Two individuals who used to regularly grace your television screens are now returning to public chatter, albeit in a different medium.
The former longtime host of NBC’s Meet the Press, Chuck Todd, and frequent panelist on ESPN’s old 5 p.m. show Around the Horn, J.A. Adande, are teaming up to launch a new podcast called Dynastic, which intends to take deep dives into how various sports franchises have built themselves into dynasties. News of the show was first reported by Brian Steinberg in Variety.
The first two episodes of the show will focus on the Los Angeles Dodgers and Pittsburgh Steelers, with plans to expand into select college teams as well.
It would appear as if these episodes are true journalistic endeavors, which fits the bill for a pair like Todd and Adande. The Dodgers episode will run about two hours and thirty minutes, and the duo won’t be currying favor with the teams they decide to cover. “We have no patron,” Todd told Variety. “We are not going to have to be careful because the franchise won’t cooperate or do things through the lens of one player.”
While Todd might seem an odd fit for a sports podcast given his background as a political journalist, it might not be as strange as it seems on paper. Before his days at NBC News, Todd helped found SportsBusiness Daily in 1994, the precursor to what is now Sports Business Journal.
However, Todd recognized that Dynastic wouldn’t be possible without a credible sports journalist like Adande. The former ESPNer acknowledged there may be a bit of a learning curve for the pair on air, but that their collective body of work speaks for itself.
“Chuck has a long history at the highest levels, and I’ve spent two decades on air ESPN. It teaches us not to take things personally,” Adande told Variety. “There’s a sort of a professional understanding that we have, and our chemistry will develop.”
Dynastic debuts Tuesday and will be distributed by iHeartMedia and all the major podcast platforms.
