Mike Golic and his son, Mike Golic Jr., are sports media free agents once again.
The two longtime radio hosts and former ESPN personalities are shopping their GoJo and Golic show after DraftKings chose not to renew their contracts, according to Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports.
In a follow-up interview with Barrett Media, Golic explained that the decision was part of a wider strategy pivot by DraftKings.
“DraftKings said that they were going to stop all in-house produced shows,” Golic told Barrett. “Anything that they’re producing, they were going to stop. They’ll still do the shows that are self producing, but my son and I’s show was one that was produced in-house, and they’re stopping all their content that’s produced in house.”
DraftKings had turned GoJo and Golic into a centerpiece of its live sports content slate on DraftKings Network, an over-the-top offering from the gambling operator. The departure of the Golics leaves a big opening from 8-10 each morning on the network.
The company told Front Office Sports that it wants to “optimize current and future investments” in its content slate.
“After careful consideration, DraftKings has decided not to renew agreements with Mike Golic Sr. and Mike Golic Jr. for GoJo and Golic. We want to thank the Golics for their contributions to DraftKings,” the company told FOS in a statement. “We remain focused on optimizing current and future content investments to continue to grow the audiences for DraftKings Network and DraftKingsNetwork.com.”
Barrett reported that DraftKings did not respond to a request for comment on cutting in-house production, or which other shows would be affected.
Golic joined DraftKings in 2021, while Golic Jr. joined in 2022. Both also work as television game analysts, with Golic Jr. calling Mountain West games for TNT Sports while Golic calls NFL games for Westwood One.
FOS reported that the Golics have had exploratory talks with Yahoo Sports on moving their show to that platform.
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.