Pablo Torre might not be a daily host on Pardon The Interruption, but he is an integral part of the show’s history as it gets set to celebrate 20 years on the air. ESPN’s Bill Hofheimer interviewed Torre ahead of the PTI’s ESPN anniversary special airing on Tuesday, Sept. 28.
Torre is hosting a four-part ESPN Daily series on the pioneering sports debate show all while he continues filling in for Tony Kornheiser or Michael Wilbon whenever they need him to. The ESPN Daily host discussed what it was like to interview the two icons.
“The real TV special I wanted to make is a documentary about trying to convince Tony to participate in this TV special,” Torre told Hofheimer in the interview. “Because Wilbon quickly welcomed me to Chicago, took me around his home and his town, and saw all of this as a party from the jump. Kornheiser — who otherwise could not be more generously supportive of my ambitions and my career and my sanity — legitimately refused to participate, for weeks and weeks, out of a more existential concern that we’ll explain. And that contrast is a perfect encapsulation of both of them.”
Not many ESPN voices have filled in for Wilbon or Kornheiser on PTI, but Torre is honored to be one of them.
“I always, always love doing it. And sometimes it still feels a little surreal that I am, in fact, doing it,” Torre said. “When I talked to our pal Dan Le Batard and asked him what it meant for him to do PTI, in the very beginning, he described it kind of like being knighted. But I suppose that when you’re actually knighted, the Queen of England doesn’t proceed to roast you in front of millions of your countrymen, for years, as a show of affection.”
Torre and the rest of ESPN are ready to show their affection for the PTI story as they celebrate two decades of “Mail Time,” “Five Good Minutes,” and “Happy Trails.”