ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption did not receive what would have been the show’s fourth Sports Emmy at the annual Sports Emmy Award Show on Tuesday night. But as far as PTI host Michael Wilbon sees it, at least he wasn’t the only ESPN personality snubbed.
Wilbon addressed Pardon the Interruption missing out on the award for Outstanding Daily Studio Show, an honor that went to fellow ESPN program NFL Live, at the beginning of Wednesday’s show.
“I’m Mike Wilbon,” said Wilbon introducing Wednesday’s edition of Pardon The Interruption. “We did not win the Emmy Award again last night, Tony (Kornheiser). What do we need to do differently?”
“I’m Torn Kornheiser. Pizzazz,” joked Kornheiser as he fired off confetti.
After joking further about how the early days of PTI featured more “pizzazz”, Wilbon further discussed how he was “fine” with PTI not winning the Emmy Award, as long as Stephen A. Smith or Mike Greenberg also didn’t win an Emmy.
“As long as Greeny or Stephen A. didn’t get the Emmy, I’m fine,” said Wilbon.
“I’m glad you said that,” added Tony Kornheiser. “I’m leaving that one alone.”
In all likelihood, Wilbon made this comment towards Greenberg and Smith as more of a tongue-in-cheek joke about none of them winning the award. After all, Wilbon has worked alongside both Smith and Greenberg on NBA Countdown in the past, which he still happens to do with Smith. So chances are, it likely wasn’t intended as some kind of malicious shot at their work at the network.
Still Wilbon has never been afraid to voice his opinion on his ESPN colleagues in the past. Perhaps most notably, Wilbon previously fired a shot at Pat McAfee last year over the leniency that ESPN grants McAfee to use whatever colorful language he chooses on The Pat McAfee Show.
Wilbon also decided to publicly voice his frustration over the short-lived public beef between Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James earlier this NBA season, explaining how the sports media business can be “a piece of s*it a lot of days”.
Regardless of the intention behind Wilbon’s comments, it will sure be interesting to see whether Smith in particular speaks on these comments, as he hasn’t exactly shied away from public comments in the sports media space as of late…
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.