Only two years ago, the thought of a Barstool Sports show being televised on ESPN would have been a headline fit for The Onion. Today, it’s a reality.
“Pardon My Take,” a Barstool Sports podcast starring the hilarious duo of “Big Cat” and “PFT Commenter”, is headed to ESPN2, multiple outlets reported on Wednesday. Awful Announcing’s Ben Koo shared news on the matter, saying the popular podcast would be turned into a late-night TV show. He says the podcast would likely be unaffected. Koo also reports that an announcement is imminent and may have been held off due to Wednesday’s news that former FS1 personality Katie Nolan is joining ESPN.
The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis shared more details about the development. He says the production company Barstool Sports has been using, Embassy Row, will produce the show.
Since the moment “Pardon My Take” was launched last year, it soared up the charts to become one of the most popular podcasts in the iTunes store, with reports saying it averages around 1 million downloads per episode. Barstool said the show was a comedy show that used sports as its vehicle to make its points.
To have an understanding of the show, one need only look at the comical name, which is generated by jamming together two ESPN shows they satirized — “First Take” and “Pardon the Interruption.” The show was a response to the yelling and screaming on sports talk shows at many networks and has become a major hit.
Pardon my Take has come a long way. When it first launched, ESPN sent Barstool a cease and desist letter over the show’s name and logo. Over the past year, they’ve gone so far as to allow their personalities to appear on the show and have the hosts appear as guests on ESPN. And now they apparently are bringing them on ESPN2.
