ESPN Shrinks Dan Patrick’s Old Slot, Nabs Mike Tirico
Uncategorized September 17th. 2007, 3:03pm
After Mike Tirico initially rebuffed ESPN’s overtures to be the next voice of ESPN radio, the network decided to tinker with its time slots and made a second go at the Monday Night Football play-by-play guy. And it worked. Late last week, ESPN re-approached Tirico with a new offer – just two hours, from 1-3 p.m. – and he accepted. The press release went out today.
Instead of having Tirico try to fill Patrick’s old three-hour spot (1-4 pm), the ESPN clipped it by an hour, reducing it to a much more manageable 120 minutes. The last hour will be filled by your friend and ours, Stephen A. Smith. Tirico will be joined by random co-hosts, but they haven’t been named. After the jump, the national lineup:
6-10 a.m. Mike & Mike in the Morning
10 a.m.-1 p.m. The Herd with Colin Cowherd
1-3 p.m. The Mike Tirico Show
3-4 p.m. The Stephen A. Smith Show
4-6:30 p.m. SportsBash with John Seibel
6:30-7 p.m. Best of Pardon the Interruption
7-9 p.m. The Pulse with Doug Gottlieb
9 p.m.-2 a.m. Game Night
2-6 a.m. AllNight with Jason Smith
32 Responses to “ESPN Shrinks Dan Patrick’s Old Slot, Nabs Mike Tirico”
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September 17th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Brilliant move by ESPN here to counter Mike Tirico, a guy pretty much everybody likes, with an annoying asshole whose arrogance knows no bounds. I would have loved to sit in on the meeting when the ESPN top dawgs put this brilliant one two punch together.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
What is the point of a one hour radio show? Wouldn’t it be easier if ESPN just fired Sassy?
September 17th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
I bet SAS lasts less than a year.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
So much for going with SVP, someone who the public generally seems to like.
Why not go with the polarizing, obnoxious jerk? Quite Frankly, it puzzles me.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Does anyone know if he ends his radio show with, “And remember…it’s my house, but your always welcome..”???? That’s by far the worst TV sign off I’ve ever heard on a show.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I just don’t see how anybody voluntarily chooses to listen to mike and mike, SAS, or anyone else on this lineup.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
I think, technically, SAS only is one hour nationally. But i know he’s on for two hours in NY. Used to be 12-2 … now, he’s 2-4. So he’s going right into prime Mike & the Mad Dog listening time … and probably will get waxed.
He was already losing badly the 1 pm hour.
* I don’t have stats, but this is according to what I hear on Mike and the Mad dog, which obviously is biased, but when they made these statement to an ESPN exec (forget which one), Mr. ESPN didn’t refute or argue.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
If anyone has sirius…the NFL network has an ok morning show…much better alternative to Mike&Mike…it’s the only thing i’ll put on during the local philly sportshost commericals
September 17th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
TBL you’re definitely right about SAS….he’s getting slaughtered. I don’t ever wish bad on anybody and it seems like our Cheezy friend has fallen on some hard times. No more Quite Frankly, no more newspaper column, and (soon to be) no more radio show when Football season ends and Tirico agrees to the extra hour.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
ESPN puts a guy from MNF on the radio and it’s not the one who used to have the best ESPN Radio show of them all.
c’est la vie.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I agree, I think Tirico will eventually do the extra hour. One hour of SAS is way too much in opinion, plus it doesn’t really make sense. What is the point? I’m anxious to hear who Tirico’s sidekicks will be.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
I see SVP co-hosting quite often. They seemed to mesh extremely well while filling-in together.
We have a local show, as do many markets, take over at 4pm ET. I would assume that they will move an hour earlier. No way SAS finds an audience in Middle America.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
TBL any idea what they’re gonna do on 1050? I can only hope this means the firing of Mike Missanelli who is impossible to listen to.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
This is excellent corporate synergy and diversity. They have an Italian guy and black guy, but they really should have gone with one and a half for each to fit in with their diversity program.
Synergy, PODS, biodiesel-powered shuttles.
ESPN leads the way in all these things.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Luckily the ATL ESPN affiliate goes to a local show at 3:00, so I’ll never have to hear SAS! Go 680!
September 17th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
As a resident of “Middle America”, allow me to agree with NSR — SAS won’t find an audience here. Not because of race, but because of attitude. You can’t scream all the time, and have amazingly inaccurate factual errors, and expect people to take you seriously.
The fact this clown still has a job at any level speaks more to the politically correct atmosphere of the day than his “talent.” Hey, SAS may have been good at some point … it just must have been before he came to my attention.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
SVP will have his day.
Pleezebeleedat.
September 17th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
I see ESPN is sticking with that fucking piece of shit John Seibel.
Sigh.
September 17th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
AMEN odessasteps. TK was clah-sic and no one will ever come close to his show.
September 17th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
SAS sidekick guy is keeping his job, according to the press release.
September 17th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
As mentioned above, it seems that most stations have local programming 3-7 ET, so they never got the last hour of patrick’s show anyway.
this move was probably done with a lot of them in mind.
September 17th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Is anyone here a SAS fan? Seriously, I want someone who’s a fan of his to tell me what his appeal is. I’ve tried to listen and watch the guy, and I really think that he’s under the impression that people like his yelling/screaming delivery. Did you see him on Sports Reporters? I DON’T. CARE ABOUT. A-ROD. IN. THE. REG. U. LAR. SEAS-ON. I can’t tell when the guy ends a sentence!
September 17th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
I actually enjoyed SAS when he first hit the scene….He was still an unknown at Fox Sports and you would see him once or twice a week back when FOX was trying to compete with the WWL. SAS came in, (yes he was loud back then too), but he got in and got out and actually told you something you didn’t already know about the nba.
I don’t know if the rest of the sports world has caught up to him as to his “insight” or what….. I never listened to him for his opinions.
I know as a columnist he was paid for his opinions, but I think his downfall was when he started sharing them on tv. You can handle a guys “act” if he brings you something…..he just doesn’t bring it anymore
September 17th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
I’ll say it again.
ESPN can build Tirico up however they’d like, he will always be the creep guy in ‘ESPN: An Unauthorized History.’
September 17th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
ESPN Radio is starting to go downhill, my biggest complaint is the 10 minutes of air time, ten minutes of commercials. What’s the point? Before Mike and Mike became cliche jock and efeminate male, they were tough to listen to b/c they would just get rolling and a 10 minute break comes in…
September 17th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Maybe it’s because I’ve listened to ESPNradio too much over the years, but I also can’t stand the format most of the time also.
7-8 minutes of radio, Sportcenter 2-3 minutes, 2-3 minutes of commercials, 7-8 minutes of radio…etc. etc. It just doesn’t have any flow most of the time.
And don’t get me started on the scoring updates every ten minutes past 7 or 8 oclock in the nightime. Instead of waiting for the Sportscenter update at 8:00, 8:20, 8:40, or 9:00 they now think we need scoring updates also at 8:10, 8:30, and 8:50!!?? They break into interviews to give more scoring updates…who in the world came up with that idea is not thinking straight. Oh well!
September 18th, 2007 at 12:12 am
I don’t if anyone still cares or listens to ALL NIGHT but I really really enjoyed Todd Wright, and really can’t stand Jason Smith. The only ESPN radio personality worse than him is Amy Lawrence. The worst words in radio by far are saturday nights when you hear “now in Bob Valvano, Amy Lawrence.”
September 18th, 2007 at 3:26 am
Well they’ve lost me as a listener for these three hours. Why in the heck is this time slot not going to SVP? There’s really no logical explanation why.
Mike Tirico is a joke. What was the official count on how many interns this guy hit on and tried to do stuff with? I’d say I’m amazed at how he’s worked his way up the ladder at ESPN, but then again it’s ESPN and they don’t exactly promote the best man for the job, just the guy who kisses the most arse. Why in the world would I want to listen to this guy talk sports? He never played any kind of organized sports and for goodness sakes I’ m sick of hearing his diatribes during NFL and NBA games about players as though he himself has any experience as an athlete on ANY level. The guy is constantly cutting on players. Heck they’d have made a better choice hiring his wife to do the job. Tirico should’ve been fired a LONG time ago for all the intern stuff. Only at ESPN can you get moved up the ladder for being sleazy.
I won’t even get started on Screamin A…Giving him an hour is beyond comprehension.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:12 am
I think Tirico is OK, and I’m glad Seibel got the spot away from Kuselias I can’t stand that pompous a-hole.
September 18th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Kuselias should’ve been given the Dan Patrick time slot. He’s a good interviewer and by far more intelligent than anyone else on the airwaves. I always enjoy when he fills in for Greeny or the 1-4 show. The guy knows his stuff and is being wasted on NASCAR Now.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Am I alone in thinking Doug Gottleib is the best host on the WWL?
September 19th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Espn did a terrible job filling Dan Patricks time slot. I think we probably all agree that getting Tony K. back would of been the best thing they could of done (altho probably not possible). Tirico is bland and boring… SAS needs to STFU and quit yelling. Needless to say they made my choice easy and will be going to danpatrick.com in 12 days to see what he’s doing in the same time slot. I would of liked to seen Eric K and Van Pelt on a show together in the time slot. When they were on the same day it was interesting and they had good conversation. I like it when Eric K brings up one of his ‘lists’ and they debate… its good radio.