No, there is not a “Mike and the Mad Dog” reunion scheduled. No matter how much fans clamor for it, Chris Russo and Mike Francesa will not be teaming up to resurrect their glory days at WFAN.
But for a while, there was a chance. Not much. But a small one. So says Russo, who talked to Newsday Tuesday while checking out Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y., site of this week’s PGA Championship.
“The fact that Mike was free – and he was free first and had his choices of going some other places – the fact he went back to FAN I think put an end to ‘Mike and the Mad Dog.’ For a while there with that ’30-for-30’ (ESPN documentary in 2017), I thought there was a chance of some sort of reconciliation. But I kind of felt that Mike wanted to stay at FAN, finish his career there, and once he decided to do that it became obvious that it was a situation where if Sirius still wanted me I would re-sign.”
Russo signed a new, four-year contract with SiriusXM last month. Francesa, since returning to WFAN last year after his short-lived retired retirement, is engaged in a nasty ratings war with ESPN’s Michael Kay.
But Russo said he hasn’t talked with Francesa since his return last spring. Per Newsday:
“I have not spoken to him officially, like, ‘Mike, how are you? Blah, blah, blah,’” Russo said. “So it’s been about a year. I haven’t texted him. We were very tight there for a couple of years.”
Russo interjected himself in the Francesa-Kay ratings war by going on ESPN instead of WFAN on the final day of the first ratings book in 2019.
Both Francesa and Kay claimed victory after the first book. But Francesa is off to a strong start this spring. The WFAN host has opened up a 7.5-6.1 lead over his arch-nemesis after the first month of the three-month spring book, according to Newsday, and he is currently tops in the market among all stations in the coveted men ages 25-54 demographic in drivetime.
(NJ Advance Media’s James Kratch contributed to this report.)
Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rosenstein73. Find NJ.com on Facebook.