The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: The Little Doubt Monster (feat. Elle Duncan)

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

"Ken Burns: Baseball. You ever watch Wings?" What's the most rewatchable TV show of all time? What pain would you endure for the gladiator glory? What did the card say that a producer handed to Elle Duncan in case Alex Honnold fell off a building during a live broadcast? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stucats podcast. Al Michaels is going to join us here later in the show. Elle Duncan as well. She hosted that skyscraper live event on Netflix. And I got to think that most humans have the same reaction than I do, except for those daredevil types. I don't know. What is the name of that sport where people,

and I don't know how you get good at this, dive off the side of the mountain with wings and a GoPro? The squirrel suit? And then, yeah, the squirrel suit. suit and then just fly along the side of a mountain. Watching others do that makes me queasy. It seems flippant about life. I also have no idea how you get good at that.

Base jumping? Yeah. Let's try that for the first time. Yeah. You know, like in other sport, it's like, oh, miss that shot, and let's keep working. I don't know how it seems like a pretty high-stakes game. Bucket punishment? It's not like Tom Brady getting better with reps at broadcast. Hey, KB, can you help me your put on the scroll suit?

Like, when does the trainers say, I think you're ready. Yeah. Feels like you've got to be pretty sure. I don't know that all of you have the same feeling, because I haven't talked to you about any of this. But I assume that most people who are not adrenaline junkies or daredevils, when they see the guy from Free Solo, Alex Hanold, walk. And it's fairly safe for him because he's this good at it.

He's not actually fearing death, even though his family, fears death and there is the possibility of death. I also meant to ask Samson, I don't know how you get something like that insured. It seems impossible to put something like that on live television and have a zero percent chance that you're not going to be televising a live death in a way that we've never seen on television. Well, we'll ask Seth Rollins. But him climbing that skyscraper, when I see the wind blowing his shirt and I see

no ropes and no protection devices I'm filled with a queasiness that makes me not want to watch it. I'm not the daredevil nature of it. Like I understand that it gets people to tune in but it's exactly the reason I don't want to tune in. I don't want to feel like that when watching something. I'm looking

forward to talking to Elle because she relayed an anecdote where she says five minutes before, they went live on Netflix, the producer handed her a card of what she's to say if he falls and dies. Ooh, I like that. I was going to ask her about that.

Five minutes before. What was Seth going to say? We can't do an ad read if we're handed at five minutes before. That's wild. Look, I saw it on mute, so I would love to know how that went. Because I imagine there's a lot of personal stories, but is there like two and a half hours have also like, he's still going. No, no, it was 90 minutes total.

They're at points talking to him throughout it. Oh, really? The scariest part, and then there are some people in the climbing game. I'm watching it. Everyone I'm watching with, we are stressed. So, like, this, it looks scary as shit. But climber people on the internet, I've seen videos of, like, compared to rock climbing, this is like climbing a ladder.

Like, there are people out there that this was super easy and that for him, he wasn't stressed with this. Oh, then, I mean, Seth knows about that. Elle couldn't talk to him at the top, which makes for an awkward interview. Right, they lost him a few times. Yeah, well, but when you, how does it feel? The scariest moments were when he would take a break and, like, go to the edge and just kind of like lean over and look. Isn't the whole thing an edge?

No, but like, because there were parts where you get to, like, he got to, like, lofts. There were like 10 different parts where you climb up something scary and then you're on a loft and then you have to climb up again. So there would be times where he could just kind of stop and rest. And those were the scariest parts. He would literally go right up to the edge. It wasn't Edge. It was Seth Rollins. Yeah. I'm looking forward to talking to Al Michaels as well later in the show.

I got to talk to Darren Waller for South Beach Sessions. It came out today and you guys make fun of me for the tissues and stuff. But one of the things that we're aspiring to do with South Beach sessions, and this clip will not indicate it. The rest of it will is to get to a vulnerable place with people who are. are happy and willing to do so because they care to share their story. Now, if you don't know Darren Waller's story, it has addiction in it. And also, he was really, he went dark during his divorce as a whole lot of people made fun of him because he made a music video trying to express himself about the hurt in that divorce.

And to me, it's super interesting to see and hear someone built like that who plays like that. He's a mutant, right? Like, everybody wants a tight end like this. one of these guys who can run through the seam and he can't be covered by smaller defensive backs because he's just too big and athletic. But here's Darren Waller talking about, and I'd like to see him back with the dolphins for a number of different reasons because he's good at football, being chief among them. But here's Darren Waller talking about the dolphins and what the prospects might be for him returning next year. He was the one in the middle, I should remind people,

of the exit meeting when Mike McDaniel was fired by Stephen Ross and that exit meeting ended in both Darren Waller's exit from the season and Mike McDaniel's exit from the building. This season was a bit of a disaster, not for you, but for the team, right? Everybody gets fired. And I don't even know what your relationship right now is with football if you want to play again, if you want to play for the dolphins. Like if you've gotten to the place where, no, that was, imagine, imagine how many touchdowns I could have if I wasn't just coming off the couch because I didn't know that

I needed to do this a little better. Yeah, yeah, I'm definitely, yeah, that's definitely a lot of what I've been thinking. throughout the season there was kind of like I could feel myself drifting back and forth between like I feel like I could do this for however long and then it's like you know the the injuries and the frustrations are like I can't keep doing this to myself and floating back and forth so now is like the time that I have to sit with both parts kind of have like a board of directors meeting with both parts of me and and be like okay like what what are what are we doing here like let's look at the pros and cons of each of these directions and we can make a decision from there. But playing football again and starting to lay the foundation going somewhere investing in my training with professionals that can direct my performance and have me able to take on that load is something that I'm considering. But yeah, this is a time for me to kind of reflect on that. This time of season is exactly when not to ask football players if they want to keep playing because none of them do because their bodies are just

busted up. And so Jeremy was saying earlier that Drake May in a human moment is saying to Josh McDaniels, man, this is really hard. And McDaniels is saying, yeah, and all fulfilling things are hard. But I don't think any of us listening to this or even enjoying football sort of understand what price glory. Like, okay, I love the gladiator glory and the money. How much pain am I willing? to endure daily when I get up because everything hurts and I don't want to actually go to work to go get what Sundays give me. You guys, I think about this a lot just in like just very simply. You're making a tackle and your hand gets caught between helmets. That is the most, like that happens all the time in football. All their fingers are like sideways. They can't hold change. They can't like

turn a car on with keys that's not automatic because of what happens to their fingers because a very small thing that they'd laugh you off the field if you came off the field for a dislocated finger. Like that's not, they'd laugh you, you're not allowed to leave, you need to stay out there. Someone's going to take your job who will play with the fingers all busted up if you run off the field. Do you guys consider it all? I know we all think, man, that must be fun on Sundays or to play in the Super Bowl or to be at the height of that, the gladiator glory. Do you guys ever think at all about what you would trade in terms of pain in order to have those things that just about everybody wants? Because the longer they make these seasons, that college football season is crazy, how long that is for college athletes.

It's crazy that Indiana just won more games in a season than anyone since Yale in the 1890s because nobody knew back then what the dangers of football were and nobody knew back then what the commerce of football is, is that we all need more games. The whole point of it is not actually to measure and get a champion. The point of it is make sure the games are on television so that everybody gets their money. Right. What's the question again? Yeah, like, are you asking how much physical pain I would endure for my team to win? For glory. It's not just physical pain.

No, for the, yeah, it's not just physical pain. For the gladiator glory. The idea of playing in the Super Bowl is all of us would like to win the Super Bowl. Everybody listening to this would like to be the reason that the Super Bowl is won. And I'm asking you, how much pain are you willing to endure? to her. Alex Hanold got paid $500,000 for what he did. It's not enough. It's obviously not enough. It's about $500,000. He was, I heard an interviewer with him where he's like saying compared to what other people in sports are getting for this. It's ridiculous. But if he hadn't done it, somebody else would have. They wanted to get the most famous guy at this. And so they could get him really cheap for that. And I read him talking about how his wife feels about all it. She doesn't want him to do any of it. Free Solo, the movie, was a great movie because it wasn't just about him climbing a mountain. It was about her trying to climb the mountain of a relationship. with a man who's crazy. And he goes out and he risks his life all the time. And she's worried about it all the time and he doesn't worry about it as much because these people who do

these things can't measure consequences the way the reason, the way the rest of us do. And so we can't be them. It's not possible to be them. And so I'm literally asking you, Mike, how much pain would you be willing to endure for the things that you want the most? Physical pain mostly? Because I got to think that's the worst pain there is in football. It's worse than the emotional pain. I don't know if I'm the right guy to ask. I did spring football and I was like, this hurts. My coach sucks. I'm out. Howdy folks. Mike Ryan here. Quick break to talk to you about one of our show's longest, most tenured and greatest partners, Miller Light. I love this product because so many moments were

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Florida claws back from down 2-0 because they were getting their asses handed to them by Toronto to then get lit a fire underneath them by their head coach Paul Maurice, who did the thing. Remember how the run sparked was sparked last year? Stugats. He called him a bunch of peas and bees.

He did the thing again. Called him a bunch of peas and bees. And then, boom, five unanswered. You win the division. This is the Don Levitar show with these two gods. You got me thinking now they should have had just a regular person climb that building. That would have been interesting. That would have been compelling.

Yeah. Can you imagine? Imagine if Roy did it. What if it's like the Hunger Games and they have like a people lined up and they draw like a number and you got to make money? Yeah. Now that's some edge of your seat action. There's a bag, 500K at the top of the building. That's where Seth Rawlins could really come in handy with analysis.

Because, you know, he's grabbed the briefcase a couple times, Dan. Yeah, I got that. He's one legendary cash-in. You remember the one in Santa Clara? Yep. It was Roman Raines versus Brock Lesnar. How about I was there this past summer? When he returned that he cashed in on punk.

And he threw out the crutches. He fooled everyone. I was there. I was there. I sat ringside. What a pop, huh? Best night of wrestling I've ever been to. Wow.

How many nights of wrestling have you been to? A lot. Yeah, a couple dozen, I'd say. But you weren't at the WrestleMania where Seth cashed in. Nah. He's got the two best cash-ins, right? Yes, he does. Yeah. What's your top five cash-ins?

Ooh, wow. Well, those two for sure. Let's do this. Yep. Let's do it. Well, that's not how you do it. You don't say those two for sure and then make it a three. Yeah. I'll give you time.

Okay. In the interim, I would like to talk to you about what you've been doing recently with your television viewing habits, because I don't know if there is a more rewatchable show. I love Breaking Bad. I love The Wire. I love a lot of television, but I don't know that there's been in my lifetime a more rewatchable show than the Sopranos.

It's just very easy to check in at any point. Like you can do, I've done it twice now and I've been tempted to do it a third time. Really? Yeah, because it's just so easy to watch and it's fascinating to see ground zero on television for the entire genre of suits and all these other shows where the people can be bad and you're still rooting for the bad people. Like, to my recollection, it started there as an art form.

And I've told the story before, right? David Chase tells the story, and spoiler alert to any of you have not seen The Sopranos, that it was very close to ending after season one. And he had to fight like hell thinking it was going to end because he's saying, no, Cropano, Tony Ceprano, needs to kill someone on screen. He needs to be a murderer for me to tell the rest of this story. I want to test people and see if they'll root for a murderer

for the rest of this story. And HBO, which pushes all the limits, did not want him to do that. And the show almost died after one season because of that. And so I can always watch. I'll always stop on an episode of The Sopranos if it's just, if I'm, I don't do much scrolling anymore, but if I'm scrolling, I will stop.

So two nights ago, I just finished my first ever rewatch of the Sopranos. All right. I've been watching it again over like the past month and a half, two months. And I got through the whole thing two nights ago. And I hadn't seen it. Like, you know, I'll stop every now and then. Like, you know, if it's a marathon, I'll watch an episode here and there. But I just watch it straight through again.

for the first time in probably 20 years, all right? And I'll tell you, I had a very different experience with that show this time around. Obviously, incredible show, that's not going to change. But two things stood out the most to me. Number one, the show was really funny. And I guess I didn't notice how funny it was the first time around. Because the first time around, I'm in my 20s watching it, just, I don't know. And it's discovery.

You're seeing something for the first time, and you're not used to something like that being funny so you wouldn't expect it to be funny. And you can't rewind it back then. If we're talking like rewatchable, the goat of rewatching, you got to go lighter. You guys are going way too stressful. Give me Seinfeld. Yeah.

Every day of the week. Oh, I don't like rewatching comedy. I've never done a drama rewatch. The modern day is modern family. The modern Seinfeld, I can put modern family any episode three. No, I want to watch the story. If I'm rewatching, I'm watching a story again. Oh, by the way, Seinfeld, that's the original rooting for bad people.

Well, so, so two things that I know. noticed again watching Sopranos. Number one, the show's really funny. And number two, and this is more so what stood out to me, I mean, I obviously knew it because he's a mob boss, and that's what the show is about. It's about Tony, and he's a mob boss and everything that comes with it. Thank you, Zos. But I, Tony Soprano was a real piece of shit. And you root for him. That was like the thing about that show. Yeah, and the first time watching, it's like, yeah, like, I'm obviously rooting for him and I like this character and I don't want bad things to happen to him. And watching it now again, I guess because I'm 20 years older and like I'm a real grownup,

he is a really, really bad person. I think for me, the best rewatchable is the office. They live individually, but then as you watch them as a long narrative, Michael, you know, falls in love, then falls out of love, has a marriage that ends it. And then goes to find his love somewhere else in Colorado. Like that narrative and that story arc kind of goes with all these different permutations of the story and then comes back to tell that one main story. For me, it's Scrubs, and the evolution of J.D.'s character and his friendship with Turk. Dean, we go comedies as.

I don't get it. I would never rewatch a comedy. Goat of Rewatchable. This goat conversation is presented by Frank's Red Hot. Make every dish the greatest. Eat the goat. Also ugly. That was a good sigh.

I mean. That was a good sigh. He's been bad today. Wow. He's been really bad for him. And he's known it? Because he just leaked. That never happened.

That's twice today. He just left. He wore that one. I'm going to write a note down. Okay. Not one thing in particular. It was just overall on the balance of the day.

He was bad. Jeremy, J.E. That's a show I don't want to rewatch, Jeremy. I want to talk about a couple of the things that you guys just brought up there. Put on the poll, please, at Levitard show,

Juju. Is the Sopranos really funny? But when you talk about character evolution, One of the things you will find interesting if you rewatch the Sopranos is how much James Gandalfini changed the character from the first season to the sixth. When I've read things about this, Soprano, Gandalfini was very insecure and didn't think it was working and thought he was bad the first season as he was trying to find what the character had to be because they were reinventing television. but the thing that you guys are doing while I understand is a different conversation than the one that I'm having. All of the things you guys have mentioned are exactly what it is that you check in on,

and you're right when you call it light, if you just want a quick 20 minutes of something. You don't want to invest in something large, something that takes an investment of days or series. Just give me 20, 30 minutes of something and let me just have my cotton candy and be done with it. And I understand the Sopranos is not neat and tidy like that. Yeah, that's heavy. I like it's always sunny. There isn't, it's always sunny in Philadelphia rave coming to town in like two days. Wow.

Oh, wow. I'm interested in that. Dayman with a beat drop? You kidding me? Isn't there a big three championship celebration block party around here somewhere? We need to end up at some of these places, like the weird things that come to Miami. Yeah, but they need to give me a little bit more access. Come on now.

You're the big three. What I got. I need to be, you need to be, you need to get. We need to rub elbows with the people. It's Katie Meyer night. I need to guaranteed access to Mario Charis. Michael Beez is going to be there, Dan. I need to talk to MB.

It's a block party? They're doing a block party. Coconut Grove. They're getting their rings. A ring ceremony? Yeah, this is Title Town, USA. Are you not aware? Tony, did you say kudos or barracuda?

No, no, no, kudos. That's what I called kudos. I thought you were giving them kudos for winning the chairman. They're tipping your chef. Like a courtyard. It's a beautiful street that they blocked off. So now you can walk. Get to see the big picnic champions.

Memorial Chalmers. Michael Beasley. Reggie Evans. You can ask him about getting hit by Chris Paul. There's a lot of questions that I would have. But I need guaranteed access. Again, it's Katie Meyer night. Put it on the poll, please.

Since we only have four categories, give me the four categories it is that we're choosing. Most rewatchable thing. The Sopranos, the office, always sunny. Give me a fourth. Seinfeld. Seinfeld?

Seinfeld's a good one. Seinfeld is just one of the most rewatchable show ever. It's a great show of all time. I think it would be the word association for most people. Rewatchable. Seinfeld. Ken Burns, Baseball. Who was that character?

I will watch that. That's rewatchable. It's Royce and her die. Yep, that's mine. Here's why I object to the Seinfeld rewatch. And by the way, Seinfeld, I think, is the greatest show of all. time. I love Seinfeld. Be careful where you're going. I've seen every episode a hundred times. But I've never sat and said, all right, season one, episode one, and bang through all of them

like binge like that. Nobody does that. No, you want specific episodes. Right. That's because you you guys seem to be having a different conversation, right? What Chris is doing is just, what do I want to chew on that doesn't have to have any reference to before or after? What I'm doing is, what I'm talking about? What I'm doing is, what do I rewatch the most? No, but what, what Zaz is doing, you're going to beginning to end on six seasons of television. I voted a month and a half of my time. I just did that with shameless, if that's what you're asking. Yeah, that is what. That is what he's asking?

It's a different conversation. You're just saying, what do I like to just check in on that's empty that I can watch for 20 minutes? No, Zaz is saying, what am I willing to invest a month and a half in every time I'm stopping to watch television? I'm going back to see the chronology of this. Seinfeld's not that. None of these other things you guys have described is that. I'm the only one. You're not the only one. I loved sex in the city. It's the right.

You're not the only one. I liked sex in the city. Did you like the new one? No, it's terrible. The new one. My wife was very upset about the new one. God awful. It was so disappointing. And they keep re-upping it.

Like they keep doing it and it's terrible. It's so, it's such an offensive remake from Miranda. I watch occasionally when my wife watches it and I'll be in the kitchen and watch him like, this sucks, right? I've never watched my own. I have a lot of questions. for L. Duncan. I have missed her. She has left SportsCenter because this is what she wanted to be doing, something that was different, had more free time around it. Not a lot of people understand the

amount of work that's required in Bristol. Did I just get convinced by a sponsor to have an engaging conversation in which I had a conviction? Whoa. By the way, really quick on the aside, second seat in Sopranos where they had AI of Tony's mom. I didn't love that one. You haven't gotten great yet at what is my inner monologue. You haven't. gotten great at the old guy watching. I'm workshopping. I need a voice modulator for it. I need a very girly voice for your inner monologue,

so I'm going to make that happen. Mine was good, though. Why very girl? You think... It was not good. Him being an old guy. You never watch wings. Don Lebertard.

For weeks, months even, during the regular season, I wondered, allowed what Kevin Stenland did. And then about three weeks ago, it hit me. Stugats. He gives him one of these and he gives him one of those. This is the Dan Levitar show

with the Stugats. Greg is not here. That is El Duncan. I think talking to Chris Cody and calling him Greg. Oh, hey, what's up, Greg? And Chris Cody is still reeling from it. It's probably not fair.

El Duncan has ascended, not unlike Alex Hennold to the heights of our world. I'm a little tougher though. Yeah, and, yeah, more obstacles, more white men to get in the way. You've got a speed bump with Hannold, right? Hanold. I've seen you do it a couple times.

Hanold. Hanold. Hanold. It's for British. Hanold. Hanold. Thank you, Elle, for supporting me. Unlike these clowns who have been around me for 20 years, who look like for any spot to be Piranha, I appreciate your support.

You're welcome. She's the former longtime ESPN anchor. She's now the lead host. at Netflix. She's also going to be doing USA Network's inaugural season of the WNBA coverage for 26 alongside our friend, the great Renee Montgomery. Thank you for being on with us. Before we get to what it is that you did with Alex Hanald and skyscraper, can you take us through your last couple of months moving places and leaving ESPN? What was the difficulty of that? And what wasn't the difficulty of that. Well, the tough part was the people because, you know, I really do try to

make family wherever I go. So I've genuinely made family with a lot of people that I worked with. And I loved doing women's basketball with Drey and Chenet. Like, that was incredibly fulfilling. And I think, like, the tough part is leaving what's familiar and stability, you know, like, I have an entire family. I'm 42 years old. And there was definitely that little doubt monster that was like, you know, you could work here forever and be fine, you know. I wasn't unhappy. And I think sometimes like it's harder, it's very easy to leave something that you hate, that you're miserable. Someone throws you a lifeline, you'll take it, it doesn't matter what it is. And that was really not the case.

And sometimes that's more difficult. So I spent a lot of time like introspecting, asking questions, going to therapy, praying, like doing all the things that people say, all the typical stuff. But I would say that the not hard part was that Netflix was just giving me sort of all the things that I had been asking for in the universe, which was more time with my family. more time to sit and just be a creative, you know, and like try to think of things and more time to pursue things that were sports and sports adjacent. And the ability to just have like a little bit more autonomy over the spaces and projects that I took on. And so it was very easy when, you know, I got my contract offer and they were like 30 days of work. It was like, hell yes. And that was, you know, that was, that was the easy part.

So, but it's been, you know, really interesting when you leave something like ESPN. You have a lot of existential, like build up. I think a lot of anxiety. But I got to be honest, Dan, like, it's been so surprisingly wonderful, the time with my family, but also the idea that like people were watching you, that you didn't know we're watching you, people want to work with you, that you didn't think ever would. There's all these doors that are opening all of a sudden. And so, you know, so far early returns are that, like, I made the right decision.

Tell me about the anxiety monster and tell me about the whatever specifics you can, about 30 days versus how many days. Because I was just mentioning before you came on, people really don't understand Bristol as a furnace for they will work you to the ground. You work a lot. And I get it. They have a really big sports portfolio. And I think that there is this sort of understanding amongst talent that the more value that you have, the more volume that you take on, right? So like you got to take on more things. to take on specific things. That's how you get paid. Then once you get that contract,

you know, if you want more money, you have to justify it by doing more and doing more and doing more. And you know, let me be very clear. Like I was not a victim. Like they never forced me to do any of it. I did it. I chose to work all the time. I chose to take on more and more projects. I do believe that in many ways I'm a recovering workaholic and a place like ESPN, if you are workaholic will feed your addiction right like there's all that you need there um so i'm no victim like i chose to do it all of us do we can say no um but i just think like i looked at it and the best that ESPN knew that work life balance was like really important to me too they they tried their best in terms of like what they could do and still justify giving me this big pay raise and it

netted out at about 250 days a year and netflix was 30 it's like absurd Dan, it's your inner monologue. Just keep pushing, keep asking. She'll bash ESPN eventually and we'll get what we want. So this is going really well. Some grief over there. Come on, I see it. Next question.

Come on, one more ESPN question. I think this is the one. Don't even say ESPN. Just hint at it. Let her say ESPN. You can work through it. We can. We can.

Come on. The anxiety monster. Good one. I don't think of you as anxious. Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm a high functioning anxious person. Really? I'm very anxious.

I have a lot of anxiety. It's honestly what sent me to therapy because it was giving me panic attacks a couple of years ago. I'm like very, very, very anxious. And I think all that anxiety really showed up in skyscraper, if I'm being honest. When I get anxious, I talk fast.

I talk through things. And, you know, I was, it was in a really, like, really like high cortisol like situation and man I was I was feeling it I was I was amped I was juiced so take us through that experience with skyscraper have you ever been you're not that kind of anxious I would imagine because you're not televising broad live you know broadcasting live a possible death that's why people are watching really I mean it is that it's possible and so take us through that compared to anything else you've ever done yeah it's not like anything I've ever I mean, ever. Just because like, you know, when you do a pregame, like, certainly I've had like sort of that, you know, you're doing something for the first time you have all of this like energy. You're like, and we're here, right? But you have commercial breaks. Like you have like time where you're not talking. And it really does sort of like lower some of that energy a little bit and get you on a sweet spot, right? Like you have time to like take a deep breath. I think in that situation, it was the first time that I was obviously covering something where there were real implications of death, like true ones.

It was the first time that someone five minutes for broadcast handed me a card that was like, if this person falls off the building, here's what you're going to say, and then we're going to get off air. And then I had honestly like built a rapport with Alex. I went out to his home. I like hung out with him and his wife. I played on the kitchen floor with his like little daughters. Like I had built an affection for him. And it was like, you know, we all knew he was like in firm control of this, but you anything can happen. We're in Taiwan. There could be an earthquake.

Like there was just a lot of anxiety. And I think for me, like when I went back and watched it, I was like, oh, man, I started out at a tin and then I just stayed at a tin like the entire the entire time. So I think, you know, it was tough because like nothing like this has ever happened before. We really didn't know what the broadcast would look like. We didn't know like there was no blueprint. So we were a little bit of like a science experiment, you know. And, and I think that we would all do things different.

But I think for me specifically, yeah, I would absolutely do it very differently if I, you know, had another crack at something like this. Although, again, it's like, well, when am I? Great that I took. notes down next time a guy climbs a skyscraper i'll know exactly how to comport my comport myself but you know i do hope that like you know my tone which was was definitely off you know i mentioned it a couple of times like i was sort of broadcasting to the people that were there on the park with us you know that were loud and cheering and like into it and gasping and like there was so much energy but when you go back and

watch the broadcast right when you're of the viewer like there's none of that energy is coming through only tension, you know, and only like drama and these beautiful scenes and this man dangling off a cliff and like all of that was enough, you know? And so I went in with an objective to like teach the world about Alex Honnold, but like it just really wasn't necessary in that moment. And it's not something that you can know until you look back on it. And unfortunately, you know, like it wasn't my best. I don't think I stuck the landing completely, but it was a really, really, really tough thing that I'd never done before. And I was willing to, you know, take a chance and see, you know, how it would go. And so, you know, I'm proud of myself for that for like doing something that had never been

done before and just being a part of, you know, someone's history making climb. Like, that was really cool. What did the card say? It literally was like, what did it say? It was like, we've experienced a fall. And so we're going to cut the live stream right now. We'll update you as soon as we can on Alex's condition. That is an odd thing to give you. for the first time five minutes before something. I knew we were going to do it. No, I knew we were going to do it. It just like I, you know, it was sort of going to be one of those things that they were going

to like pop it. We had a 10 second delay. We were going to cut away to a wide shot. They were going to pop this statement up in Prompter. So I knew we were going to do it. I just hadn't seen it, right? Until like right before I was going on air and it was like just a reminder of like, this is your card.

A Prompter doesn't get there. This is what you'll say. So it was just another sort of reminder. And like, again, that has nothing to do with like, you know, me being at a level that was just not sustainable for two straight hours. But yeah, it was a really high pressure situation in general. I also think that like it felt very celebratory. Like, again, the tension at home didn't feel that way there.

It felt like Alex is like laughing and he's smiling and he's playing the crowd is playing into him and they're waving on him. It just felt very different when I was there. And it was a reminder like you're not broadcasting for the, you know, 900 people that were in front of you, but rather for the six million people. people they were at home. So, you know, tough lesson to learn in front of the world, you know, but like, it's okay. I've been dunked on before on social media. But you're being very

critical and very hard on yourself. And as you do so, Zazlo was red-faced with laughter from Tony, something Tony is saying. I mean, Dan, how could the update will update you as soon as we can? How could the update on him fall and be anything other than death? There were some ledges. There were time where he was like climbing and he could have fallen to and a ledge that wasn't all the way down. Yes, that's exactly right, Chris. And he said that. He was like, you know, at certain places in the building,

it would be certain death. But at some places he could fall on a ledge, a balcony. There were boxes. Like, there was a way that he could maybe live. But like, we all know that. Zaz, you are red-faced with laughter because you and Tony were doing your own show over there in which, like, the report is going to be like, we'll update you when we come back on.

And you guys are saying, well, he's splattered. He fell 100 stories. Okay, there's a ledge. So he would hit his head on the way down. I hit his head from 20 stories. You don't get it. There were like, like, no, buddy, I get it. But if you fall from 20 stories, it's not good.

No, you're right. They kept saying on the thing. They're like, I know you might think. But falling 100 feet, the same thing is falling from the top of the building. You're being very hard on yourself, L. Are you normally this hard on yourself? Or was the feedback bad? Like, I don't like what you're doing here.

I thought that what I heard of what you were doing was great, but you're going to have a higher standard for yourself than I am. Yeah, I mean, I'm, I really do not go to social media to, like, elicit feedback, because I just think, like, either way, people are always wrong. Like, you're never as good as they say you are. You're never as bad as they say you are, right? But so I wanted to right away, just go watch it. So once we got done with all our posts up, I went back and watch it and right away,

I was like, ooh, I was on a 10. And then, you know, like, yeah, like people are sliding onto pictures and being like, oh, my God, you were so annoying. You were like, so it's not like I'm, doom scrolling on Twitter. and you know, and I'm not a masochist, like seeing all the negative things that people are saying. But I mean, I am critical of my work, especially as I'm moving into a stage, Dan, where I'm going to be trying new things. I didn't need to go break down an episode of Sports Center. I did it every day for 10 years. Like, right? But with things like this, like if I really want to grow and I

want to get better and I want to try different things, then I have to give myself real feedback. And that was my real feedback. Like, you know, a full acknowledgement that sometimes I think people are just mean for the sake of being mean. And there's things that I've done that people don't. on and I stand on it and I'm like, I don't care. I thought that shit was funny or I liked it or I don't care. But this was one of those where I was like, I could see. I could see. I get it. You know, they're not, they're not wrong. So yeah, but it's all good. Like I don't, I have the spine for this, Dan, right? Like, which is the only reason that I'm willing to put myself into position to keep trying things I've never done before and seeing if I'm any good. Oh, I know. I know. I know you have

the spine for it. It's why I'm surprised that you're angry. because none of that presents on television. You are one of the most, like you present as one of the most confident people I have seen in sports television. We don't have as much time with you as I'd like. Al Michaels is going to be on with us. And we've got pitch clock coming on later, L. Dunk on with us here. I have some fill in the blank questions for you because I have a ton of questions. How much did it freak you out communicating with Alex during the climb? I asked him a head of time, are you sure you want to talk to me? He was like, yeah. And like, in fact, we were only going to talk to him once. He was like, you just don't want to talk to me once. You don't want to talk to me more than that. I was like, if you want to talk more than that, go for it. But it was cool. What percentage of chance did he think there was of him actually dying? I don't know about percentage. He told me it was a six probably in terms of difficulty of climb and but tough physically. Six out of 10.

But in terms of like, you know, physical difficulty it was up there. I don't. don't know. He probably would have put it at a less than 1% chance just because he was very confident. Tell me, explain every floor he seemed like there were people at the, like, was that planned? Because I feel like that was, I was getting on my couch with my friends and I'm like, hey, stop distracting him. They're waving. They're trying to get his attention. That to me felt like maybe that was like a crack in the production and like they weren't expecting people to gather there. On every floor, he had like fans cheering for him. It seemed very distracting. He was fully aware. And when he did practice climbs, that is a public building. There's,

like businesses there. So he, he like knew he would climb and people would wave at him that whole time. So he knew and he enjoyed it. Like he said afterwards, he was like, I was, I tried to give a guy a high five, but he was too busy being on his phone. It was not distracting. He didn't know if it would be. He's never free soloed something with people, but it was a public building. So like, we didn't stage people there. They were just there. How many milligrams, Chris? Oh, dude, I was so nervous. Do you have any idea how this event is insured? None, but I will say this. I have a couple of times Googled Lloyds of London, because I feel like they're probably one of the only, it was tough. The chairman of the building, you guys, after it finished, she came up to the green room and she burst into tears when she hugged Alex, because like her job was on the line. Like a lot of people's jobs were on the line, a ton. I don't know how they made this happen, but they did. They could have never done it in the States. It's not, it's just not, you can't get it insured there. So maybe some Taiwanese insurance. I don't know. What is the second most scared you've been for a broadcast? The second most scared.

Ooh, that's a good one. You know what? Scared's not the right word, but I would say equally sort of like, you know, had to take a couple deep breaths was before the national championship, Caitlin Clark versus South Carolina, just because I knew that thing was going to pull a freaking number. And, you know, we had had a lot of like attention, the big three and whatnot, and I just really felt a lot of pressure to perform. So, but again, when you're in situations that you've been in a million times, even when you're anxious, you just lean on experience. When you don't have any experience in that situation, you know, you don't have anything to lean on. Always nice seeing you.

Thank you for making time for us. Don't make it so long next time. See you later. Okay. Bye.