Home > Pardon the Interruption

1 Segments

The show is divided into four segments. Segments included in all shows are:

• Headlines: (Show opener) Tony and Mike usually debate over five or six issues. Normally they are allotted up to two minutes a topic.

• Five Good Minutes: Tony and Mike interview a sports figure for five minutes.

• Happy Happy Time: Here they note a birthday, an anniversary, and a departure ("happy trails").

• Errors: Their "Stat Boy," Tony Reali , informs what statistics Tony and Mike messed up during the course of the show.

• The Big Finish: For the final seconds of the show, they make a few comments on stories they missed.

The last point or topic in each section is usually about a non-sports related pop-culture event, such as whether or not they are rooting for Ken Jennings ("the Jeopardy guy").

They have varible bits during the third segment, including "Mail Time," where they read and respond to viewer e-mail, "Toss Up," where they chose between two sides on a given topic, "Good Cop, Bad Cop," a variation of "Toss Up" played in police officer costumes, "Over/Under," where they argue whether a certain sports figuare will go over or under a certain statistic (40 home runs in a season, etc.), and "Role Play" where they argue from the perspective of a sports figure (Tony refers to this as "heads on sticks"). More recently they have added a bit called "Food Chain," where Tony and Mike rank a set of items, usually teams, in a certain order.

PTI debuted October 22, 2001. It airs daily at 5:30 PM Eastern Time.

2 Other Versions

In 2004 Crackerjack Television started producing an Australian version of the show, which airs weekly on the Australian ESPN channel and features former Australian Rules footballer Sam Kekovic . ESPN Australia also broadcasts the American version of the show before Sportscenter.