When Keith Olbermann left SportsCenter, Dan Patrick didn’t pick Kenny Mayne to be his co-anchor’s successor. ESPN did.
Mayne joined Patrick Wednesday morning to discuss his Wiffle Ball documentary, and during the segment, the former SportsCenter hosts reminisced about their days together on ESPN. When Olbermann left the 11 p.m. SportsCenter, better known as “The Big Show” in 1997, Patrick could have dictated who his next co-anchor would be, but he didn’t want to.
“It was one of those that they put so much pressure on me because Olbermann left and everybody in the building thought I was picking who my co-host was,” Patrick recalled. “And I said, ‘I’m gonna do the show, you watch the show, who do you want to see on the show?’ And I remember, I didn’t lose friendships, but some people were upset that maybe I didn’t go to bat for them…but I just said, ‘Hey, I didn’t have anything to do with it.’ Which I didn’t.”
Patrick said he was on a Boy Scouts camping trip with his son when Norby Williamson called to inform him Kenny Mayne was going to be his new co-anchor, succeeding Olbermann for the 11 p.m. SportsCenter.
“I said, ‘Okay, I gotta go back to helping my son get his swimming badge, so I’ll see you in a week.’ I didn’t want to get involved in it because I just thought let management decide who they want in there instead of me trying to bigfoot…it didn’t matter because you were following Keith. And whoever that was, was going to have a lot of pressure on them.”
“Norby must have got outvoted,” Mayne said, prompting Patrick to ask about their relationship. “I don’t think he (Norby Williamson) got me. I don’t think he disliked me so much as he just thought I wasn’t serious enough to convey the Giants rushing statistics that week. I didn’t copy anybody, but I definitely modeled after what you guys did because you guys made it fun.”
Patrick may not have wanted to engage in the politics of picking his co-anchor, but he had to be somewhat concerned about who he was going to be working with. Most of the pressure was going to be on Olbermann’s successor, but Patrick still had the pressure of proving he could build a successful SportsCenter without his acclaimed co-anchor. It wasn’t “The Big Show” anymore, but Mayne fit Patrick’s model of trying to make SportsCenter fun. Mayne left the 11 p.m. SportsCenter after two years, but remained with ESPN until 2021, returning to the network for a cameo last Friday.
