Craig Kilborn recalls being suspended for a week after making fun of ESPN2

Craig Kilborn wasn’t one of the original SportsCenter anchors, but he was one of the most essential, bringing an acerbic humor and quick wit that elevated the role to mini-celebrity status.

Kilborn was so successful at hosting that he parlayed his charm into becoming the original host of The Daily Show and eventually taking over The Late Late Show on CBS.

Before all of that, however, Kilborn was at ESPN, navigating the politics and drama that often came with working in Bristol. He recounted stories of that time on the latest episode of the This Was SportsCenter podcast series with fellow SportsCenter alum Rich Eisen.

Check out the Season One finale of “This Was SportsCenter” with Craig Kilborn, whose meteoric rise on @SportsCenter makes for a superb memory lane stroll chock full of flashbacks from the show & commercial campaign.

Watch this ep and the entire season: https://t.co/vJ83FtUtKf

— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) July 5, 2026

Among the many tidbits and nuggets, Kilborn recalled a time towards the end of his time with the Worldwide Leader in which he says he was suspended for making a joke about ESPN2.

The 63-year-old recalled that ESPN wanted to re-sign him and put him on the panel of an NFL show, but “I was ready to leave. I wanted to do a sitcom. I wanted to do anything.”

Both he and Eisen recall that things were uneasy behind the scenes between ESPN brass and Kilborn, with Eisen bringing up that he heard about an issue involving ESPN2.

“After about 2 and a half years or so, I said, I’ve never had a Bristol Day,” said Kilborn. They didn’t give me Bristol Days. They gave the other guys Bristol Days, right?”

“That’s on the schedule where it would just say ‘Bristol,’ where you weren’t on the air. If somebody called in sick, you might be pressed into service,” explained Eisen. “It was just another day off.”

“I should point out that up until that point, the first two years, I didn’t want a Bristol Day. I loved writing jokes and being on camera and doing things,” said Kilborn. “Then I exhaled. I go ‘I need a break. I need a Bristol Day.’ And they wouldn’t necessarily give me a Bristol Day, and then they did. I thought it was odd that they wouldn’t necessarily.

“They put me on ESPN2, and I was not on camera. There was a college basketball game, and during the break, I would say, ‘Creighton is beating Drexel.’ I would give scores. ‘LaSalle is getting killed in a non-conference game to the Minnesota Golden Gophers.’ And as I’m doing this, different anchors would text me or whatever. Not text me, they would send me a message. You could message me. And they were mocking me. They were mocking me.”

“Dan [Patrick] was mocking you?” asked Eisen jokingly.

“Absolutely,” replied Kilborn. “Other people were mocking me. So I had fun the next time I did a score, and I go, ‘Ohhhh, Kilborn on the Deuce.’ Okay? Now, that, of course, is mocking, I guess, ESPN2. No one told me. I got suspended for a week. … No pay, suspended for a week. And no explanation.

“In my opinion, they could have brought me in. I would have said, well, these guys are razzing me, so I just wanted to have a little fun and stick it to them or whatever I wanted to do. But they didn’t. There was no communication. And I disagreed with that, but I don’t care because I said I’m leaving anyway.”

Kilborn later added that along with Patrick, he was also getting razzed by fellow anchors Keith Olbermann and Bill Pidto as well as producer Bill Fairweather.

Awful Announcing reached out to confirm Kilborn’s suspension, but ESPN said it does not comment on personnel matters.

Kilborn left ESPN in 1996 but briefly returned in 2004, when he co-hosted SportsCenter alongside Patrick during ESPN’s 25th anniversary celebration.

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