On Monday, ESPN announced that Van Pelt has landed the Monday Night Football pre-game show, The Monday Night Countdown hosting gig, and will be joined by Ryan Clark, Marcus Spears, and Robert Griffin III.
In advance to his new and expanded role, ESPN has signed Van Pelt to a new multi-year deal.
It’s also notable to see Van Pelt, who recently said “No chance” on if he’d still be hosting SportsCenter in three years (despite ratings success), get a prominent non-SportsCenter gig.
This particular gig won’t mark the end of his SportsCenter hosting overall (and it may not even end on Monday nights).
After each Monday Night Football game, Van Pelt will host the postgame show and SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt from the site of Monday Night Countdown, with Ryan Clark joining him.
Spears and Clark will each expand their roles in the network. Before Monday Night Countdown each week, Clark and Spears will also be on NFL Live.
The trio of newcomers will join Griffin, senior NFL insider Adam Schefter and features reporter Michelle Beisner-Buck, who will return for another season of Monday Night Countdown.
Additionally, Larry Fitzgerald Jr. and Alex Smith will join Monday Night Countdown periodically throughout the season, continuing their roles as substitute analysts.
Well, Monday Night Countdown is going to look quite different this year.
In addition to laying off Kolber last month, ESPN also parted ways with the long-time panelist Steve Young.
Changes were coming to ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown” since late June, when host Suzy Kolber and analyst Steve Young, both long-time staples of the show, were let go as part of the network’s latest wave of layoffs.
The new “Countdown” comes one year after ESPN brought in Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to revitalize “Monday Night Football” after years of unsuccessful lineup changes in the play-by-play booth.
The former Fox Sports “A team” — and a better slate of Monday night games — gave the broadcast a long-desired prominence unseen since ESPN added “MNF” from ABC in the 2000s.
The “Countdown” had been a revolving door for some time, with multiple former players coming and going as analysts.
Kolber’s departure was shocking because of how long she had been with both ESPN and football.
Her dismissal only added more spotlight on the show coming into the 2023 season after the success of the improved “MNF” booth in 2022.
The “Countdown” lineup comes after ESPN announced changes to its NBA coverage with Mike Breen, Doris Burke, and Doc Rivers forming its new A team for play-by-play and a new lineup for “NBA Countdown.”
