Scott Van Pelt lost his voice and won’t be available for Week Five of Monday Night Countdown live from Las Vegas.
Van Pelt announced the news on X (formerly Twitter), saying he pushed himself through SportsCenter on Sunday night and woke up with his voice “just gone.”
However, New York Post sports media reporter Andrew Marchand also reported the change at the same time, leading Van Pelt to joke at the expense of Marchand’s “sources.”
Marchand accepted he had been out-scooped by the subject of his report, and encouraged Van Pelt to drink some tea. All’s fair in love and insiderdom.
Play-by-play man Joe Buck will take over Monday Night Countdown anchoring duties until the last half-hour of the show. Then, Michelle Beisner-Buck, an ESPN NFL reporter who happens to also be Buck’s wife, will take over.
Beisner-Buck will also anchor the halftime show.
Credit to Marchand for the details.
It admittedly must be strange to be in Van Pelt’s shoes. He simply tried to shout out his SportsCenter crew and shout out his Monday Night Countdown replacements with a simple social media post. But because sports media coverage has grown to a relatively important beat (easy for us to say!), Marchand treated it as news.
Now the whole message is undercut and it’s awkward. Even Van Pelt responded to a follower asking who cared about the update by saying “nobody.”
We care, Scott! It will be another new feel for the overhauled Monday Night Countdown for Week Five in Las Vegas.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.