CBS Sports Is Ready to Debut a New Star on Its Golf Broadcast Team

Last summer, a lightbulb went off in Johnson Wagner’s head.

It was then that longtime CBS Sports golf analyst Ian Baker-Finch announced his retirement after 19 years with the network. The void was eventually backfilled by on-course reporter Colt Knost, who now assumes a seat in the tower alongside host Jim Nantz, lead analyst Trevor Immelman and fellow analyst Frank Nobilo. But Johnson, a three-time PGA Tour winner-turned television star with Golf Channel, saw a life-changing opportunity.

“Knowing how much I love the broadcast world, the pinnacle of that for a former player would be to get on a network team, and those jobs don’t open very often,” Wagner told Sports Illustrated. “So when Ian left, I thought that was a good opportunity to strike.”

Wagner was still under contract with Golf Channel for the rest of the year, so the process began “slowly and carefully.” In December it became official: Wagner, 45, would join CBS and slide into Knost’s former role, while also contributing to the network’s digital platforms. Wagner kicks off his new role this weekend at the Farmers Insurance Open, CBS’s first telecast of the PGA Tour season.

The excitement—and not just from Wagner—is palpable.

“CBS golf has always been a tapestry, with a blend of a lot of different perspectives and voices,” Nantz said in a conference call Tuesday. “I’ve had the chance for 40 years now being around the Tour to get to know virtually all the players who have any kind of tenure and extended experience. And though I didn’t have a super tight relationship with Johnson at the time, I was around him enough to know and cover some of his highest moments, but I knew that he had a unique ability to express himself. So, I’ve loved watching as a viewer, and I’m thrilled to have him join this CBS team. It’s going to give us one more different kind of look at the world of golf, and I think he’s going to be a wonderful addition.”

A star is born

Wanger’s foray into broadcasting came in the early 2010s at TPC Boston’s Deutsche Bank Championship, when Peter Jacobson of NBC and Golf Channel asked Wagner to film a “Jake’s Take” segment in which the native Texan turned New Yorker would speak with a Boston accent. Wagner, however, didn’t realize at the time how monumental that moment would be.

“We just laughed and had a good time on camera,” Wagner says, “and when we were off, Peter said, ‘Hey, keep winning, keep doing what you’re doing, but know that you have a real future in TV when your playing career is done.’

“So, he sort of planted that seed,” Wagner says.

He got a call in the fall of 2022 from his friend and former high school golf teammate, Kevin Ryan, a researcher for Golf Channel. Wagner’s name had popped up in a production meeting, and since Ryan had a connection to the 12-year Tour veteran, he was tasked to call Wagner that afternoon to see if he’d like to buzz into the Stamford, Conn., studio for a trial taping of “Golf Central.”

“I jumped at the chance, fell in love with it that week and really never looked back or thought about playing again,” says Wagner, whose final Tour start came at the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda Championship. “Because at that point, making a cut was a miracle, and I’ve found a new passion where I could see growth.”

His trajectory indeed soared from there, morphing into a media “swiss army knife.” In addition to studio analysis, he did color commentating in the booth at Tour events, dabbled as a walking reporter and contributed to SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio. However, his career—and life—changed at the 2024 Players Championship.

On a post-round airing of “Live From,” arguably Golf Channel’s signature show, Wagner did a live segment in which he tried to recreate one of Xander Schauffele’s chips from earlier that day—and proceeded to botch three consecutive attempts.

Afterward, Wagner thought he’d endure a public shaming on social media. Instead, it was a lauded viral moment. So from then on, during every episode of “Live From,” the reenactments of the day's most consequential and/or bizarre shots became must-watch TV. Players sometimes joined him, including Bryson DeChambeau, after winning the ‘24 U.S. Open. And last year, Wagner traveled to four sites of Tiger Woods’s most iconic shots from his historic 2000 season (successfully mimicking Woods’s 20-foot birdie putt that won him that year’s PGA Championship).

Re-creating Xander Schauffele's chip shot on the 4th, @Johnson_Wagner got the yips LIVE on air. 🙃💀

📺: Golf Central Live From the #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/fXhCURrn6N
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) May 17, 2024

So when Wagner officially moved to CBS, there was anxiety that those segments would become extinct.

No need to worry, though.

“There was definitely some concern [the reenactments would stop],” Wagner says. “It really made me who I was. I was concerned that I was just gonna kind of be lost in the fold, never on camera, and [CBS] made it clear to me through the negotiating process that they wanted me to do that kind of stuff.”

A new beginning

Perhaps those will come during Wagner’s contributions to CBS’s digital platforms, in which he’ll appear on CBS Sports Network’s golf show each Tuesday, co-host a podcast with Shane Bacon and Patrick McDonald, and pop up again at CBS Sports HQ each weekend.

It’s not yet fully clear how how Wagner’s signature shot reproductions will unfold, but they will continue.

“As far as the recreations go, we have been talking extensively about what that’s gonna look like, where it’s gonna be,” Wagner says. “If it’s social, if it’s digital, if it’s both. We’re not leaving any stone unturned. We don’t have anything definitive yet, but we are definitely going to do some recreations when they make sense, when something happens, at an event that just has to be done, we’re gonna get out there and we’re gonna do it and just excited to see what platform it lands on.”

So, Wagner will play the hits at his new job—but also be tasked with much more. Leaving Golf Channel was not a decision he made lightly.

“At Golf Channel, I was part of a big family,” Wagner says. “I loved not only the broadcasters and talent that I worked with, but behind the scenes with producers and graphics and the research teams, the camera operators, my team at ‘Live From.’ We really became a close-knit bunch and it was tough. [Golf Channel Executive Producer] Matt Hegarty, who hired me and gave me a chance, the whole recreation thing was his baby and I owe everything to that team and to those guys.”

And since that first “Golf Central” taping, Wagner has blossomed into a household name among golf fans. Now, in CBS’s 69th season broadcasting the PGA Tour, he’ll join a list of icons whose voices have aired on the network’s airwaves, including Ken Venturi, Tom Weiskopf, Pat Summerall, Peter Kostis, David Feherty and Nick Faldo.

It’ll be immediately apparent to viewers that Wagner knows the game inside and out and is universally beloved by the Tour’s biggest stars. But the key to his success—past and present—is his unique ability to relate to and connect with almost anyone by simply being himself, whether he’s shanking chip shots or breaking down Scottie Scheffler’s swing on camera.

“Believe it or not, there’s a sensitive side behind that mustache,” said Sellers Shy, CBS Sports’s coordinating golf producer. “I was with [Wagner] at the Ronald McDonald House for a charity event, and he cares. People gravitate toward him. Seeing that chemistry and culture is so important to our team, we thought that Johnson touches all the notes.”

A star is born

A new beginning

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