Mike & Mike

Mike & Mike
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Starring	Mike Greenberg Mike Golic
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	4 hours
Release
Original network	ESPN Radio (1998-present) ESPN2 (2006-present) ESPN2HD (2007-present) ESPNews (2004-2005)
Original release	October 12, 1998 – present
Chronology
Preceded by	The Bruno-Golic Morning Show
External links
Website

Mike & Mike (formerly Mike and Mike in the Morning) is an American sports-talk radio show hosted by Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg on ESPN Radio and simulcast on television, normally on ESPN2, and acts as the morning show for both the radio and television sides of the production. If ESPN is broadcasting a live sporting event during the show's timeslot, SportsCenter will air on ESPN2, and the show's simulcast will therefore then air on ESPNews. If both ESPN and ESPN2 are showing live sporting events, Sportscenter will air on ESPNews and the show will air on either ESPNU or ESPN Classic. Outside of a few radio stations which are able to move or decline carriage of the show for their own local morning productions (or for daytime-only operations, may not be able to carry), Mike & Mike is effectively a compulsory element of the ESPN Radio schedule which all affiliates of the network are required to carry.

The show primarily focuses on the day's biggest sports topics and the humorous banter between the Mikes. On March 6, 2015, the duo celebrated 15 years of doing the show together.

On May 7, 2007, the show moved from its longtime radio studio home to the television studio used for Sunday NFL Countdown and Baseball Tonight, and began broadcasting in high-definition in 2007 as well.

A daily "best-of" show aired daily on ESPN2 and a weekly radio recap aired Saturday mornings at 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. and then moved to 5 a.m. ET before being discontinued in October 2009. The radio version of "best of" returned in February 2010 in the 5am timeslot. In addition, there is a "best-of" podcast distributed every weekday as well. The show reairs on ESPNEWS immediately after the live simulcast.

On Dec. 17, 2015, ESPN President John Skipper announced that Mike & Mike would be inducted into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame in April 2016.

Design

The show centers on an Odd Couple relationship between its hosts, and how it relates to their views on sports. The show's motto for all commercials on radio and television is: "What makes them different makes them great."

Mike Greenberg is portrayed as a stereotypical nerd and with a man-crush on whoever the starting quarterback is for his favorite team (the New York Jets), for whom he is openly partisan. Meanwhile, former Notre Dame and NFL lineman Mike Golic is set up in the role of the tough and boisterous "man's man," a former pro athlete who likes nothing more than to eat and "tell it like it is."

File:Mike and Mike.png

The former logo of Mike and Mike in the Morning until May 4, 2007.

Regular guest hosts and contributors

Even if Greenberg and Golic are absent from the show, the show still uses the Mike and Mike title. On those days, guest hosts fill in, and the show follows the same format. Current regular guest hosts include Ric Bucher, Marcellus Wiley and regular contributors Buster Olney, Mark Schlereth, Cris Carter, Herman Edwards and Trey Wingo. Other regular contributors include Chris Mortensen, Tim Kurkjian, Dick Vitale, Tim Legler, and Jayson Stark. The show's producers, Liam Chapman and Curt "Joaquin" Kaplan, often contribute musical parodies, and hosted the Saturday morning "Best-of" show.

The ESPN Radio SportsCenter update anchors for the show are Bob Picozzi and Christine Lisi. When the TV simulcast began broadcasting in HD, the radio SportsCenter updates were no longer simulcast on ESPN2, replaced by TV-specific SportsCenter updates, usually anchored by Sage Steele, Jonathan Coachman, Darren Lyn, George Smith or Michael Kim. They are now mainly done by Michael Kim and Reischea Canidate. More recently, either Greenberg or Golic will do the SportCenter updates at the top and bottom of the hour.

Greenberg and Golic on other ESPN and ABC ventures

The team of Greenberg and Golic has also worked in other ESPN ventures, including a game show (ESPN Bowling Night), and coverage of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. From 2000-2001, they were occasional panelists for the ESPN game show 2 Minute Drill. In 2007, they were the lead broadcast team for ESPN's coverage of the Arena Football League. It was announced in June 2007 that Greenberg and Golic would also call a National Football League game together for ESPN, broadcasting the second game of ESPN's Week 1 Monday Night Football doubleheader along with former NFL coach and player Mike Ditka. In June 2008, ESPN announced that the "Three Mikes" will return to broadcast the second game of the opening 2008 Monday Night Football doubleheader. Greenberg regularly hosts the Monday evening edition of SportsCenter, and Golic also appears on or hosts SportsCenter, particularly during the NFL season.

The former logo of Mike and Mike in the Morning until 2013.

Starting on December 17, 2007, Greenberg also hosted the game show Duel. The show lasted for 16 episodes. The first six episodes were part of a first season high-stakes tournament, while the remaining ten episodes focused on a weekly series with a top prize of $500,000.

Roast

The duo was roasted on January 11, 2008, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, at the House of Blues, with a portion of the proceeds to benefit the V Foundation. Guests included Jeffrey Ross, Frank Caliendo (pre-recorded video only), Mike Ditka, Chad Johnson, Clinton Portis, Ed Reed, Charlie Weis, Eddie Griffin, Joe Klecko, Trey Wingo, Mark Schlereth, Dana Jacobson, and Wink Martindale. Musical group Lifehouse performed live. The Roast made national news when it was reported that an apparently intoxicated Jacobson cursed the University of Notre Dame and Jesus Christ. ESPN released a statement apologizing for any offense given to the Notre Dame football program. Jacobson was suspended from ESPN for one week. Upon returning from her suspension, she apologized on air for her behavior and comments. Largely as a result of the incident, no video or transcript of the roast was ever released.

The Bruno-Golic Morning Show

Prior to Greenberg's arrival, the show was co-hosted by Golic and Tony Bruno. This pairing, which broadcast from 1995 to 1998, was entitled The Bruno-Golic Morning Show.

TV simulcasting

In 2004, the show began simulcasting its entire four hours on ESPNews. Ratings for the duo were extraordinarily high, especially for being on the "minor league" of the ESPN networks only offered in a few markets on anything other than digital cable or satellite packages. To capitalize on the large viewership potential the simulcast was moved to the more established ESPN2 in 2006. This change pushed the morning show Cold Pizza (now titled ESPN First Take) back till 10 a.m. In 2007, the show began to be broadcast in HD, which required the move to the ESPN digital center. When ESPN2 covers live sporting events during Mike and Mike (The Australian Open, World Baseball Classic, etc.) the show airs live on ESPNews. After the event's coverage is over, the simulcast is moved back to ESPN2, if possible.

In May 2015, ESPN announced that Mike & Mike would move to New York and be based in the second floor studios of Times Square Studios facility, which also serves as the home studio for ESPN2's Olbermann and on the first floor, ABC's Good Morning America. The move was intended to allow increased synergies between Mike & Mike and Good Morning America, such as Greenberg and Golic appearing on GMA to discuss sports topics, GMA personalities appearing on Mike & Mike, and easier access to guests. However, in late-June 2015, ESPN announced that it had called off the move and that the program would remain in Bristol, "after carefully considering and working through all aspects of a potential move".

Segments

Mike and Mike interview Cmdr F. Curtis Jones, commanding officer of USS New York, on November 10, 2009.

Daily

• What Everyone's Talking About: A look at the top sports stories, and occasionally the top news stories

Weekly

• Monday Morning Quarterback: Every Monday morning during the NFL season, Greenberg and Golic discuss all of the games of the day before.
• Stone Cold Lead Pipe Locks: On Fridays during the NFL season, Mike and Mike each pick NFL game-winners (originally, the format was two picks of their own and then one head-to-head. The last two seasons, each of the Mikes picked one game of their own, and then the head-to-head matchup.) based on point spreads. These picks have comical undertones with soundbites (sport stars, celebrities, TV/movie quotes often from the TV series Family Guy), put together by producer Curt "Joaquin" Kaplan, in between analysis of the matchups. This feature originated during Tony Bruno's tenure on the show, and Bruno took a variation of it with him to Fox Sports, referring to his can't miss predictions as "Stone Cold Locks".
• Man Up Question of the Day: A question asked of Golic (and sometimes the listeners) meant to inform male listeners (and Greenberg) of how to be more manly. The segment often is an of something either Mike has done during the week.
• Tuesday Morning Trivia: Every Tuesday, ESPN MLB Insider Jayson Stark calls in with a trivia question. Mike&Mike usually fail to get the question right, but when they do they celebrate extensively, usually with dancing.

Yearly

• "Sheet of Integrity" NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Wager: See below.
• Mike and Mike's "Two-a-Days": A 16 day preview of the upcoming National Football League season. The Mikes take a look at two of the league's 32 teams per day during which they ask the main questions which the teams might have to answer this season. This culminates with a prediction of their record for the season. Once all 32 teams have been profiled, which is timed to be a day or so before the Thursday Night Kickoff Game the Mikes then predict the Super Bowl champion.
• Mike and Mike's Offseason "Two-a-Days": The last two seasons, after the Super Bowl, The Mikes did a similar exercise, in draft order (if a team traded their first pick, they were still profiled in the position determined by their order of finish), previewing the needs of each of the 32 NFL teams. In 2011, they had Russel Baxter ("The Dean", "The Guru of the ESPN Research Department") ask three specific questions about two teams a day, what their biggest need was in the draft or free agency, and whether their stock is rising or falling. (Endless abuse was heaped on Greenberg when his Jets were profiled, including that they lost the AFC Championship game again.) In 2012, the segment was revamped and streamlined to a season recap, a look at the draft needs, and a question from one of the fans of each given team.
• V Foundation: Every year, usually on the slowest sports day of the summer (the day after Major League Baseball's All-Star Game—this was not done in 2010, the auction being held on another date, which the show did open) Mike and Mike kick off the on-air portion of ESPN Radio's annual auction to raise money for the V Foundation for Cancer Research, named for former N.C. State basketball coach and ESPN analyst Jim Valvano. They take the whole show to auction off items, such as a day with Mike and Mike, meeting them and having breakfast after the show. One item in the 2008 auction is that Mike and Mike will do their radio show from the winner's residence. One of the traditions the Mikes do on this day is that they will dedicate one segment of their program to re-air Valvano's stirring speech at the first ESPY Awards, where the motto of the V Foundation was coined: "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."

Irregular

• Grill Golic (with a Garish of Greeny): Listeners call in to ask questions directed to both Greeny & Golic. The questions usually revolve around football. This is the only time (generally) that listeners' calls are heard on the air. If Golic or Greeny have time off, the feature is occasionally used for the guest hosts, an example being "Grill Gottlieb" if Doug Gottlieb is guest hosting.
• Just Shut Up: Tuesdays on the show were once deemed "Just Shut Up Tuesday," a reference to the McDonald's Just Shut Up Award, an honor bestowed on the sports-related figure of the past week voted by listeners as the person who most needs to just shut up. Past winners (and examples of the types of actions that could induce a nomination) include Bode Miller bragging about partying in Torino, Terrell Owens fighting with his teammates, and Latrell Sprewell turning down a multi-million-dollar contract extension and asking for more money, claiming "I've got a family to feed." The feature was discontinued in late 2007, though will still occur for special occasions.
• Mike Golic's News of the Weird: A look at one of the more outrageous, strange or disturbing stories found in recent news, typically outside the sports world. (And usually very disturbing to sensitive constitutions like Greenberg's, which Golic revels in.)

Off Mikes

In 2005, ESPN and Animax Entertainment began producing two- to three-minute cartoons of Greenberg and Golic, called Off Mikes. The cartoons are built around conversations and arguments of the two from the show. Off Mikes can be found on ESPN.com. The cartoons have won an Emmy award.

Sheet of Integrity

"Sheet of Integrity" is a phrase coined by Mike Greenberg describing a single bracket entry created for wagering on the NCAA basketball tournament. Greenberg holds the belief that if a person wishes to enter multiple pools, they should do so using the same picks for each entry. Golic has no problem with choosing different winners for each entry he submits, because, as he says, "I want to win the pool and win the caaash!" The two have good-naturedly debated this difference of opinion each year since 2000. In 2007, Lowe's sponsored the Brackets of Integrity Sweepstakes, an online tournament pool which allowed listeners of Mike and Mike in the Morning to play against Greenberg and Golic using bracket sheets of their own. Amusingly, the rules allowed each participant to create up to five different "Sheets of Integrity." The hosts' differences were summed up in 2005 in two separate parodies of Billy Joel's song "Honesty" (renamed "Integrity"), as sung by each host in support of their wagering philosophies.

In 2009, Werner's (a ladder company which supplies the official ladders that the NCAA champion team climbs to cut down the nets after the tournament) sponsored the online sweepstakes. The sponsorship was continued in 2010.

In 2014, the contest was discontinued, with Golic having won the last four contests.

Contests

The Battle for the Butter

In one contest they called "Name the Game," they chose a random, obscure college football game and asked the listeners to phone in or email their suggestions. The contest was a spoof of named games between more high profile football teams (such as the "Collision at the Coliseum"). The football game chosen was the September 13, 2008 game between the University of Maine and Stony Brook University of New York. Because Maine is famous for its lobster, which is traditionally steamed and eaten with melted butter on the side, The Battle for the Butter was the contest winner, and the name was nationally popularized by the duo. Maine won, 28-13.

See also

• Mike Golic
• Mike Greenberg

External links

• ESPN Show page
• Emmy winning Off-Mikes Cartoon Show