PFT Commenter says he was pitched opportunity to be ‘the next Jimmy Kimmel’ by HBO exec

The “Suitman” chronicles at Barstool Sports are the stuff of internet legend, but we got a new addition to the lore recently.

Dave Portnoy stopped by Pardon My Take last Tuesday in part to discuss his new book, “Cancel Me If You Can,” and dig into the history of Barstool Sports. That rich text invariably included references to one of the most infamous sagas in the company’s history: The Suitman chronicles.

As a refresher, “Suitman” is the name Barstool gave to Peter Nelson, a former HBO Sports executive who became a key figure in the messy Call Her Daddy contract dispute that led to Sofia Franklyn, who was dating Nelson at the time, leaving the show and company. Nelson became Public Enemy No. 1 for Portnoy and other Barstool personalities after advising the CHD hosts in their contract negotiations. Portnoy accused Nelson of overstepping and attempting to poach the Call Her Daddy IP, and he became a regular focus of the company’s ire. Not long after Franklyn left the company, handing over the CHD brand to Alex Cooper, Nelson left HBO “on his own terms,” setting off a victory celebration at Barstool.

On the recent podcast episode, PMT co-host PFT Commenter (real name Eric Sollenberger) admitted that Nelson had also tried to poach him during his contract renegotiations with Barstool, offering what sounds like a very big, if not misguided, opportunity.

Suitman tried to poach PFT Commenter from Barstool by saying he could be the next “Jimmy Kimmel”@PFTCommenter @PardonMyTake https://t.co/rR0pZEtJxk pic.twitter.com/fraZ3nqasB

— RGF (@rgfray1) July 2, 2026

“Suitman is in our book a little bit, because I went out for a meeting with him during my contract negotiation, which happened right before the Call Her Daddy thing,” he said. “He was doing what he was there to do, which is say, if I worked at HBO, I could have a show and I could be- I think his words might have been ‘the next Jimmy Kimmel.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t think this guy’s ever seen anything that I do.’

“And then later on, I come to find out there might be some of the same promises that were made to Sofia that he was making to me, and I saw through him, and I was like, ‘I don’t think it’d be a good idea to split this up.'”

Based on everything that’s come out about the Suitman-Barstool drama and Nelson’s time at HBO, it sounds like the specifics of any PFT Commenter-hosted talk show at the network were pretty slight. It’s hard to imagine that there would have been a fit between what Sollenberger does and the HBO audience.

Sollenberger, who initially joined Barstool Sports in 2016, signed a 2-year extension in 2020, which would have been right around the time of the Suitman drama. He later signed another extension in 2024 and remains among the company’s biggest stars alongside co-host Dan “Big Cat” Katz.