Mike Golic and his son, Mike Golic Jr., find themselves as sports media free agents once more. The pair, who are longtime radio hosts and former ESPN personalities, are currently shopping their GoJo and Golic show after DraftKings decided not to renew their contracts, according to Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports.
In a follow-up interview with Barrett Media, Golic explained that this decision is aligned with a broader strategy shift at DraftKings. “DraftKings said that they were going to stop all in-house produced shows,” Golic told Barrett. “Anything that they’re producing, they were going to stop. They’ll still do the shows that are self-producing, but my son and I’s show was one that was produced in-house, and they’re stopping all their content that’s produced in house.”
DraftKings had positioned GoJo and Golic as a centerpiece of its live sports content lineup on DraftKings Network, an over-the-top offering from the gambling operator. The departure of the Golics creates a significant opening from 8-10 each morning on the network, as the company aims to “optimize current and future investments” in its content slate.
“After careful consideration, DraftKings has decided not to renew agreements with Mike Golic Sr. and Mike Golic Jr. for GoJo and Golic. We want to thank the Golics for their contributions to DraftKings,” the company stated to FOS. “We remain focused on optimizing current and future content investments to continue to grow the audiences for DraftKings Network and DraftKingsNetwork.com.” Barrett reported that DraftKings did not respond to a request for comment regarding the cessation of in-house production or which other shows might be impacted.
Both Golic and Golic Jr. joined DraftKings in 2021 and 2022, respectively, and they also work as television game analysts, with Golic Jr. calling Mountain West games for TNT Sports, while Golic calls NFL games for Westwood One. FOS noted that the Golics have had exploratory discussions with Yahoo Sports about potentially moving their show to that platform.
