ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt Opens Up About Possibly Moving to Afternoons, Near Reunion With Ryen Russillo

1. Around the Horn aired its last episode in May of 2025. Since then, ESPN’s 5 p.m. time slot has been filled by SportsCenter.

That was never to be the long-term plan, however. At one point, ESPN tried to reunite the old radio team of Scott Van Pelt and Ryen Russillo.

Ultimately, that did not work out, with Russillo leaving The Ringer for Barstool Sports. But Van Pelt is still in play for the 5 p.m. window, which is a prime piece of real estate in the TV world thanks to it leading into the venerable Pardon the Interruption.

Van Pelt pulled back the curtain on all of this during an appearance on this week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina.

I asked Van Pelt if he’s going to 5 p.m. “I have absolutely no idea,” he answered.

Do you want to go to 5 p.m., I asked. “I don’t know what it is,” he said. “What is it? What am I doing, Jimmy? Workshop it for me. Tell me what I’m doing at 5 p.m.”

Van Pelt added, “I have absolutely no idea as we sit here right now. The only thing that was ever discussed, and I don’t want to get too in the weeds because I don’t want to speak for him, but it’s been reported. Over the summer, [Ryen] Russillo and I talked about the idea of, could we do it in a TV format. And we talked about it. And [ESPN President] Burke [Magnus] is on the record talking about it. We talked about it. And that was a fun thing to think about.”

Van Pelt and Russillo were longtime radio partners from 2009 until 2015.

“Ryen has created his own very successful lane,” said Van Pelt. “And to reassemble in a different time in all of our lives, in a different format, where we’d have to be more nimble in only 20 some-odd minutes of actual content, that was appealing.

“But he has a million different irons in the fire and options and ultimately we just couldn’t get there. He can describe the reasons why. I don’t want to speak for him other than say both of us were excited about [it]. Man, wouldn’t this be cool?

Did a reunion with Russillo come close to happening?

“If it’s being talked about, Jimmy, it’s close to happening,” Van Pelt said. “It was a possibility. [Does] close to happening mean were there terms drawn up? No, we didn’t have that. But we went through enough runway that I’m wondering like, Is this gonna be a thing? I thought, maybe.

“But again, Ryen has done so well, that he had so many different options, that figuring out, Are you gonna have to put other things on the side to do just this? Again, I don’t want to say for him exactly what led it not to happen because that’s for him. But, yeah, we didn’t talk about it once for five minutes. We talked about it.”

So, with Russillo out of the picture, would getting a new show that airs at 5 p.m. appeal to Van Pelt?

It depends, according to the ESPN veteran.

“What would 5 o’clock be? To date, I don’t have some rundown or run of show or who’d be part of it. I don’t know. I believe we’ll talk about it. I’ll tell you that because I think they’re interested in talking about it.

“And I appreciate that they’re interested in talking to me about it, but I’m just not gonna do it to open up my contract and say, ‘You gave Stephen A. 20 million, what am I worth?’ I’m not gonna money grab it just because somebody else got paid a gigantic amount of money.”

You can listen to the full podcast with Van Pelt, during which he also talked about a health scare he had a few years ago, his addiction to Diet Coke, Bad Beats and more on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

2. Here are the viewership numbers for the divisional round of the NFL playoffs:

Bills-Broncos, CBS: 39.5 million
Niners-Seahawks, Fox: 32 million
Texans-Patriots, ESPN/ABC: 37.9 million
Rams-Bears, NBC: 45.4 million

What jumps out there is that low number for Niners-Seahawks. Obviously, the game was unwatchable thanks to it being a blowout, but it also got hurt by the anarchy that took place after Bills-Broncos with everyone debating the controversial interception, Josh Allen crying and Bo Nix breaking his ankle.

3. I’ve gotten a lot emails over the past few months asking if I knew anything about the Dan Le Batard-Stugotz breakup. Both guys have been totally mum on the issue and details haven’t been made public.

Stugotz finally addressed the situation (sort of) on his new Fox radio show Wednesday. He didn’t share much and held back the particulars of what happened, but he did say, “Whatever went down with me and Dan was deeply hurtful. It took me to some really strange and dark places. And I’m still trying to claw my way out.”

Awful Announcing has a full recap of Stugotz discussing the split from Le Batard’s show.

4. When we last saw Bob Costas, he was doing play-by-play for TBS and getting pummeled on social media before stepping away after the 2024 season.

Now, the 73-year-old Costas is returning to his longtime home to become NBC’s pregame show host for Sunday Night Baseball, which begins this season.

5. Bills owner Terry Pegula and general manager Brandon Beane gave us a widely panned press conference on Wednesday, highlighted by Pegula interrupting Beane to throw former coach Sean McDermott under the bus by revealing that it was the coaching staff, not Beane, that wanted to draft wide receiver Keon Coleman, who has done nothing for Buffalo.

The press conference became an even bigger disaster after it ended because folks were easily able to unearth clips of Beane talking about how much he wanted Coleman on draft night.

all quotes from Brandon Beane on draft night:

“I went to bed that night saying it’s Keon unless someone blows us away”

“Barring someone offers us something stupid. We’ll take Keon Coleman”

Sure sounds like it was HIS pick! pic.twitter.com/qaZMNu2wNB
— Joel Moran (@joelvmoran) January 21, 2026

What a terrible look.

6. That’s definitely a Wendy’s burger, right?

Couldn’t sleep last night.
Got outta bed and made a couple bowls of cereal. Was still hungry, so hit a 2am DoorDash order.

Now I’m not going to out the company, because I’ve been a longtime fan.

But the size of this double cheeseburger is a problem.

It’s the size of a slider… pic.twitter.com/XfUcLL9Agj
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) January 22, 2026

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 77th birthday to Steve Perry. This was so cool.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.