Dan O’Toole tweets that he found out after the fact Wednesday night was his final “SC With Jay and Dan” show

After almost two decades as a national SportsCentre host on Canada’s TSN, interrupted by a 2013–2017 stint with Fox Sports 1 (now FS1) in the US, Dan O’Toole appears to again be without a network. On Thursday, O’Toole changed his “@tsnotoole” Twitter handle to “@notontvotoole,” and tweeted that last night’s SC With Jay And Dan was his final show, which he didn’t know at the time:

O’Toole had co-hosted the 1:00 a.m. Eastern SportsCentre on TSN with Jay Onrait from 2003-2013, then the pair went to Fox Sports 1 together for Fox Sports Live. The 2.0 version of that show was the closest to what they’d done in Canada, with the first version weighed down by an athlete panel and the third version shortened, moved away from highlights, and shifted to a sports-focused late-night show. But FS1 and its various identity crises eventually parted ways with Onrait and O’Toole in February 2017, leading to a short (but very funny) span where O’Toole’s Twitter handle was “@otoolethehobo”. In March 2017, TSN announced that they were bringing O’Toole and Onrait back north of the border for SC With Jay and Dan, and that show seemed to do well both in ratings and in custom sponsorship deals, as did the continued “Jay and Dan Podcast.” But the @JayandDanonSC account is now just “@JayonSC.” In memory of the many, many years of Jay and Dan, here’s a “Top 10 Jay and Dan Moments” TSN did in 2017 after their return was announced:

O’Toole’s exit comes amidst wider Bell Media cuts of 210 jobs, which impacted several other TSN figures this week. In particular, long-time TSN Ottawa figure Brent Wallace was laid off Wednesday after 23 years with the network, national figures Natasha Staniszewski and Kristian Jack have reportedly been let go, and @yyzsportsmedia reported that several TSN shows are shifting to “Overdrive” technology to reduce the amount of people involved in production, and that there have been cuts in the Vancouver market. But O’Toole’s exit is certainly a massive one, and a big change for TSN.

Update: On Saturday, O’Toole sent some further tweets about this, including criticism of TSN parent corporation Bell for conducting giant layoffs right after their #BellLetsTalk mental health campaign:

https://twitter.com/notontvotoole/status/1358056232892956672

https://twitter.com/notontvotoole/status/1358062017488289792

The widespread Bell cuts so soon after that mental health effort have drawn a lot of criticism, especially with their recent decision to up their Q4 dividend to investors:

And it’s remarkable to see hugely-prominent figures like O’Toole laid off as part of those cuts.

[@NotOnTVOToole on Twitter, photo from TSN]