On Monday morning, ESPN Radio’s new national lineup officially began as Keyshawn Johnson, Jay Williams, and Zubin Mehenti began their run as the 6 AM-10 AM ET host of Keyshawn, Jay-Will, and Zubin.
While their show is different than Mike & Mike or Golic & Wingo, the three hosts made sure to acknowledge those who came before them at the beginning of the show.
“The loyalty that they engendered from the audience, you out there, has allowed us to come in and hopefully have you enjoy the show as much as we do bringing you the show every day,“ said Mehenti.
Jay Williams further added to that tribute by talking about how much Golic and Greeny have meant to him as he starts this new show. You can read more from Williams in our interview with him courtesy of Demetri Ravanos:
“First and foremost, Mike Golic Sr., an incredible individual and one of the first times I was ever on TV 13 years ago, I remember seeing him and he was himself. It was incredible. You can be self-deprecating, you can have fun and that put me on a journey saying I have to find out who I want to be naturally on TV.
“Mike Greenberg gave me the opportunity to get on Get Up and actually allow me to be more of myself and that’s ultimately led to this point. To those guys and Mike Golic Jr. who kills the game, he’s one of the best we have in the game, thank you for allowing me the opportunity.”
Johnson looked at it as more of a big picture thing for ESPN with a little Tonight Show comparison thrown in.
“For me, I look at it like Johnny Carson, like we are taking over a Carson-like Leno deal and we are going to run with it and turn it into something even more special so 20 years from now, somebody comes in and takes over for us.”
There were many notable guests on the first edition of this new show, which included New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, Cincinnati Reds outfielder Nicholas Castellanos, ESPN MLB analyst Alex Rodriguez, Stephen A. Smith, and Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields.
The Fields interview was the center of the show and it aired around 8:10 a.m ET. As Mehenti pointed out towards the end of the program in the Before I Let You Go segment, he said if there is a breaking news story, we will do our best to get them on the air.
“That’s what you can expect each and every morning on this program. If something is happening, if someone is saying something, we are going to do our darndest to get them on the program.”
Adding into the Fields conversation about the petition the Ohio State QB started for them to bring Big Ten football back, Johnson made his point known that college football should not be played this fall. Here is what Johnson had to say earlier on the show:
“I can’t wrap my hands around why they keep trying to get on the damn field. It makes no sense. Just play next September. Let this thing carry itself out till we get what we need to cure things up. Stop trying to get on the field and play. Football is not going anywhere.”
The other notable story of the day was the breaking news that the Washington football club hiring Jason Wright as Wright becomes the first black president in the NFL.
“My question in this, if the organization did not go through everything they have gone through over the last several months, would they have hired that dude?” said Johnson. “Would you have hired him or would you have kept everything the same if word never got out?
After the show, ESPN correspondent Ryan Smith chimed in with his thoughts on how the debut episode went via Twitter.
While some might criticize the trio for only plugging Mike Greenberg’s new show Greeny at noon and not the other shows in the daily lineup, it was a good way for ESPN Radio to kick off their new programming lineup.
Really – was this an August Fool’s Day? This show should be off the air in a week – maybe less!!!!!!
Bring back Golic and Wingo —- asap!!!!!
Agreed…These 2 guys are clowns.
I thought the show was terrible. I tuned in to see how bad the decision was that they got rid of Golic and Wingo. This was a political type move because they got rid of 3 white guys and added color thinking that ESPN would get more viewers. Listening to Keyshawn talk over everyone constantly made me turn off the TV.
The show wasn’t bad. Great guests. However it is in the wrong time slot. Listening to these guys is like being jackhammered in the head with information at 6 am. They belong in a time slot after 9am. Too much for that early hour. 6-9 am sports talk radio should be light and funny yet timely and informative. These guys are way too intense and aggressive for the time slot they have been put in.
Very lame opening week ESPN attempt at political correctness doomed to fail …painfull to watch no chemistry…watch ratings plummet
You just lost another listener. This show is so boring it could put you to sleep. Bring bach the Golic’s and Wingo
Good grief is this what ESPN has to offer now, and Golic was told see ya???? This crap is awful, no more mornings for me.
They suck diddily uck. Poor Mahenti stuck with these blithering idiots
Bring back Golic Sr and anybody else
ESPN a freaking dumpster!! There is more to life than stupid sports, I really do not want to listen Monday morning quarterback all day!! Specially that illiterate Johnson!! I rather laugh with Le Batard clowns show because they do not take sports serious. It shouldn’t be serious. It’s a freaking game! I change my dial at 11:54 only listen from 10:00 until 11:54 AM. The rest of the day is the same garbage.
Golic reading the phone book would better than the crap that replaced him.
They seem to have no clue what they are doing and constantly talk over each other. Zubin who can’t seem to get a word in edgewise the only one that is worthwhile