Credit: ‘Get Up’
With the integration of NFL Network into ESPN’s ecosystem giving way to layoffs — Ryan Clark chief among them — Kyle Brandt seemed destined to see an uptick in responsibilities come football season.
Not only has the former executive producer of The Jim Rome Show joined the network’s car wash of morning studio shows, but ESPNalso announced Friday that the 47-year-old will join the two-hour edition of NFL Live on Mondays this fall.
Brandt has spent much of the past several months making clear he wanted a bigger presence at ESPN, going as far as admitting at this year’s NFL Draft that he’d reached out to essentially anyone at the network who would take his call, offering to pitch in wherever he could just to get in front of a camera.
Whatever those conversations amounted to, they’ve clearly paid off.
Once the season gets underway, the Monday edition of NFL Live will run from 3-5 p.m. ET and originate on-site from that week’s Monday Night Football location, simulcast on both ESPN and NFL Network, as it has in past seasons. Laura Rutledge will continue to anchor, flanked by Mina Kimes, Dan Orlovsky and Marcus Spears, with Adam Schefter chiming in remotely throughout the broadcast.
Ryan Clark’s abrupt departure, compounded by Peter Schrager’s promotion to host his own afternoon show, has opened the door for Brandt to lend his voice to the network’s NFL programming. Brandt’s inclusion ensures a healthy mix in the NFL analyst pool, which skews heavily toward former players.
Brant remains a co-host of Good Morning Football alongside Jamie Erdahl and Manti Te’o, the show he’s anchored since it launched a decade ago, and he recently added NFL Play Action to his plate, a new Wednesday-night series on Paramount+ that debuted Sept. 9 with Peloton instructor Ally Love as his co-host.