Pardon My Take is a comedic sports podcast released three times a week by Barstool Sports. It is hosted by Dan Katz, known as "Big Cat", and PFT Commenter. The podcast debuted on February 29, 2016. It first appeared on the US iTunes charts on March 2, 2016 in the number one position. The podcast's audience generally ranges between 750 thousand and 1.5 million listeners per episode. In 2016, Apple named Pardon My Takeone of the best podcasts of 2016, and in 2017, The Big Lead ranked Katz and PFT Commenter as the number one sports media talents under 40. In 2018, Pardon My Take was the 14th most downloaded podcast of the year on iTunes.
History
Pardon My Take was first launched in February 2016 when PFT Commenter left the sports website SB Nation to join Barstool Sports. Longtime Barstool contributor Big Cat had been regularly communicating with PFT Commenter through Twitter prior to 2016 and the two teamed up to create Pardon My Take. Since its inception, Pardon My Take has used satire to comment on traditional sports media, particularly ESPN and some of its notable personalities. The show's name is a play on the titles of ESPN television shows Pardon the Interruption and First Take. The logo of the podcast, which took graphic elements from the two ESPN shows, prompted ESPN to send a cease-and-desist letter to Barstool Sports soon after the launch of the podcast. Barstool did change the logo. Beginning in early March of 2020, Pardon My Take began to be affected by the COVID-19 virus, as it is a podcast that revolves around current events in the sporting world. In order to keep the show interesting and running 3 days a week, "PFTcommenter" and "Big Cat" implemented a new segment, usually at the end of the podcast, to review popular TV shows such as "Love is Blind" and the popular Netflix documentary known as "Tiger King", they went on to also review the documentary "The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters" and "The Garbage PickingField Goal Kicker". The two co-hosts still provide interviews with popular sports figures and other celebrities in each episode. The sports hiatus also signaled the beginning of the "Mount Flushmore" series, a play on their "Mount Rushmore"'s of the past, some of the topics they used have been fears, places to be drunk, toppings, appetizers, and states of the United States of America.
Format
Most Pardon My Take episodes consist of three parts. The hosts open the show with a recap of current sports news. News is followed by an interview with a sports personality, celebrity, journalist, or athlete. The show is closed with a collection of recurring original segments which vary episode to episode. Occasionally, the Pardon My Take hosts will alter the show's format for special episodes, including their yearly recap show and their annual award show, the "Takies." The hosts have held video exit interviews with their guests, but these have been temporarily discontinued. Most of the interviews throughout 2016 concluded by Big Cat asking the guest three questions—if the guest washed their apples, who the most famous person in the guest's cell phone was, and a third question tailored to each guest. This third question was often the most provocative one of the interview and began with Big Cat saying "a question I'm gonna ask, that you don't have to answer, but I'm gonna ask anyway."
