Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon are going to continue their unparalleled run at ESPN and former colleague Bill Simmons couldn’t be happier.
The Pardon the Interruption co-stars recently signed new contracts with ESPN that will take them well past their 25th anniversary together on the program and into 2028.
And in a podcast with The Ringer‘s media connoisseur Bryan Curtis, Simmons praised both PTI and Kornheiser specifically as the best person he’s ever been paired with on television.
@billsimmonspod “It’s one of the last links to old ESPN.” Bill and Bryan on the extension of ‘Pardon the Interruption’ and its importance to sports talk shows. #espn #aroundthehorn #tonykornheiser #michaelwilbon #sportstalk #tv #fyp ♬ original sound – The Bill Simmons Podcast
“PTI is another one. Kornheiser, the best person I’ve ever done TV with. They just re-signed for three more years. Kornheiser is technically contractually signed to do PTI until he’s 80 years old. It makes really no sense with anything else at ESPN at this point. It’s on for a half-hour, I don’t know who leads it in. It just seems like it’s going to go on forever, they’ll never cancel it. It’s those guys’ show, they should be the ones to decide whether it goes away or not,” Simmons said.
Curtis noted that Pardon the Interruption is the last remaining link to the old days of ESPN. The worldwide leader in sports has gone through seismic changes in recent years, investing more in personalities like Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee. It has also jettisoned longtime shows like Outside the Lines and Around the Horn.
“I still think it’s a really good show. I think it’s the most important thing anyone created this century from a sports standpoint,” Simmons declared.
That is a bold statement from Simmons, who by the way was just named Awful Announcing’s most influential sports media personality of the 2000s. (Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon came in fourth place, so they are all in rarefied air.) Simmons was involved in huge projects like 30 for 30, Grantland, and The Ringer. But the longevity and relevance of PTI really does stand alone for sports content in the 2000s. And Kornheiser and Wilbon have earned the right to go as long as they think they can while still producing appointment viewing at 5:30 p.m. ET every weekday.
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