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ESPN Daily

SPECIAL SERIES: The Birth and Life of Pardon the Interruption

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.63.9K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You know the show PTI, you love the show PTI. But how did it all start? Twenty years into “Pardon the Interruption,” co-hosts Tony Kornheiser, Michael Wilbon and a cast of media luminaries share the tale of the duo's meeting at The Washington Post. Hear how the dynamic in the legendary newsroom unexpectedly set them up for success with the show. Kornheiser and Wilbon reflect on their reluctant beginnings in television. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

So, Tony, in the interests of just full journalistic disclosure here, it feels important to mention

0:06.8

that you did not want to participate in this at all.

0:10.4

I thought it was silly.

0:11.4

Yeah.

0:12.4

No, I mean, you know, 20 years is a long time, but it's sort of an arbitrary number.

0:18.5

And to make a celebration to me just felt like a memorial, you know.

0:22.7

It felt like we were going over the side and this was it. And then they'd run this show. And the

0:27.3

next day they'd say, that's it. We're done. Have a nice life. So, you know, I didn't, I didn't really

0:32.0

want to participate in it. That is not a joke. That is, in fact, Tony Kornheiser, peak Kornhizer, I would argue. And I can say that because I have spent years getting to know this man as his de facto television grandson, learning from and working with one of the greatest journalists and television co-hosts of his generation.

0:54.6

I'm not otherwise occupied.

0:56.0

I am pleased to be joined by our great friend from the ESPN Daily podcast, my grandson, Pablo Torre.

1:06.5

And yes, this is Pablo Torre, as my grandfather just said there, host of the ESPN Daily podcast,

1:12.7

and for the next four weekends, we're doing this side project in our feed.

1:16.9

It's a kind of family history of 20 years apart in the interruption,

1:21.8

the sports talk show that changed Mike and Tony's lives and sports television

1:26.9

and also sports itself,

1:30.0

all of which means that I have been hanging out with this guy.

1:33.7

I'm Mike Wilbon from ESPN, co-host of Pardon the Interruption.

1:36.7

And this guy.

1:37.8

I'm Anthony Irwin Cornheiser and I yodel on television for a living.

1:42.0

And as their show goes into its third decade now,

1:45.7

in this time of extreme media upheaval,

...

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