Kellerman Crowned Host of ESPN Yakker
NEW YORK (Variety) -- ESPN, combing its ranks for a talent who would do for sports talk what Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly has done for political chatter, has settled on Max Kellerman as host of "Around the Horn." "Horn," which kicks off as a daily 5 p.m. half-hour late next month, will feature a round-robin of sports reporters on location in the newsrooms of the Los Angeles Times, the Denver Post, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Boston Globe, orchestrated by Kellerman from ESPN's Bristol, Conn., studios. Kellerman, 28, is the abrasive, knowledgeable studio host of ESPN2's two-hour live boxing matches every Friday at 9 p.m. He has also shown his ability to mix it up on the air when he occasionally substitutes for either Tony Kornheiser or Mike Wilborn on the successful 5:30 p.m. daily half-hour gabfest "Pardon the Interruption." ESPN's goal is to highlight Kellerman's O'Reilly-like gift of gab through the give-and-take of "Around the Horn" and, in the bargain, to provide a more compatible lead-in to "Pardon the Interruption." "Pardon," in turn, leads in to ESPN's signature "SportsCenter" hour at 6. Although Kellerman is a fan of just about all spectator sports, his head is so stuffed with boxing statistics that fight aficionados refer to him as the "Lord of the Ring."
NEW YORK (Variety) -- ESPN, combing its ranks for a talent who would do for sports talk what Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly has done for political chatter, has settled on Max Kellerman as host of "Around the Horn." "Horn," which kicks off as a daily 5 p.m. half-hour late next month, will feature a round-robin of sports reporters on location in the newsrooms of the Los Angeles Times, the Denver Post, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Boston Globe, orchestrated by Kellerman from ESPN's Bristol, Conn., studios. Kellerman, 28, is the abrasive, knowledgeable studio host of ESPN2's two-hour live boxing matches every Friday at 9 p.m. He has also shown his ability to mix it up on the air when he occasionally substitutes for either Tony Kornheiser or Mike Wilborn on the successful 5:30 p.m. daily half-hour gabfest "Pardon the Interruption." ESPN's goal is to highlight Kellerman's O'Reilly-like gift of gab through the give-and-take of "Around the Horn" and, in the bargain, to provide a more compatible lead-in to "Pardon the Interruption." "Pardon," in turn, leads in to ESPN's signature "SportsCenter" hour at 6. Although Kellerman is a fan of just about all spectator sports, his head is so stuffed with boxing statistics that fight aficionados refer to him as the "Lord of the Ring."