They are recording the last podcast before their big return to television, and Tim Micallef and Sid Seixeiro are about to digress.
If you have somehow never seen or listened to the pair over their decade-plus on-air partnership, it is this type of verbal detour that shows off the brand of sports banter they specialize in.
Micallef throws out a “Where’s the Beef?” reference (admitting it’s dated), that sends Seixeiro reminiscing down a WrestleMania 2 rabbit hole that wends for a few minutes until Micallef gets him back to the actual news of the day — the most recent Pete Rose allegations. Seixeiro declares Rose’s rehabilitation tour done while Micallef tries to add a sober second thought, and then they’re on to the next topic.
That type of freewheeling sports and pop culture catchphrase-filled dialogue is a small slice of their career that has seen the pair move from TV to podcasting to radio across two national sports networks.
Starting out on The Score, they were poached by Rogers in 2011 to work early afternoons on Sportnet 590 The Fan, and now have seen their star rise to the point they are being given a national daily two-hour television slot from 5-7 p.m. on Sportsnet that starts July 1. The pair feels they are uniquely prepared to try and create a new kind of sports television show, one that will try to take their freeform approach to the screen, although that’s easier on radio than the traditionally more structured television.
“I think the mandate we’ve been given is that the highlights shows are changing in this country, the 6 o’clock sport news show is changing,” says Seixeiro. “People are on their phones, every one knows what’s going on. So the question is, what else can you give them?”
“Our radio show proved you could literally interact, without taking phone calls, with your audience and react in real-time to any news that is going on at the time, or whatever is hot and topical on that day,” says Micallef. “So now the question is how to take that to TV.”
The return to TV came as a bit of a surprise as the pair was seemingly doing well on in the 1-4 p.m. afternoon slot on Sportsnet 590 The Fan. They have a hardcore group of fans known as “Tim & Sid-izens” and have occasionally gone viral over the past year. Their over the top reaction to the winning goal of the 2014 Olympics Women’s gold medal hockey game has been watched over 830,000 times on YouTube. Seixeiro’s rant about ice dancing is almost over 220,000. Rogers clearly sees the pair as key to attracting a younger audience, wherever they might be.
“I don’t think of it as primarily a TV show, I think of it as a sports content factory that will be on all our platforms. So yes, it will be anchored at 5-7 p.m. on Sportsnet, but it will also live online on social media,” says Scott Moore, president of Sportsnet and NHL Properties for Rogers. “They are not just highlight guys, they know how to engage on any sports topic and the great thing about these guys is they can connect with sports fans on any number of levels. I think they are a special talent.”
To read the rest of this story visit the Toronto Star where it was originally published
