ConnecticutBristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States southwest of Hartford. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 61,353. Bristol is primarily known as the home of ESPN, whose central studios are in the city. Bristol is also home to...
, where ESPN's studios are located, Kornheiser usually says "Goodnight, Canada" while waving a small Canadian flagThe national flag of Canada, also known as the Maple Leaf, and , is a red flag with a white square in its centre, featuring a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. Its adoption in 1965 marked the first time a national flag had been officially adopted in Canada to replace the Union Flag...
as Wilbon mentions the upcoming SportsCenter
segment. (TSN added the extra segment to its early-evening edition of SportsCentreSportsCentre is a sports news program airing on the Canadian network TSN. As TSN's flagship program, it airs several times daily, and beginning in the 2008 season it also began to be aired on sister network CTV as its post-game program for early NFL games....
in late 2010; nevertheless Kornheiser continues with the "Goodnight, Canada" bit.)
SportsCenter
segment
On July 25, 2005, the format of the show was altered to merge the final part of the show with the beginning of the 6:00 p.m. ET SportsCenterSportsCenter is a daily sports news television show, and the flagship program of American cable network ESPN since the network launched on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major...
. After the opening segment of SportsCenter
(normally 10–14 minutes), PTI returns to debate an additional sports-related topic, then end with The Big Finish where, for the final 60 seconds of the show, the hosts alternate making comments on several other stories, usually ending with Wilbon picking a winner in a sporting event later that night ("Who Ya Got?"). The segment (and show) ends with Kornheiser saying, "We're out of time, we'll try to do better the next time," and Wilbon saying "Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads." Kornheiser will wave the show logo (on a stick) in front of his face and tell someone (usually a famous person or someone he knows) to go to his/her room, inspired by
Betty DraperElizabeth "Betty" Francis is a fictional character on AMC's television series Mad Men, portrayed by January Jones...
's parenting on
Mad MenMad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...
. Prior to the institution of this segment, The Big Finish closed the show in the slot now used for shoutouts; Wilbon and Kornheiser often had the additional debate as a part of SC
, but it was not treated as a formal part of PTI
.
For the re-air on ESPN2, the show moves straight to the post-SportsCenter
topic after the third commercial break, skipping segment 4. According to NielsenNielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
ratings, PTI
paired with Around the HornAround the Horn is a daily, half-hour sports roundtable on ESPN filmed in Washington, D.C. It airs at 5:00 pm ET, as part of a sports talk hour with Pardon the Interruption. The show is currently hosted by Tony Reali.-History:Around the Horn premiered on November 4, 2002, hosted by Max Kellerman...
combined to average more viewers than SportsCenter
.
During football season, Monday editions of PTI
used to air in the former (30-minute) format, with no shoutouts or SportsCenter
segment. Until midway through the 2008 season the show also took place at the Monday Night Football
host stadium as Kornheiser was a part of the Monday broadcast team; after that Kornheiser hosted from an undisclosed location in the host city while Wilbon hosted from the PTI studios in Washington. After Kornheiser's departure from Monday Night Football
, PTI
reverted to its normal format for the 2009 football season after the first week of Monday Night Football.
Commercial bumpers
Beginning September 2, 2008 and for all shows except for those taped at the site of a Monday Night Football game, inserts of Kornheiser and Wilbon's discussion air for 15–20 seconds as
bumpersIn broadcasting, a commercial bumper, ident bumper or break-bumper is a brief announcement, usually two to 15 seconds that can contain a voice over, placed between a pause in the program and its commercial break, and vice versa...
between the commercial breaks of the show. One can see the two hosts having their makeup fixed and discussing everything from whom one has recently met to inside jokes between the hosts.
Running gags
The longevity and popularity of the show has led to numerous running jokes between Wilbon and Kornheiser that longtime viewers will recognize. Some of these include such gags as The Bald Brotherhood, (He's) Ya Boy, Beatdown!, Strugg-a-ling, The Yanks and the Sawks!, The Penguin Dance, Let Me Axe You Something, Uranus, Playoffs? Playoffs?, Ya Gotta Get Low, Bulls Corner, Drew Breeees, Washington Nationals, Good Night Canada, Ball Night! and The Trampoline Bear.
In addition, for the first 3½ years of the show, Kornheiser only hosted a few shows away from the studio, with Wilbon during the week of
Super Bowl XXXVISuper Bowl XXXVI was an American football game played on February 3, 2002 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 2001 regular season. The American Football Conference champion New England Patriots won their first Super...
. Meanwhile, Wilbon has hosted many shows at the location of a sporting event he was attending. This has resulted in much teasing of Kornheiser by Wilbon, including Kornheiser's
fear of flyingA fear of flying is a fear of being on an airplane , or other flying vehicle, such as a helicopter, while in flight. It is also sometimes referred to as aerophobia, aviatophobia, aviophobia or pteromerhanophobia....
. Finally, on March 27, 2006, Kornheiser for the first time hosted the show away from the studio while Wilbon remained back at the set, as Kornheiser was in
OrlandoOrlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
,
FloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, covering the NFL owners meetings. For the first time in November 2006, Kornheiser and Wilbon "chatted split-screen" from two different locations away from Washington, D.C.
Usually during Report Card, Tony Kornheiser's name is spelled as "Tiny" instead of "Tony".
Another common gag is during games such as report card, and odds-makers, Dan Le Batard's name will often be Don, rather than Dan.
Kornheiser and Wilbon in other media
The short-lived
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
show Listen Up!
was based on the life of Tony KornheiserAnthony Irwin "Tony" Kornheiser is an American sportswriter and former columnist for The Washington Post, as well as a radio and television talk show host...
. In it, the main characters Tony Kleinman (Jason AlexanderJay Scott Greenspan , better known by his professional name of Jason Alexander, is an American actor, writer, comedian, television director, producer, and singer. He is best known for his role as George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld, appearing in the sitcom from 1989 to 1998...
) and Bernie Widmer (Malcolm-Jamal WarnerMalcolm-Jamal Warner is an American television actor, film director, and musician. He is best known for his role as Theo Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. Additionally, he appeared as Malcolm McGee on the UPN sitcom Malcolm & Eddie. He is currently starring as Dr...
) co-hosted an off-beat sports show titled "Listen Up!" On the day "Listen Up!" debuted, Warner and Alexander appeared in character on PTI's intro.
Kornheiser and Wilbon appeared as themselves on PTI
in the 2004 film Mr. 3000Mr. 3000 is a 2004 American sports comedy film starring Bernie Mac and Angela Bassett. The film's plot surrounds a retired Major League Baseball player who makes a comeback at age 47 in order to attain 3,000 hits.-Plot:...
, including doing a Role Play segment with Kornheiser posing as Stan Ross (
Bernie MacBernard Jeffrey McCullough , better known by his stage name, Bernie Mac, was an American actor and comedian. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Mac gained popularity as a stand-up comedian. He joined comedians Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and D. L...
) at one point.
On February 8, 2006, it was announced that Tony Kornheiser would join
Mike TiricoMichael Todd Tirico is an announcer for ESPN's presentation of Monday Night Football, and second lead broadcaster for ESPN's presentation of the NBA. In addition, Tirico hosts a multitude of programming on ESPN/ABC. He was the host of ABC's golf coverage from 1996 to 2007, and continues in that...
and
Joe TheismannJoseph Robert "Joe" Theismann is a former quarterback in the National Football League and Canadian Football League . He achieved his most enduring fame in his 12 seasons playing for the Washington Redskins, where he was a two-time Pro Bowler and quarterback of the winning team in Super Bowl XVII...
in the broadcast booth during
Monday Night FootballMonday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
beginning in the 2006 NFL season. Kornheiser continued to host PTI, and Wilbon joined him on the road as they broadcast PTI each Monday from the site of the MNF game, and there has also been an extra PTI segment inserted during halftime of ESPN's Monday Night games (although in 2008, Wilbon stayed in the DC studios, on many Mondays). In the months leading up to the 2006 NFL season, Kornheiser would often offer self-deprecating comments on the PTI show, saying that he'd be horrible for the MNF job or that he wished that certain people that are topics on the show would ride the bus with him to the game, as he has an admitted fear of flying. On the April 6, 2006, edition of PTI, the same day that the upcoming NFL season's schedule was released, Kornheiser gave a humorous insight into how he felt about his upcoming travel schedule, sarcastically commenting about how there weren't any
East CoastThe East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
games on the schedule. He also took the time to apologize to fans in
Jacksonville, FloridaJacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, whose city Kornheiser described in his Washington Post column as having only
Waffle HouseWaffle House is a restaurant chain with over 1600 locations found in 25 states in the United States. Most of the locations are in the Southern United States, where the chain remains a regional cultural icon...
s, since there was a Monday Night game in Jacksonville on September 18, the second week of the NFL season. Kornheiser said on the show that if at all possible, he would like to avoid traveling to the city of Seattle again since each time he went there, the weather was atrocious (such as the downpour and wind that was constant in week 9 against Oakland and the snowstorm in week 12 against Green Bay).
PTI
will be featured on future EA SportsEA Sports is a brand of Electronic Arts that creates and develops sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to mimic real-life sports networks by calling themselves "EA Sports Network" with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as John...
video games due to the contract between ESPN and EA. The first game to have the feature is NBA Live 07NBA Live 07 is a video game released on the Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and PC by EA Sports. The product features Tracy McGrady of the Houston Rockets on the cover. In the Spanish version Pau Gasol is featured.-Features:...
for the Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and the PlayStation 3The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
.
Beginning in 2007, Wilbon appears weekly as an analyst for GMC NBA Countdown
show Sundays on ABC.
Wilbon is a frequent guest on Washington, D.C. radio station WTEMWTEM — branded ESPN 980 — is a sports radio station licensed to Washington, D.C. and serving the Washington metro area. It is the flagship of a sports talk trimulcast with WWXT in Prince Frederick, Maryland and WWXX in Buckland, Virginia, all affiliated with ESPN Radio and owned by Red Zebra...
's The Tony Kornheiser ShowThe Tony Kornheiser Show is a sports radio talk show out of Washington, D.C. hosted by Tony Kornheiser, which appeared on WTEM from 1992 to 1997; on ESPN Radio between 1998 and 2004; back on WTEM from 2004 to 2006; and on WTWP and then WWWT in 2007 and 2008; and back on WTEM since September 8, 2009...
.
PTI in Other Media
On October 8, 2010
South ParkSouth Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
spoofed PTI in the Season 14 episode "
Poor and Stupid"Poor and Stupid" is the eighth episode and mid-season premiere of the fourteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 203rd overall episode of the series. It aired on Comedy Central in the United States on October 6, 2010...
" When Wilbon is on camera you can see the cut outs of their likeness in the background.
On October 30, 2010
SportsNationSportsNation is a feature section on ESPN.com, labeled "Where America's Sports Fans Meet".- Programming :Daily features include "The Show", which consisted of "The Morning Quickie with Dan Shanoff" until September 2006. Depending on the sports in season, there will be two to three shows on that sport...
did their entire 1 hour show in the style of PTI. At the end of the show Tony Reali ripped the show in a 1 minute rant.
The OnionThe Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
currently has a parody of PTI, Get Out Of My Face, (a.k.a. GOOMF).
Guest hosts
When one of the normal hosts is sick or on vacation, they have a guest host, usually another prominent sportswriter. Overall, there have been more than 20 guest hosts. Typically, Kornheiser and Wilbon almost never appear together during the summer months of July and August, as
Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
is the only major sport in season and has barely gone past half season. The most frequently seen guest hosts are sportswriters
Dan Le BatardDan Le Batard is a Cuban-American newspaper sportswriter, radio host, and television reporter based out of Miami, Florida. Le Batard graduated from the University of Miami in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and politics. During his college career, he was a sportswriter for the...
of
The Miami HeraldThe Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company headquartered on Biscayne Bay in the Omni district of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States...
, Bill SimmonsWilliam J. "Bill" Simmons III is a sports columnist, author, and podcaster. He currently writes columns and hosts podcasts for Grantland.com, which is affiliated with ESPN.com. He is a former writer for ESPN The Magazine and Jimmy Kimmel Live!...
of ESPN.comESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com, the website has developed numerous sections including: Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 3.com, ESPN Motion, My ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN Insider, ESPN.com's...
and Bob RyanBob Ryan is an American sportswriter for The Boston Globe. He has been described as "the quintessential American sportswriter" and a basketball guru and is well known for his coverage of the sport including his famous stories covering the Boston Celtics in the 1970s. After graduating from Boston...
of The Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
and ESPN's similarly-styled Around The HornAround the Horn is a daily, half-hour sports roundtable on ESPN filmed in Washington, D.C. It airs at 5:00 pm ET, as part of a sports talk hour with Pardon the Interruption. The show is currently hosted by Tony Reali.-History:Around the Horn premiered on November 4, 2002, hosted by Max Kellerman...
. ATH panels
J.A. Adande Joshua Ade "J. A." Adande is an American sports columnist who covers the National Basketball Association for ESPN.com. He also serves as a panelist for ESPN's Around the Horn and as a guest host on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption television shows...
,
Kevin BlackistoneKevin B. Blackistone is a columnist for Fanhouse.com, also a frequent panelist for ESPN's Around the Horn and on Sundays for Comcast's Redskins Postgame Live. On radio, he appears as a frequent guest cohost on the Sports Reporters on DC's ESPN980.-Career:He was born in Washington, D.C...
,
Tim CowlishawWilliam Timothy Cowlishaw is an American sportswriter for The Dallas Morning News, a regular panelist on the ESPN sports talk show Around the Horn and formerly the lead reporter for the ESPN2 racing show NASCAR Now.Cowlishaw joined the Dallas Morning News in 1989...
,
Jay MariottiJay Mariotti is a former national columnist for Fanhouse.com and has done work as a panelist on the ESPN show Around the Horn.-Life and career:...
and
Jackie MacMullanJackie "Mac" MacMullan is an American freelance newspaper sportswriter and NBA columnist for the sports website ESPN.com. A graduate of the University of New Hampshire, where she played Division I basketball for the Wildcats, MacMullan was a columnist and associate editor of the Boston Globe...
have all had stints as guest hosts.
Many other guest hosts were used in the past, including
David AldridgeDavid Aldridge is a reporter for the Turner television networks TNT, TBS and TBD.-Education and early career:...
,
Skip BaylessSkip Bayless is an American journalist and television personality. Bayless regularly appears on ESPN2's ESPN First Take and its afternoon show 1st and 10. Bayless previously wrote regular columns for ESPN.com and its "Page 2" section.-Schooling and family:Bayless was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma...
,
Jay BilasJay Scot Bilas is an American lawyer and basketball analyst for ESPN and CBS Sports. He is also a former college basketball player.-Playing career:...
,
Norman ChadNorman Chad is an American sportswriter and syndicated columnist who is seen on the sports channel ESPN. He also was an occasional guest host on the ESPN show Pardon the Interruption and has appeared as both host and movie critic on the ESPN Classic series Reel Classics.He writes a weekly...
,
Mike GolicMichael Louis "Mike" Golic is a co-host of ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the Morning and a former defensive lineman at Notre Dame and in the NFL. The NFL website lists him as and ....
,
Sally JenkinsSally Jenkins is an American sports columnist and feature writer for The Washington Post. Prior employment includes senior writer for Sports Illustrated. She is a graduate of Stanford with degree in English Literature....
,
Max KellermanMax Kellerman is an American boxing commentator and sports talk radio host based in Los Angeles. He currently appears as a color commentator on HBO World Championship Boxing and HBO Boxing After Dark and as of January 3, 2011, is hosting a midday talk show on 710 ESPN radio in Los Angeles.Prior...
,
Tim KurkjianTim Kurkjian is a Major League Baseball analyst on ESPN's Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter. He is also a contributor to ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com. He guests on Mike and Mike in the Morning on Thursdays at 7:44 AM, discussing the latest in happenings in Major League Baseball...
,
Patrick McEnroePatrick John McEnroe is a former professional tennis player and the former captain of the United States Davis Cup team.Born in Manhasset, New York, he is the younger brother of John McEnroe...
,
Bill PlaschkeWilliam Paul "Bill" Plaschke is an American sports journalist who has written for the Los Angeles Times since 1987. As a child he attended St. Albert the Great Elementary School in Louisville. He then went on to attend Ballard High School. He spent his freshman year at Baylor University in Waco,...
,
Rick ReillyRichard "Rick" Paul Reilly is an American sportswriter. Long known for being the "back page" columnist for Sports Illustrated, Reilly moved to ESPN on June 1, 2008 where he is a featured columnist for ESPN.com and wrote the back page column for ESPN the Magazine...
, T.J. Simers,
Dan ShaughnessyDan Shaughnessy is an American sports writer.-Career:After graduating from the College of the Holy Cross, Shaughnessy began his career as a beat reporter covering the Baltimore Orioles for the Baltimore Sun in 1977. He has been a sports writer for the Boston Globe for approximately 30 years,...
,
Michael SmithMichael Smith is a host, commentator, and reporter for ESPN -Career:Smith was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana where he graduated from McDonogh No. 35 Senior High School and then Loyola University of New Orleans...
,
Stephen A. Smith-Early years:Smith was raised in the Hollis neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens. He lived with his parents and four older sisters.He attended Winston-Salem State University, a historically black university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina...
,
Michele TafoyaMichele Tafoya is an American sportscaster.-Early life and career:Tafoya received a B.A...
,
Mike TiricoMichael Todd Tirico is an announcer for ESPN's presentation of Monday Night Football, and second lead broadcaster for ESPN's presentation of the NBA. In addition, Tirico hosts a multitude of programming on ESPN/ABC. He was the host of ABC's golf coverage from 1996 to 2007, and continues in that...
,
Bob ValvanoBob Valvano is an American sportscaster based in Louisville, Kentucky.During the college-basketball season, he is an analyst for ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN Plus, mostly covering Big East basketball. When not doing those games, Valvano is the color analyst for University of Louisville men's basketball...
, and
Ralph WileyRalph Wiley was a sports journalist who wrote for various publications such as Sports Illustrated and espn.com's Page 2 section....
of ESPN and sportswriters
Jason WhitlockJason Lee Whitlock is a sportswriter for Foxsports.com, as well as a former columnist at the Kansas City Star, AOL Sports writer, contributor to ESPN, and radio personality for WHB and KCSP sports stations in the Kansas City area.-College and sports:Whitlock was an all-state offensive lineman at...
of
The Kansas City StarThe Kansas City Star is a McClatchy newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri, in the United States. Published since 1880, the paper is the recipient of eight Pulitzer Prizes...
and David Dupree and Jon Saraceno of USA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
.
Kornheiser was absent more than usual during Summer 2006 for medical reasons. During a phone interview on the August 15, 2006 edition of The Dan Patrick ShowThe Dan Patrick Show is a syndicated sports talk show hosted by former ESPN personality Dan Patrick. It is currently produced by DirecTV Sports Group and is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks. The three-hour program broadcasts live every day beginning at 9 a.m. Eastern/6 a.m. Pacific time on Fox...
, Kornheiser explained this absence in most of July by revealing that he was recovering from skin cancer surgery.
Other versions
Starting in the 2006 NFL season, Kornheiser and Wilbon began hosting PTI
from the stadium that was hosting the Monday Night FootballMonday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
game. The following season, they began staging a live 3-topic, 3-minute version of the show during halftime of the game.
In 2004, Crackerjack Television started producing an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n version of the show, which airs weekly on the Australian ESPN channel and features former Australian Rules footballer
Sam KekovichSam Kekovich is an Australian media personality, sports commentator and former Australian rules football player.He is well known for his controversial behaviour, both on and off the field, and most recently for his series of satirical advertisements as the spokesman for Meat and Livestock...
.
ESPN AustraliaESPN Australia is a 24 hour sports channel offered in Australia and New Zealand.Initially, ESPN was known as Sports ESPN on the Optus Vision cable television system, and focused on sports aired by its home network in the United States, including American football, baseball, and basketball...
also broadcasts the American version of PTI editions before SportsCenter
.
In August 2010, ESPN's British channelESPN is a sports television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland owned by American sports broadcaster ESPN Inc. The channel launched on 3 August 2009...
debuted a British version of PTI. The show was hosted by Mark ChapmanMark Chapman may refer to:* Mark David Chapman, murderer of John Lennon* Mark Lindsay Chapman, British-born TV and film actor* Mark Chapman , sports journalist and presenter* Mark Chapman , Hong Kong-born cricketer...
and Steve BunceSteve Bunce is a freelance television and radio sport pundit and newspaper columnist. He has regularly appeared as a pundit on the BBC sports programme Inside Sport and on BBC Radio Five Live's Fighting Talk...
.
The ESPN DeportesESPN Deportes is a cable television and radio network dedicated to broadcasting sports-related programming 24 hours a day to the Spanish-speaking community in the United States...
show Cronómetro
(SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
for "stopwatchA stopwatch is a handheld timepiece designed to measure the amount of time elapsed from a particular time when activated to when the piece is deactivated. A large digital version of a stopwatch designed for viewing at a distance, as in a sports stadium, is called a stopclock.The timing functions...
") is modeled after PTI
and Sports Reporters
, in that it features personalities talking about sports subjects for a set amount of time. Unlike PTI
, there are four panelists instead of two, and segments such as Role Play are not used. Five Good Minutes is used as a discussion of one subject between the four analysts. ESPN BrasilESPN Brasil is a Brazilian cable television network. Launched in June 1995 through a joint venture between ESPN Inc. and Grupo Abril's television arm TVA, ESPN Brasil was the first country-specific version of ESPN outside the United States. Today, the network has 12.2 million subscribers...
also has a version of Cronómetro called É Rapidinho
(rough translation from PortuguesePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
: "It's Fast").
NESN, in partnership with The Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
, premiered Globe 10.0
in 2007, which airs at 5:30 p.m. every Tuesday. Hosted by Globe
columnist Bob RyanBob Ryan is an American sportswriter for The Boston Globe. He has been described as "the quintessential American sportswriter" and a basketball guru and is well known for his coverage of the sport including his famous stories covering the Boston Celtics in the 1970s. After graduating from Boston...
and a rotating cast of other sports writers, the show has ten topics that the two writers debate for one and a half minutes, in the same format as PTI
(Ryan himself frequently fills-in on PTI
on nights when Globe 10.0
doesn't air).
On March 25, 2008, SportsNet New YorkSportsNet New York is a New York City-based regional sports cable network which airs in the New York metro area and all of New York state, and nationwide via satellite. It is owned jointly by the New York Mets, Time Warner Cable, and NBCUniversal...
premiered two new half-hour shows, The Wheelhouse
and Loud Mouths
, which are similar to PTI
and to each other, having two panelists debate sports topics. The Wheelhouse
has a moderator and sports personalities as guests while Loud Mouths
incorporates viewer calls and e-mails. These shows air every weekday at 5:30 and 6:00 p.m., respectively.
Prior to PTI, the Empire Sports NetworkEmpire Sports Network was a regional sports network on cable television which served upstate New York from Buffalo to Albany, parts of northern Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio...
had a similar show entitled Pros and Cons. Ed Kilgore (
WGRZ-TVWGRZ, virtual channel 2 , is the NBC-affiliated television station in Buffalo, New York. Its studio is located at 259 Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo. Its transmitter is located at 11530 Warner Hill Road in South Wales, New York...
sports director, generally portraying an optimist) and Art Wander (then a sports talk host for
WGRWGR, or WGR Sports Radio 550, is an all sports radio station in Buffalo, New York that broadcasts on 550 AM. It is the flagship station of the Buffalo Sabres and the Buffalo Bandits, and is currently the only full-time sports talk station in the city of Buffalo. Its studios are located in Amherst,...
, portraying the antagonist or pessimist view) were the primary combatants, with former
The Buffalo NewsThe Buffalo News is the primary newspaper of the Buffalo – Niagara Falls metropolitan area, and the area's only daily newspaper. It is the only newspaper owned by Berkshire Hathaway.-History:...
columnist
Larry FelserLarry Felser is a former sports columnist and writer for the Buffalo Courier-Express and later, The Buffalo Evening News, where he was a football beat writer, a columnist, and rose to the position of Sports Editor.Felser covered every one of the first 37 Super Bowls, until his retirement, and was...
also on the panel. The program lasted from 1992 to 1996.
WBBMWBBM-TV, virtual channel 2 , is the CBS owned-and-operated television station in Chicago, Illinois. WBBM-TV's main studios and offices are located in The Loop section of Chicago, as part of the development at Block 37, and its transmitter is atop the Willis Tower.-History:WBBM-TV traces its history...
in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
once had a morning show called "Monsters and Money in the Morning" in which panelists talked about news stories for a set amount of time.
External links
- Official Site
- Podcasts from ESPN.com
ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com, the website has developed numerous sections including: Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 3.com, ESPN Motion, My ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN Insider, ESPN.com's...
- Australian Pardon the Interruption
- Pardon the Interruption on Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...