After one episode, ESPN cancelled “Barstool Van Talk.” The move is effective immediately despite being previously scheduled to air its second show on Tuesday.
ESPN launched the series with Barstool Sports’ biggest personalities on ESPN2 in an attempt to attract the blog’s followers.
“While we had approval on the content of the show,” ESPN President John Skipper wrote in a statement, “I erred in assuming we could distance our efforts from the Barstool site and its content.”
But this put ESPN in a grey area after one of its biggest personalities was attacked by the blog three years ago.
Last week, Sam Ponder expressed her “disappointment” following the premiere of “Barstool Van Talk,” which featured Dan “Big Cat” Katz and PFT Commenter. What followed was tense interactions between the “Sunday NFL Countdown” personality and Barstool community, including Big Cat.
Ponder sarcastically welcomed Katz to ESPN on Twitter, while attaching screenshots from a 2014 Barstool blog post that claimed her “career and livelihood is based on appealing to guys” and told her to “go f—” herself.
Katz did not write those posts, which were penned by Barstool president David Portnoy.
“Pardon My Take,” a podcast hosted by Big Cat, PFT Commenter and Hank, released a statement shortly after the announcement saying the trio was “disappointed” with ESPN’s decision.
“We had a great time working on the show and were extremely excited about the future,” the three men wrote. “Although we are heartbroken, ‘Pardon My Take’ will continue to get bigger and stronger every single day.”
Katz tweeted that he was “heartbroken” by the cancellation of the show.
I'm obviously beyond heartbroken, but if you know me, Hank, and PFT you know we won't stay down from this for long.
— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) October 23, 2017
PFT Commenter had a more comical reaction to the news.
Welp. Time2 get drunk
— PFT Commander (@PFTCommenter) October 23, 2017
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