With all signs pointing to Dan Patrick leaving ESPN, one wonders where the longtime SportsCenter anchor and ESPN Radio host will end up. Will he continue in the world of sports? Pull a Keith Olbermann and host a political show? Or, if not The Price is Right, host a game show?
One option seems absolutely perfect for Patrick, and would seem to benefit the parties involved. NBC has already announced that MSNBC host Keith Olbermann will join the cast of Football Night in America starting with the upcoming NFL season. In lieu of having Olbermann co-host with Bob Costas, why not replace Costas with Patrick, thereby re-uniting one of the most popular tandems in sports television history?
Having the former SportsCenter duo Patrick and Olbermann co-host Football Night would be one of the rare occasions when a personnel move would increase ratings. Last year, Football Night disappointed in the ratings to the point where NBC began loading the first half-hour of the program, which usually competed with postgame shows on FOX or CBS, with local commercials so it would not be counted in the national television ratings.
By adding Patrick, one would assume that fans who stayed to watch “The OT” last year on FOX would instead — through the first few weeks of the season, at least — tune into NBC’s pregame show, simply based on the hype that would inevitably surround it. Reuniting “The Big Show” would arguably attract the most buzz around a network personnel move since Tony Kornheiser was added to the Monday Night Football booth, and would likely attract sports fans who wistfully remember the days when SportsCenter was at its highest level.
NBC certainly does not have anything to lose by adding Patrick. He may not bring the same name recognition that Bob Costas currently has, but teaming him with Olbermann would bring a necessary hype to a pregame show that got lost in the shuffle last year, thanks to the major moves of competitors FOX, ESPN and CBS. Whether Costas would go for any of this is a different story.
