What's Up at PTI?

Those who know me, know that I always get my daily dose of Pardon the Interruption (PTI). So when the format changes, I tend to notice. This week, during each commercial break, the broadcast has cut back to the set for about 15 seconds, where Tony and Wilbon are bantering, checking mic levels, or having makeup applied. It's kind of like those satellite TV channels that show you what news anchors are doing when the cameras (supposedly) aren't rolling. And it's genius. This may be the first thing inserted in a commercial break that actually makes people sit and watch (or at least fast forward slow enough to catch the shots from the set). I think other live programs should take a lesson here and cut back to the studio during the break, even for a few seconds. Who's going to skip the commercials when there's a chance of catching Regis Philbin cursing out a production assistant for putting too much creamer in his coffee? That's quality TV.

Mariotti is Back

I just started playback of today's Pardon the Interruption (PTI) and I am SHOCKED to see that Jay Mariotti is sitting in for Tony Kornheiser. Longtime PTI fans will remember when Mariotti was a frequent guest host of the program right up until June of 2006. That was when White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen went on a rant and dropped a homosexual slur on Mr. Mariotti. In all fairness, Mariotti was slinging mud at Guillen while purposely avoiding the White Sox clubhouse. But in the fallout from that ugly episode, Mariotti seemed to disappear from the PTI desk. I've seen him periodically on Around the Horn, but this is the first time I've seen him back on PTI since the summer of '06. In his absence, it seemed that Dan Le Batard became the substitute of choice. Now that Mariotti is back behind the desk, I think I miss Le Batard.