Craig Kilborn Explains Why He Left 'SportsCenter' And 'The Daily Show' Earlier In His Career
On today's Pardon My Take... CRAIG KILBORN! The actor, comedian, and television host joined Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter on today's show to discuss his eventful career, his Minnesota sports teams, and much more. Kilborn has had a handful of stops in the sports and entertainment industry, and some included a "SportsCenter" anchor and a host of "The Daily Show." However, it was his choice to leave both of those roles. Why was that the case? We got the answers on today's show.
Advertisement
Mr. Commenter: You've quit some great jobs, that takes balls. You left ESPN, you left SportsCenter. You left The Daily Show. I think that that surprised a lot of people at the time because I loved you when you were hosting The Daily Show.
Craig Kilborn: Thank you.
Mr. Commenter: What was the impetus for that? Why did you decide, "Okay, I've taken this show as far as I want to take it."
Craig Kilborn: Well, back then in the 90s, there was a big difference between network and cable. In fact, The Daily show was replacing Bill Maher's show because he was jumping to ABC. So, I wanted to do a network show, I wanted to do a traditional late night show, not a news parody. The Daily Show was a half hour, the interviews were four minutes. Also, and we're not getting into this today, I haven't really talked about it.
Craig Kilborn: The Daily Show is easily the most dysfunctional place I've worked, because the network set it up the wrong was. They hired the executive producer first, and then they hired me second. And so, it was very dysfunctional. I just ignored it and scored on the air, and got out of there. But I wanted to do a traditional network show, I wanted to get the hell out of there. And I wanted to get the hell out of ESPN as well, because I wanted to do a late night show. So the only one that for me was the, you know, crazy one to walk away from or whatever was the CBS one. But I, I enjoyed it.
As Mr. Commenter mentioned, it definitely takes a ton of balls to walk away from what many view as a dream job. But Craig Kilborn wasn't feeling that those spots weren't the best place for him, so he moved on. He has had his fair share of appearances in movies as well, such as "The Benchwarmers," and "Old School."